Summer Heat & Care of Your Home!

 

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“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
― John Steinbeck

“In summer the empire of insects spreads.”
― Adam Zagajewski

“Summer was always the worst season. Everyone always complained about winter, but winter was simple, you just didn't go outside. Summer always tried to sneak in where it was not wanted.”
― Katherena Vermette

“Imagine a room
With six walls and a ceiling
Two full of windows
Two full of mirrors
And two cream walls that could easily be mistaken as being painted by light.
Each morning, the scorching sun enters the room
And fills each corner till it is overflowing-
The windows give and take sunlight
(There is no escape door or breather).
The mirrors burn and blind
All the walls are fires of their own.
In that choking space, you have a small table fan to your name.

Calcutta summer for you.”
― Devika Todi

 

Four great writers from different parts of the world & sharing their views about one common subject, summer, and the last quote is true now for most parts of India barring Himalayan ranges!! By the time you will be reading this sharing, major of the summer is nearly over as officially monsoon enters in our country in the last week of May & we are already towards end of second week of May but its ok as the reason for this sharing is after long time I am writing about something which is related to building construction aspect, so I am happy the civil engineer in me is yet alive, though in bits & pieces! It has been a while since I have written about something which is directly related with homes, more specifically maintenance or problems which the occupants have to face post possession & often tagged as poor-quality construction! We all are well familiar with rainy season problems such as seepage, leakage, short circuits, water clogging & such which comes along with heavy rains but how many of us know that most of these problems origins from summer & few from even winter, I am sure not even qualified civil engineers knows much about it that’s why this sharing! And that way qualification of civil eng of late is a joke in itself keeping full respect for the academics & the teachers as having a degree of civil engg is one thing & having ability (and will) to use that degree for right cause in the field is another thing & it’s this another thing which is missing from the construction industry (read as real estate), is the cause of concern! 

Ok, enough of philosophy (read as frustration) but I am happy as this is something which people can use (I hope) & it’s about summer of 2025 & you will say what’s so special in it, then let me tell you this year's summer was hottest in last 100 years, especially Indian subcontinent! This may be the outcome of global warming or deforestation or urbanization or anything as that’s not our subject but our subject is summer's effect on our buildings, specifically homes or apartments & again many will ask, what summer can do to concrete homes, this must be some builders blame game as usual! You are free to make your opinions just the way I am free to share my views but let’s first understand some basic facts about buildings as its engineering or science & it doesn’t work on opinions but on facts & logic which unfortunately we the Indian home buyers as well builders are weak at! Before that I will like to give you background of this subject or the reason why I felt need of sharing as last week in a get-together of Credai (association of developers) one very senior builder met me & told his problem of falling or loosening of dado (wall) tiles in the toilets of his newly built project & the numbers were staggering, nearly two hundred plus flats has been facing this problem & he was worried what can be the solution. Same way in few of our completed projects as well in my known circle top terrace surface flooring/ layer of cement waterproofing have budged up & cracks are seen in it. And then in one of my recent projects a flat holder had nasty argument with our marketing team as ceiling PoP (Plaster of Paris)  layer in his  hall has fall down (it’s just a layer nothing serious actually that someone will get injured) & in his flat’s skirting tiles (small band of tile as lining on the wall at the end of flooring) has also got loosened up & two/ three tiles of his skirting has got displaced & he named us as worst construction quality, money saving practices etc which I can understand! And I am sure there may be similar cases around but as I said real estate industry's most “kamjor kadi” (weakest link) is data & its non-belief in knowledge, so such incidents/ cases never reach to a common platform, that’s why this sharing! 

