Rains & Your Home!

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“Innocent droplets of rain
Make almost all events
Quite natural…. Visar Zhiti.

Born in Albania & with a career of Clerk in Secret Service, yet Visar is known for his poetry which is full of nature & with the rains which we are witnessing his above words I find most apt for the subject i.e. rain effect on buildings!  We the humans are really a funny lot, when it’s not raining we pray to god & what not for rains & when it starts raining again we are praying to the same gods for controlling the damage by the rains for which we are actually responsible in most times. Well, this year’s rains in Pune have been stunning, outstanding, excessive, record breaking & what not & it’s still on. In my nearly thirty years in Pune this is one of the maximum raining in terms of days as well quantity with which sky is pouring down water! And obviously last nearly whole week the news papers, social media is full of covering rain hit roads, rivers, colonies everything but the cause behind all this damage! As indeed we can’t control down pouring by nature god but the same god only has given us brain which he wants us to use to protect ourselves from such natural calamity but most of the time we end up using this brain for wrong things & blames god for destruction due to his rains!

Well, the cause behind this rain damage is separate subject of sharing but for now what I felt necessary is what we can or we should do while we are stuck up with heavy rains like at present. Rain or water hits us on three fronts; one is electrical front, second is water leakage in homes & third is making structures like retaining walls or compound walls weak & collapse! As these are main issues for urban life as in rural there are many more problems such as floods, landslides, getting cut off from outer world but as we are lucky to live in urban area like Smart City Pune, our issues (related to building only) are bit easier to deal with!

To start with electrical front, most flat holders are totally ignorant about electrical safety even in normal routine & when it rains then this ignorance can cost seriously! As even if the builder has given you complete home with electric supply meters (mseb i.e. msedcl) yet in such rains it’s important to get the electric mains from meter board to individual flats checked along with the meter board wiring. This can be done by some licensed electrical contractor or consultant because over the years the wiring may get lose at points as well the electric main carrying pipes can get damaged exposing the cables as well allowing rain water to drip in causing short circuit. Ideally before monsoon all such checking of building’s external wiring works is a must, even that of street light wiring around the building as external wires may got damaged due to weathering action & the copper part can get exposed to rain water means short circuit & accident possibilities. Also do check that meter boards are well protected from rains & always in dry state!  The problem is post possession most flat holders’ gets their homes decorated spending lacs of rupees but rarely do they spend on common things like common wiring! Also there has to be a master drawing of all wiring works so as the external agency can easily maintain the same.

Equally important is proper care of lift rooms & the door as well windows of lift rooms. They should be well protected from rains to avoid any entry of water in lift room which can damage the circuit of lift machinery. Also the lift pit which goes nearly 6 feet underground has to be checked regularly for any signs of water oozing up from ground. In many buildings lift entrances at higher floors are also exposed to rains due to wind & can enter in lift shafts. Weather shades must be provided at such points, these things society can get it done actually but residents rarely cares! At all the time lift machinery must be protected from the rain water is what one should keep in mind. Same is applicable for other electrical appliances like generator or CC TV’s & such facilities. All it needs is little bit of spending & proper timely checking but that seems to be most expensive thing in our society, that’s why this sharing!

One aspect which isn’t directly related to the rains yet matter of concern for many is terrace leakages. This is main reason why people are afraid of buying terrace flats i.e. top floor flats. Here most important thing is not allowing water to be stagnant  means proper slopes & draining must be there as stagnant water is bound to find way which mostly is downwards through the slabs or walls. At the same time rain water down take lines must be checked & cleaned before monsoon as often it got choked with dust or dry leafs & what not & when rain comes the lines are choked! One more reason of terrace leakage is the terrace surface gets damage due to post possession things like solar water heater system fitting or Dish TV or such work on finished water proof terrace surface. The terrace surface must be kept undamaged because the waterproofing is an impervious layer & any breakage or damage at one place allows water to seep below this surface which then can travel anywhere, mostly in the flat below.

Out of all the rain caused things the most annoying is Seepage from walls & from windows sides making internal walls look shabby & wet & damp. Do mind there is difference between seepage & leakage as seepage is seasonal & occurs only during heavy rains while leakage can be all around the year & from terrace slab or toilets or wet areas above. We do test toilet floors & terraces (top terrace too) for water proofing but vertical surfaces i.e. outer walls we can’t make waterproof. Though we (read good builders, yes there are many yet) take every precaution such as applying double coat plaster, using river sand only (crush sand plaster forms cracks more than river sand), admixtures (plasticizes) for plaster to make it water resistant, curing for minimum fifteen days, wash the sand to remove clay content & many such. But the building is combination of frame structure i.e. RCC & Block walls yet we seal all the joints with chicken (mild steel) mesh to avoid expansion cracks before plaster. Despite all such precautions surface cracks occurs & so does some seepage when it rains like this season. Also temperature difference in one single day is nearly 20 degrees in summers in Pune, causing thermal stresses in walls plasters which is main reason of developing surface cracks. One more important thing is every building must be painted with using primer coat (sort of water repellent liquid material) after three to four years, post possession & this nearly reduces seepage as well surface crack issues by 90% is my experience! Again unfortunately residents never do that but keep following builder for seepage repair which is actually not a patch work solution ever!

Of late one major aspect is safety of your complex's compound walls as we witnessed some real nasty accidents (well it may not be an accident but still). The builder may or may not have built the compound walls as per technical per norms but over the years post possession development along the compound walls may have made them a bit unsafe such as some big trees roots or excavation of adjoining project on outside of walls. So it’s very important rather a must thing to check your project's compound walls via any certified engineer as well see that no hutments (labor huts) have been made from outside along your compound walls! Also if there are retaining walls as boundary wall for your complex or within the complex then check its structural stability as well the weep holes in such walls which has been kept to drain off the water! This also can be done by the certified engineer. 

I think issue is how we look at our own home as well the building as many a times the problems like seepage or surface cracks or even accidents due to electric short circuit which are rain generated can be avoided with a little post possession timely care but that’s the main problem, isn’t it? So at least from this season let’s work on our respective fronts & face the rains with smile & not with frown!  

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html

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