House design, drawings and building permit in Kerala
This stage controls most of what your home will ever cost. Everything after it is pricing and building what gets decided here.
The checks at this stage (7)
- Lifestyle brief written down
Household size, elderly members, work from home, vehicles, future expansion. Your plan gets reviewed against this brief - not against generic norms. Unwritten needs are the ones the design misses.
- Independent floor plan review passed
Light, ventilation, wasted circulation, furniture fit, plumbing alignment and stair safety - checked before the plan is final, while a fix is a pencil stroke instead of a wall.
Kolo can check this: House plan review
- Working drawing set complete
Structural drawings plus the full working set, checked against the drawing completeness list. A quote priced on incomplete drawings is a quote priced on assumptions - and assumptions are billed later as extras.
Kolo can check this: Structural design check
- Building permit obtained
Building without a valid permit is not a timing choice: it risks a stop-work notice, penalties and demolition, and it stalls your loan and any future sale. Regularising later is discretionary and costly - not a right.
- 3D views reviewed before final freeze
Most people cannot read a 2D plan into a real space. The surprises that trigger changes are cheap to catch in a 3D view and expensive to catch in masonry. See it, then freeze it.
- Electrical and plumbing concept fixed
Point counts, stack positions and AC provisioning decided now, so the drawings carry them and every quote prices them. MEP decided after quotes is the single most common source of extra-work billing.
- Architect scope, services & fee quotation screen
An architect's fee quotation is a scope document, and the scope gaps — not the fee — are where it goes wrong. Two quotations are only comparable service by service: which drawings, how many revisions, how many site visits at what distance, and who files the permit. The commercial terms are evaluated separately from the drawing list, always.
Kolo can check this: Architect fee check
Kolo services for this stage
House plan review
An independent read of your plan for space, light, flow and cost — before it is frozen.
- Circulation, furniture fit, ventilation and orientation checked
- Corridors, dead corners and oversized circulation measured, and what they cost to build
- Changes you can hand to your architect
Review · ready in 5 working days
See House plan review →Covers 1 of the 7 checks above.
Structural design check
A second structural engineer reads your design for safety and wasted steel.
- Members that look under- or over-designed, with the reason
Report · ready in 5 working days
See Structural design check →Covers 1 of the 7 checks above.
Architect fee check
What the architect’s fee covers, what it leaves out, and the wording to close the gaps.
- A plain reading of one architect fee quotation
- What usually becomes an extra fee later
- Where the fee sits against architects in your area
Written review · ready in 3 working days
See Architect fee check →Covers 1 of the 7 checks above.
Consider and compare: the decisions here
Who designs your home
An independent architect, a drafting service, or the contractor's bundled design. It decides whose interests the drawings serve.
Architect
Pick it when: You want design accountability separate from the builder's pricing.
Usually costs more
- Accountability separate from construction pricing
- Site supervision possible
- A separate design fee
- Timeline depends on the architect's workload
Draftsman
Pick it when: The design is simple and you'll own the spec decisions yourself.
Usually costs less
- Lowest design cost
- Fast turnaround on simple plans
- No supervision during the build
- Spec decisions drift to the contractor
Contractor
Pick it when: You accept bundled design but will pay for one independent review.
Costs about the same
- Single point of contact
- Often bundled free
- The proposer is also the reviewer
- Design optimised for build convenience and margin
Changing your mind later: Changing designers mid-way means redrawing from the brief - fees largely paid twice and 3-6 weeks - plus a permit resubmission if plans changed.
Roof form and style
Sloped tropical, flat contemporary, or traditional. It sets the elevation, the roof cost, and how hard waterproofing must work.
Sloped
Pick it when: Rain protection by shape matters more to you than a terrace.
Costs about the same
- Sheds monsoon rain by shape, not membrane
- Roof form does the weatherproofing work
- Roof cost and detailing complexity
- No terrace
FlatMost common
Pick it when: You want a usable terrace and will maintain the waterproofing.
Usually costs less
- Usable terrace
- Simpler structure and formwork
- Waterproofing is a permanent commitment
- Heat gain without insulation
Nalukettu
Pick it when: Heritage form matters and skilled craftsmen are within reach.
Usually costs more
- Climate-evolved form, timeless resale appeal
- Courtyard brings light and air to the core
- Craftsmanship-dependent cost and timeline
- Skilled-labour availability drives the schedule
Changing your mind later: Changed after structural drawings, the whole roof is redrawn - structural fees again and about 3 weeks; changed after quotes, every roof line reprices.