These all are related to sudden increase in temperature & like in the medical profession doctor’s diagnosis has utmost importance in building construction also cause or reason of occurrence of any civil maintenance problem is equally important. As one, to repair the problem you must know the cause behind it & second, then only you can work out a strategy so that this problem will not occur in your next projects! And sudden rise in temperature to extreme levels is the root cause of most of the above civil problems which we can avoid & cure also. Here again many people will say, rains they can understand cause leakage or dampness but how can summer heat is responsible, then let me tell you, seeds of seepage & dampness are sown in the summers only & hotter the summer then more chances of problems it will create in the structure for the upcoming monsoons! Like our body, exactly similar is the structure of our buildings, as columns & beams are like our bones, supporting the body. Our muscles are like walls or masonry of the building providing mass or volume to different compartments & our skin is like plaster on the walls of our homes. And exactly as our skin becomes dry & crack-up to the exposure to extreme heat of summer the skin of our home i.e. plaster also gets cracked because of temperature stresses due to heat. And then in cities like Pune, in single day the temperature drops from 41 degrees in the noon to 20 degrees at night, creating thermal stresses in the entire structure of our homes. A simple science is, every material has its own expansion & contraction tendency for facing the temperature difference & that’s physics we have learned in 10^th standard, right? As our home is built from different materials like steel, concrete, blocks, bricks, tiles, mortar (for plaster), pipes & such, & all these materials are joined with each other by some binders. At the same time these materials expands & contracts in their own proportion & it’s a natural phenomenon. But when the temperature difference is very high just the way this year’s heat is, then this expansion contraction factor also increases causing cracks in bonding of all above material & if plaster surface forms cracks, then tiles which are in a way sticked to walls can fall-off, PoP gets peeled off from plastered surfaces due to thermal stresses & so does the paint from walls, which we name bad quality or faulty construction!

First & foremost, these are not in any way structural faults nor can cause any damage to the structure as these factors have been taken in consideration while designing the structure, but superficial damage is bound to be there somewhere due to the heat. What we can do is, understand what has happened & why & then redo it with using some plasticizers which will work as adhesives. And in new construction keep these things in mind, this is why I won’t ever recommend regular plaster to ceilings of rooms of a home as PoP layer if falls down due to heat can’t damage any physical harm to the occupants but if regular plaster falls down, it can be dangerous at times because of the weight of the chunk which isn’t the case with PoP! These thermal stresses also can make the wall tiles /cladding material come out from the walls & to avoid this try using glue instead of mortar as adhesive while fixing & keep some gap between the tiles which people avoid for looks but these joints act as air relief paths in summers. Friends, aesthetics we all love but more important is durability which a civil engg must always keep in mind! All the joints between dissimilar members of the home such as between columns & walks, between beams & walls, between slab & walls must be properly taken care & use of plasticizers is a must to absorb the expansion contraction of these members. In case of already completed structure, you can open up these joints & fill them with adhesives or fibre-based mortar & refinish which is a costly affair off course but these joints are the gateways of water in the upcoming monsoons causing dampness & seepage, which actually is the outcome of summer heat’s effect on your home! Also, while painting outside surfaces of buildings do use heat reflective paints which will help in keeping inside of homes a bit cool!

One more summer heat’s impact is,  about PVC plumbing pipes which carry our drainage, water & even our different cables also. These pipe joints can get distorted due to heat making the joints leak in case of drainage or water, so a periodical maintenance is a must. And electrical cables coating also can melt as the copper wires inside are already heated due to electricity & the outer heat adds fuel in it making the coating melt & short circuit is the outcome! Using thicker gauge pipes is one way to reduce these faults & again periodical checking which most societies doesn’t do & blame it on poor quality which isn’t the case always. At the same time summer heat increases or boosts life of insects such as termites and their capacity to damage the wood work & PoP, so periodical anti-termite treatment along with checking from professional agencies is a must wherever there is even the smallest quantity of woodwork in our homes. And keep a keen eye on termite as many times like cancer, in the first stage you can save lots of damage which increases as per the stages. Smallest things such as occurrence of white powder around any wooden item in the homes in the summers immediately must be inspected & treated! Friends, our home is like our body as it works on two-fold things, first is creating immunity i.e. fitness & second is regular checkups & proper measures as per the outcome of checkups! And yes, instead of panicking or naming some entity, take help from professionals in the field & do only as per his/ her advice. Last but not the least, not just try but plant as many indigenous trees (neem, mango, bahawa etc) you can around your building as that’s one sure way of keeping our surrounding cool even in the hottest of the summers & for that first reduce our greed of using every sq. ft. of the land for your self & leave some space for the trees also! Summers are going to be harsh every year & we are only to blame for that & we only can make the summers cool back again if we want to save ourselves from the heat waves, adios with this warning!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

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https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

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