Cost Effective Housing

LOW COST HOUSING
LECTURE 8
Ar. Srijana Shakya Tamrakar

outline
 Approach to low cost housing ?

 Planning of land and land development
 Design of individual house
 Building
materials and construction
technology
Low Cost Building Materials and
Construction Technology In
RURAL AREAS
Problems in present housing conditions
 The main problems are
1. Durability
2. Health and hygiene
3. Natural disaster
Solutions…
1. Vertical Elements
 Prevailing practices and comments
 Compacted soil blocks
 Stabilized soil block masonry
2. Horizontal Elements
 Prevailing practices and comments
 Soil roof supported on bamboo structures
3. Doors and Windows

b. Horizontal Elements
Roof is the most important horizontal element for rural areas of
Nepal. Common roofs used in Nepal
 Thatch Roof
 CGI Sheet
 Clay tiles
 Stone slab & slate
 Cement Tiles
Thatch Roof
most common roof in rural areas in spite of its many drawbacks
C.G.I. Sheet
 First preference of financially sound rural people to replace thatch roof
 Advantages- maintenance free, leakage free, fire resistance etc.
 But extremely hot during summer and scorching cold during winter
 Also costly for the poor
Clay Tile Roof
Have good insulation against heat and cold but have following drawbacks
 Need huge quantities of timber as supporting members
 Any sagging of support will disturb their position causing roof leakage.
 Breakage of tile due to wind or other impact is common causing leakage
 Require regular maintenance
 Costly for the poor
 Improvements can be done as follows:
 Replace clay tile cap with longer cement tile cap and anchor the cap
by G.I wire at the battens or rafter of roof structure to avoid
blowing away by the winds
Stone slab and Slate Roof
 roofs are heavy and need huge quantity of timber supports
 Leakage is very common
 Normally stone slabs have to be transported manually from long
distance which is costly at present.
 Not affordable to rural poor
 Leakage of roof is very common
Cement Tiles
 Similar to clay tiles but bigger in size and needs less quantity of
supporting structures.
 DCS butwal has developed this roof with ferro-cement supporting
members which are cheaper, deflection of member is less and is
environmental friendly
 At present use of this cement tile is with bamboo as supporting
member, which normally deflects, causing leakages.
 To retain popularity of cement tile, technology of bamboo as
supporting member without defects should be developed.
Soil Roof supported on Bamboo structures
 In this process all materials and labour are local except small
quantities of cement and polythene sheet
 Cement will be used for soil stabilization which will be coated over
the roof.
 The technology is labour intensive and can be constructed by the
self help labour of the members of poor family
 Method of construction
 Rafter of full sized bamboo are placed @ 15” c/c after being
treated chemically or with water
 Bamboo strips of approx. 11/4”wide are fixed one after another
touching each other over bamboo rafter(bamboo strips treated
chemically for at least a week.
 Polythene sheet of 500 gauge is spread over bamboo strips.

Polythene sheet shall be pasted at few places with bitumen. All
the joints of polythene sheet shall have a lap of min 3”and
pasted with bitumen
 Bamboo net of bamboo strips @ 5”c/c shall be spread over
polythene sheet
 2”thick mud mixed with 4”long fiber of empty fertilizer or
cement bag shall be placed over the bamboo net. 10-20%
cow dung can be mixed if applicable
 Allow the mud layer to dry as perfectly as possible
 Prepare stabilized mud slurry with 10% cement and pour

the slurry over the cracked portion by a brush and finish with
a coating of little thicker slurry over the whole surface of the
roof.
 Prepared roof is good enough to protect the house from rain
water
 The total quantity of cement required per house will be less
than a bag
 The function of polythene sheet is to protect the water
seepage and to make bamboo strips free from the contact
with the soil
Advantages
 Almost all material and labour are local

 Roof is not fire catching like thatch
 Insulation against heat and cold is better than any other roof
including costly RCC roof
 Roof is environmentally friendly as energy requirement is almost
zero
 As roof can be made by family member themselves, even
poorest family can solve their roofing problem
 Whenever possible house owner can apply cement plaster with
wire mesh over the mud roof. This will make the roof
maintenance free and provide additional safety against roof
leakage
Disdvantages
 The only problem with this type of roof is the durability of

bamboo due to attack by insects and beetles, termites
Howsoever various bamboo treatments are available to increase

the life of bamboo
Some Treatments of Bamboo
1. Water Treatment
 Starch content in bamboo is the main cause of the attack by

insects so after harvesting the bamboo it should be placed in
water for about a month
 Considerable quantity of starch content will be reduced resulting
in increase of the durability of the bamboo
 Flowing water is better than stagnant water which helps to wash
away the starch
2. Smoke Treatment
 general experience shows that expose of bamboo to smoke

increases the durability of the bamboo
 Could be due to toxic agents produced poison the starch or due
to heating the starch within the parenchyma cells may be
destroyed
 But may have health hazards when smoked in a room hence
better to treat bamboo in smoke chamber
3. Chemical Treatment
 More effective .. Eg. bldg and urban development has already