Wall material
Laterite, solid cement block, or AAC. Each changes cost, weight, thermal comfort and how the crew must actually work.
Laterite
Pick it when: Thermal comfort and character outweigh cost, with a good quarry near.
Usually costs more
- Thermal comfort
- Regional availability and character
- Quality varies by quarry
- Dressing labour
BlockMost common
Pick it when: You want consistent quality and speed at the lowest wall cost.
Usually costs less
- Consistent quality
- Speed
- More heat gain than laterite unless insulated
- Plainer finish without cladding
AAC
Pick it when: Reducing structural load matters - an upper floor or weaker soil.
Costs about the same
- Light - reduces structural load
- Thermal performance
- Crew must adapt fixing and wetting habits
- Moisture detailing matters
Changing your mind later: Switched after quotes, every wall line reprices and the structure may change - a 2-3 week requote cycle; any wall already laid is demolition.
Roof waterproofing system
A coating system, a membrane system, or admixture alone. On a Kerala flat roof this is the decision the ceiling remembers.
CoatingMost common
Pick it when: You accept a reapplication cycle in exchange for lower entry cost.
Costs about the same
- Lower entry cost
- Easy to inspect and re-coat
- Shorter warranty, reapplication cycle
- Everything rests on surface preparation
Membrane
Pick it when: You want the longest warranty and will protect it with a screed.
Usually costs more
- Longer typical warranty
- Robust under standing monsoon water
- Higher cost
- Application quality is everything
Admixture
Pick it when: Only ever alongside a real system - never alone on a flat roof.
Usually costs less
- Cheapest line on the quote
- Useful as a helper within a system
- Not a system on its own
- Flagged if chosen alone for a flat roof
Changing your mind later: Changed after application, the old system is stripped and redone - full system cost again plus about 2 weeks; leaks meanwhile are interior repairs.
What good work looks like
What a complete drawing set is
Working drawings mean the architectural plans, sections and elevations, the structural sheets, and the electrical and plumbing overlays - each dimensioned, numbered, dated and on the same revision. Quotes invited on a plan and an elevation alone are quotes invited on assumptions.
- Every sheet numbered and dated, all on one revision
- Structural sheets present in the set, not promised later
- Electrical and plumbing points marked on the plans
- Quotes going out on plan-plus-elevation only
- Sheets mixed from different revisions
- Services left as decided at site
A permit-ready submission and what comes back
Going in: the application on the online portal, permit drawings by the licensed professional, your ownership documents, and the fee receipt. Coming back: the sanctioned plan, stamped and matching your construction set, with the permit number and its validity date readable on its face.
- An acknowledgment receipt carrying the file number
- The stamped sanctioned plan matching your drawing revision
- Permit number and validity date readable on the document
- Construction starting on applied-for status
- The sanctioned plan differing from the set being built
- A permit quietly past its validity window
KMBR 2019 · KPBR 2019 · K-SMART / Sanketham
What a structural drawing states on its face
You cannot check the calculations - you can check the declarations. The sheets should state, in their notes: the concrete grade per element, the steel grade, the cover values, the bearing value assumed from your soil report, and the engineer's name on the title block.
- Concrete and steel grades printed in the drawing notes
- Your soil report's bearing value quoted on the foundation sheet
- The engineer's name and details on the title block
- Grade as per site engineer appearing anywhere
- No cover values stated on any sheet
- Unsigned sheets with an empty title block
A spec sheet frozen before quotes
One document that names the cement class, the steel brand and grade together, the concrete grade policy, the wall material, and the waterproofing system for the roof and for wet areas. This sheet travels with every tender pack, so every bidder prices the same house.
- Steel specified as brand and grade together, never brand alone
- One named waterproofing system per location
- The identical sheet attached to every tender pack
- Branded TMT written with no grade beside it
- Waterproofing included with no system named
- The spec quietly differing between bidders
Elevation and interior moodboards — fixing the direction in pictures
A moodboard is the cheap way to disagree: a curated set of reference images for the elevation and, separately, for the interiors, agreed BEFORE detailed drawing starts. It fixes the material palette and mood in pictures a builder can also read, and every later review — the 3D, the spec sheet, the finish samples — is judged against it rather than against a shifting verbal brief.
- Two boards, not one — the elevation and the interiors drift apart when a single board covers both
- Each image annotated with WHAT is being borrowed from it: the roof form, the wall texture, the tone — not 'this vibe'
- The board reconciled with the style option chosen here, and with the budget envelope from P1
- The Design ideas board in this app used as the living copy, so the reference set and the project stay in one place
- Style agreed in adjectives — 'modern but warm' — and rediscovered as disagreement at the 3D stage, where a revision costs a render cycle
- A moodboard of images whose builds belong to a different budget class, setting an expectation the envelope cannot fund
Kolo design-finalization service scope — moodboard stage
Approach, entry and parking — read before any room is judged
The plot is entered before the house is. Gate geometry against the road, the parking bay, and the entry sequence are the checks that cannot be fixed after the compound wall is built.
- Gate width read against road width — a road under 25 ft wants a 16–17 ft gate for a large car to turn, more so with cars parked opposite
- Ramp rise from road no more than about 1'3" for a saloon car
- Each parking bay planned for the next car, not the current one — about 9 × 18 ft
- Sliding gates need pocket-wall space equal to the gate width; without it, outward-folding is the honest choice
- Pedestrian and vehicle access separated; two-wheeler space provided
- 7 ft head clearance anywhere a stair landing passes over parking
- Veranda at least 6 ft for houses above 1500 sqft; main door reasonably centred, about 9 ft high or taller
- A foyer buffer — the front door should not open straight into living or dining
- A gate the family car cannot turn into from the actual road, discovered on moving day
- Stilt parking with columns exactly where the reversing arc needs to be
Kolo Floor Plan Reviewer v8 — review framework, categories A–B
Living, dining and kitchen — the daily-function checks
One rule outranks the rest: the dining must connect directly to the kitchen, and the kitchen must have rear or side access to a service area. A kitchen at the front of the house with no service access fails regardless of everything else. Note the reviewer's distinction: a 'Guest Living' is a drawing room, not a bedroom — it gets no wardrobe, bed or attached toilet.
- Furniture drawn at true scale — a sofa is 2.5–3 ft deep, chairs need 3 ft pull-out from the dining table edge; miniature furniture hides a room that does not work
- Seating faces the entrance, verified against the drawn sofa orientation, and the TV wall is not fighting a window's glare
- The living room not bisected by the staircase or a circulation path
- A living room over 15–16 ft in any dimension while bedrooms sit under 10 ft is an imbalance worth flagging
- Kitchen work triangle compact; hob, sink and fridge actually drawn on the plan
- No window behind the stove; corners kept free so wall cabinets can run
- Narrow-tall kitchen windows (about 2–2.5 ft wide) rather than wide ones — every running foot of wall is a running foot of storage; the sink window is the exception
- Fridge projection (~6") and nearby door swings checked against each other
- Counter run sized to the family: roughly 8 ft for three people, 12 ft for five, 15 ft or a work-kitchen for seven
- Utility door from the kitchen, not through the dining
- Dining reached by crossing the living room — a daily walk that never stops annoying
- A show kitchen sized generously while the wet kitchen that cooks three meals a day is the cramped one
Kolo Floor Plan Reviewer v8 — review framework, categories C–E
Bedrooms — bed first, everything else follows
The bed position is decided first; door, wardrobe and window positions follow it. A very common Kerala layout puts a wash basin outside the toilet inside the bedroom zone — that recess is almost always better absorbed into the toilet, freeing a dressing niche used thirty minutes a day instead of five.
- 10 ft minimum bedroom width; master comfortable from about 12 × 14 ft; long narrow rooms flagged
- Blank wall behind the headboard — no window there
- Wardrobe on the longest continuous wall, 2 ft deep minimum, not blocking an exterior wall that wants a window
- Door positioned so the bed is not in the corridor's line of sight — and a 2–3 ft lateral door shift is structurally trivial in an RCC frame if it unlocks dead space
- Two children sharing a room means two beds; a study reachable without passing through the sibling's music
- Elderly room on the ground floor with an attached toilet, 3 ft-plus door, and wall blocking planned now for grab rails later
- East-facing bedrooms catch the morning sun; west-facing ones store the afternoon's heat for bedtime
- No washing machine in a bedroom
- The wardrobe and the study table fighting for the same wall, discovered at interior stage
- A dressing room drawn at 6 ft that needs 7 ft with the mirror in it
Kolo Floor Plan Reviewer v8 — review framework, categories F–J
Bathrooms, windows and ventilation — the wet-and-air checks
Every habitable room wants two openings on DIFFERENT walls — that is what cross-ventilation means, and two windows on the same wall do not qualify. Read every window's cardinal direction off the north arrow: north light is the steady one, east is morning, south works under a 2–3 ft overhang, and west is the one to minimise — narrow or louvred if it must exist.