crossed 25 yrs and still in tact
 The method used is boucherei process in which the chemical
preservative is pushed by gravity container placed at a height
 The bamboo to be treated is laid on the ground with the bottom
of bamboo facing towards the container of the preservative.
 The mouth of the bamboo is fitted with bicycle rubber tube
which is connected with the polythene pipe carrying
preservative from the container
 As the chemical flows through the bamboo the nodes of bamboo

from the butt end will show the sign of change in color, indicating
the approach of chemical at the nodes
 It takes 20 – 30 days to reach the chemical from the butt end of
the bamboo to the tip end
 The chemical used in this experiment is copper sulphate, sodium
dichromate and acetic acid
 For treatment of bamboo strips, immersion

method is cheaper and fast
 Bamboo strips of required width and length
are made into bundle (30-40 strips) and
immersed in the preservative contained in the
20 cm dia polythene pipe with closed bottom
 The bundle is immersed for a week and then
removed from the polythene pipe and kept
upright for 24 hrs
Soil roof finish with Ferro - Cement Plaster
Coating
Soil roof finished with Cement plaster is made more strong and
durable and maintenance free by placing cement plaster layer
over it. This type of improvement was made in the housing
project for tharu families in Kanchanpur.
Coating
•First rafter of full sized bamboo are placed @ 15” c/c ( The
bamboo shall be treated chemically or with water only which
ever is convenient )
•Bamboo strips of approximately 11/4 “wide are fixed one after
another touching each other over the bamboo rafter. ( All
bamboo strips shall be treated by immersing in chemical for at
least one week )
•Polythene sheet of 500 gauges is spread over the bamboo
strips. (Polythene sheet shall be pasted at few places with
bitumen. All the joint of polythene sheet shall be lap of minimum
3” and pasted with bitumen).
Coating
• Bamboo net of bamboo strips @ 5” c/c ( Tati or Bhata ) shall

be spread over polythene sheet. (This is necessary to retain
the mud which will be placed over polythene sheet).
• 2” thick mud mixed with 4” long fiber of empty fertilizer or
cement bag shall be over the bamboo net. 10 to 20 % cow
dung can be mixed if available.
• Allow the mud layer to dry as perfectly as possible. Several
cracks will be seen in the mud layer.
• Prepare stabilized mud slurry with 10 % cement and pour the
slurry over the cracked portion by a brush and finish with a
coating of litter thicker slurry over the whole surface of the
roof.
Coating
• Over the Soil layer, ¾” Ferro cement coating is applied.

The roof prepared as above is good enough to protect the
house from the rain water.
• The function of the polythene sheet is to protect the water
seepage occurs due to the bad workmanship and to make the
structural bamboo strips free from contact with the soil.
• To make the roof maintenance free, it can be plastered with
cement mortar. To do the cement plastering work, the wire
mess should be fixed carefully. It should be anchored by the
G.I. wire with the bamboo mat laid below the mud layer. Then
the plastering work should be carried.
 Fig: ¾” Ferro cement coated roof finish
c. Doors and Windows
 Most rural houses have no window at all causing health hazards
and only one door at entrance
 Bamboo doors are generally made of hand woven bamboo net
fixed on half cut bamboo placed all round the shutter
 Mechanism for closing and opening is not good for which 3
methods can be applied which are as follows:
 Door shutter is not fixed in the opening but removed in the
morning and placed again at night
 Door shutter is tied by rope which functions as hinge
 One of the vertical member is made little longer and the
shutter is made to rotate with longer member as axis
 Some improvments can be made by providing one vertical iron rod
fixed to shutter
 Some improvements can be made by providing one vertical iron
rod fixed to shutter
 Hinged block system may also be used.. Where the vertical
element is constructed with the masonry wall and precast concrete
block of same size as that of masonry wall but with hinge is laid in
position where door / window shutter is to be fixed
 If bamboo shutter is to be used, we have to provide two iron rods
fixed in the bamboo shutter. The ends of the rods in one side will
be held in the hole provided in the cement block of the masonry
wall .. Fig.
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LOW COST HOUSING

Ar. Srijana Shakya Tamrakar

 Approach to low cost housing ?

 Design of individual house

3. Doors and Windows

 Polythene sheet of 500 gauge is spread over bamboo strips.

 Prepare stabilized mud slurry with 10% cement and pour

 Almost all material and labour are local

 The only problem with this type of roof is the durability of

Howsoever various bamboo treatments are available to increase

 Starch content in bamboo is the main cause of the attack by

 general experience shows that expose of bamboo to smoke

 More effective .. Eg. bldg and urban development has already

 As the chemical flows through the bamboo the nodes of bamboo

 For treatment of bamboo strips, immersion

• Bamboo net of bamboo strips @ 5” c/c ( Tati or Bhata ) shall

• Over the Soil layer, ¾” Ferro cement coating is applied.

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