- Master toilet 5 ft wide minimum; about 4.5–5 ft is workable for secondary toilets — the reviewer explicitly does not flag 1.5 m as narrow
- Toilet door placed mid-wall so wet, dry and WC zones fall on either side; WC not in the door's line of sight
- Shower zone separated from WC and vanity; 9-inch walls where recessed niches are wanted
- Ventilator sized to the toilet, not a token one in a large bath
- A shared bathroom reachable from the corridor, not only through one bedroom; a full bathroom on whichever floor holds the bedrooms
- Windows that face a view, not a neighbour's blank wall; 9 inches of wall kept beside every window for finishing
- Rooms with all windows on one wall flagged for one-sided ventilation; courtyards counted as ventilation sources
- West walls without shading flagged before they become an AC bill
- Cross-ventilation declared absent without counting each wall — two windows on two different walls IS cross-ventilation
- A pooja room sharing a wall with a toilet
Kolo Floor Plan Reviewer v8 — review framework, categories K–M, V; prevailing-breeze reading is Kerala trade practice
Stairs, structure, ducts and the space nobody counts
The circulation and services checks: the staircase must not bisect the living space, its mid-landing must deliver you INTO the house, and modern ducts want 3 ft — they carry plumbing, AC, CCTV and network together now. Then hunt the dead space: it is the area you paid for and never use.
- Stair landings 5 ft minimum with 7 ft head clearance wherever they pass over usable area; one staircase, not two, on plots under 1500 sqft
- Rectangular columns rotated to bury themselves in walls instead of projecting into rooms; column faces 1'9"–2' clear of parallel walls for plumbing
- Column positions read across ALL floors together
- No ducts opening into courtyards — lifelong leakage maintenance
- Corridors wider than 3.5 ft in a sub-1500 sqft house reclaimed into rooms
- Double-height cutouts and split levels in small houses questioned — they cost upper-floor area and age badly
- Oversized balconies questioned — beyond 3–4 ft depth they collect dust, not people
- Setbacks: 2 ft minimum from the compound wall — at 1.5 ft, after a 6-inch wall, nobody can clean the gap
- Electrical room reachable from outside so servicing never enters the house
- If a lift is wanted now or later: shaft from 5 × 5.5 ft, 800 mm door, position confirmed with a vendor before it is drawn
- A stair mid-landing that opens onto a balcony instead of into the house
- A 200-plus sqft walking strip inside an oversized living room — paid for at full rate, furnishing nothing
Kolo Floor Plan Reviewer v8 — review framework, categories N–T, X
Vastu, orientation and future-proofing — held pragmatically
Vastu positions applied as preferences, never at the cost of a working plan: kitchen SE first with NW acceptable, master bedroom SW, entrance NE/N/E, pooja NE and never wall-sharing with a toilet. Where strict placement makes a bad plan — the classic being a front kitchen with no service access — the practical alternative with Vastu in second position is the recommendation. Mismatches are observations, not defects; the architect may have plot reasons.
- Study and work-from-home spaces on north light; children's rooms on east
- Service areas placed south or west where heat does no harm
- One room convertible to a ground-floor bedroom as the family ages
- Rental potential: can one floor ever be accessed independently
- Partition provision (beam or channel in the slab) where large rooms may later divide
- Grab-bar blocking in wet-area walls now, while it costs nothing
Kolo Floor Plan Reviewer v8 — review framework, categories U, V2, W; positions are tradition, the pragmatic ordering is the reviewer's own
Structural brands Kerala quotes actually name — observed frequency, not endorsement
What contractors around you are writing on paper, so a name on your quote reads as familiar or unusual rather than as a verdict. A high count means often-specified, not better — and a brand without its grade is half a specification, for cement and TMT exactly as for plywood. Cement, general works: Ramco, ACC, Dalmia and Sankar lead the observations, with Ambuja and JSW behind them; UltraTech is the brand most named where quotes call out structural concrete separately. TMT: the Kerala regionals Kairali and Kalliyath dominate the counts, with Agni, Metcon and Minar present and Vizag, JSW and Jindal as the national names. Fe550D is now the market-standard grade in Kerala quotes — Fe500 is acceptable but a generation behind.
- The grade beside the brand, always: cement 43/53 or PSC, steel Fe500/Fe500D/Fe550D — the brand alone prices nothing
- A single named brand per line, or a SHORT pool with your written approval required for the swap — a four-brand pool means the cheapest one arrives
- Spelling read carefully: one observed quote printed 'VAIZAK', which reads as either Vizag (premium) or Vaisak (regional) — two different tiers on one ambiguous word; get the intended brand in writing
- An unfamiliar name checked before signing, not after delivery
- 'Or equivalent' next to the brand with nobody defined to judge equivalence — the classic substitution door
- A warranty attached to 'whichever brand is supplied' from a pool you do not control
Kolo construction quotation KB v25 brand tracker — frequency counts across 65 analysed Kerala quotations (2026)
Finish and MEP brands Kerala quotes actually name — observed frequency, not endorsement
The same reading for the finishing trades. Tiles: Johnson, Kajaria and Somany lead, RAK behind. Sanitaryware: CERA and Johnson are the volume names, Jaquar the most-named fittings brand, Hindware and Parryware present. Paint: Asian Paints and Berger nearly tie, with Birla and MRF putty behind. Wiring: V-Guard and Finolex lead, then Polycab; switches: Legrand, then GM and Havells. Plumbing: Supreme, Finolex and Kelachandra. Waterproofing: Dr. Fixit dominates the named observations, with MAPEI, Fosroc and Sika appearing. Water tanks: Sintex. These names appear in your quotes' materials schedules — the schedule that goes silent on brands is the one to question.
- Brand AND series or range where the price spread lives inside the brand: paint lines (an economy and a premium emulsion share a maker), switch ranges, sanitaryware series
- The materials schedule naming brands for EVERY trade, not only cement and steel — a quote that names TMT but leaves paint, wiring and pipes brandless has left them negotiable after signing
- Waterproofing named as a SYSTEM with its brand — slope, membrane or coating, protective screed — per the integral-compound note above
- A detailed structural brand list lulling the reader past a finishes schedule with no brands at all
- Brand named, series silent — the same maker spans a fourfold price range in switches and paint alike
Kolo construction quotation KB v25 brand tracker — frequency counts across 65 analysed Kerala quotations (2026)
Must-have drawings — the 28 without which the project cannot legally or safely proceed
Seven statutory and submission drawings: key/location plan, site plan with setbacks and levels, approved floor plans for all floors, elevations on all four sides, sections, area statement with FAR calculations, and the permit/sanction set. Eight structural, engineer-approved: setting-out plan with grid dimensions, foundation and footing layout, column layout and schedule, plinth beam and DPC details, beam layout per floor, slab reinforcement, staircase structural details, lintel and chajja details. Four architectural working: dimensioned working plans, door and window schedule, staircase architectural drawing, building sections with heights. Five MEP: electrical layout, water-supply layout, sanitary and drainage layout, manhole and inspection-chamber plan, septic tank / STP / soak pit details. Two costing: item-wise BOQ and material-and-workmanship specifications. Plus sloping-roof details where applicable, and an exterior 3D view.
- All 28 present before quotations are requested — a quote priced on fewer is priced on assumptions
- The structural set carries the engineer's approval, matches the soil test's bearing capacity, and names concrete and steel grades
- The area statement's FAR arithmetic reconciles with the plans it accompanies
- The eight-drawing critical core anyone auditing a set checks first: structural, working, electrical, plumbing, permit set, detailed BOQ — plus completion drawing and supervision arrangements at the service end
- An 'approved plan' that is only the permit set — working drawings never produced, so the contractor improvises the details
- Structural drawings absent and column sizes decided at the site by the mason
- No door-window schedule, so every opening is priced and sized ad hoc
- No septic/soak-pit detail on a plot without sewer connection — discovered at excavation
Kolo architectural drawing completeness register — 58 drawings, tiered (2026-08). Tiering is Kolo's own; no published Indian standard defines residential set contents.
Good-to-have drawings — the 22 that prevent rework and handover disputes
Concept sketch; roofing and waterproofing — flat-roof slope and drainage plan, waterproofing specifications, gutter and rainwater collection, downpipe layout; external works — material and texture elevation, colour and finish schedule, compound wall and gate; detailing — tile layouts for floor and wall, bathroom detail drawings, flooring pattern, truss detail for sloping roofs, earth excavation drawing; interior coordination — furniture layout, false ceiling and lighting, wall colour scheme, kitchen and wardrobe designs, interior material specification; interior 3D renderings; and the two completion documents — completion drawing and as-built drawings.
- Tile layouts before tiling starts — cut-tile placement decided on a drawing, not on the floor
- The false-ceiling and lighting layout coordinated with the electrical layout it sits above
- As-built drawings named as a deliverable up front — they are unobtainable after the crew leaves
- No waterproofing specification, so 'waterproofing done' is unverifiable at the E8 hold point
- Interior work quoted later with no coordination drawings, and every modular unit fights a switch position
Kolo architectural drawing completeness register — 58 drawings, tiered (2026-08)
Nice-to-have drawings — specialist and lifestyle, eight of them
Fire-fighting drawing — which becomes a MUST the moment a statutory threshold is crossed — combined MEP drawing, landscape design, façade lighting, custom handrail design, railing-pergola-louvre details, feature and projection details for cantilevers and water features, and an exterior 3D walkthrough. No legal or safety weight below the statutory threshold; their value is coordination and intent.
- If the building's height or occupancy crosses the fire-NOC threshold, the fire-fighting drawing has silently moved to the must-have tier
Kolo architectural drawing completeness register — 58 drawings, tiered (2026-08)
Must-have services — nine, without which drawings never become a building
A site visit before design; online permit submission (K-SMART in Kerala) and statutory liaison with the local authority; construction supervision through the build; drawing explanation to the contractor — intent, sequencing, briefing; sample approval of materials and finishes before procurement; coordination meetings with the contractor or PMC; shop-drawing review of vendor submittals; and material and finish recommendations with specifications. A quotation silent on any of these has not priced them — which means they either do not happen or arrive as extras.
- Each of the nine explicitly in or out of the quoted fee
- Supervision quantified: number of visits, distance terms, cost of extra visits, response time
- Permit submission named with the portal and the fee treatment for statutory payments
- 'Supervision included' with no visit count — resolves to whatever the architect feels like
- Design delivered, permit liaison assumed, and the sanction stalls with nobody engaged to answer the local body
Kolo architectural services register — 25 services, tiered (2026-08)
Good-to-have and specialist services — the other sixteen
Good-to-have, protecting cost control and handover: tender document preparation, bid evaluation and contractor-selection assistance, vendor quotation review, pre-bid meetings, furniture installation drawings, a colour-sample-finish approval workflow, completion reports, and décor coordination. Situation-driven: stage certificates for loan disbursement, bank estimate formats, occupancy-certificate assistance, valuation certificates, specialist-consultant coordination (BMS, lighting, security, sound), a full PMC role, site setting-out, and statutory fee payment handling.
- If a bank loan funds the build, stage certificates and the bank estimate format move from optional to required — banks disburse against them
- Tender preparation and bid evaluation here connect directly to the P3 identical-tender-pack discipline
Kolo architectural services register — 25 services, tiered (2026-08)
The consultancy agreement itself — what the review register reads it against
Observed, never advised on — the P4 legal-positioning rule applies from the first agreement you sign, which is this one. The register reads a consultancy agreement for: professional responsibility for the design stated; scope and standard of supervision defined; the consultant's limits stated so contractor responsibility is preserved; ownership and handover of drawings resolved; deliverable timeline tied to payment stages; revision count, additional-visit terms and validity stated; dispute resolution and governing law; professional indemnity; and a signature block that is actually complete. A supervision agreement with no professional-responsibility clause for the design is the register's highest-severity consultancy flag.
- Revision count and what triggers a chargeable revision, in writing
- Drawing ownership and handover on termination — the project must be able to continue without the author
- Payment stages mapped to deliverables, not to the calendar
- Fee quoted as a lump percentage with deliverables unlisted, so every drawing beyond the permit set is 'additional'
- Termination leaving the drawings with the architect and the owner re-purchasing their own house's plans
Kolo Home-Contract Review System v9.22 — consultation-agreement register; Council of Architecture conditions of engagement describe service stages
What real plan reviews keep finding — the repeat offenders
Across every plan reviewed, the same findings return. None of them is exotic — each is a line a homeowner can check on their own drawing in a minute, and each costs a pencil stroke now or a wall later.
- A foyer with shoe storage between the road and the living room — the commonest finding of all is a main door opening straight into the seating with nowhere for footwear
- West-facing glazing shaded or minimised — the harsh afternoon sun found unshaded on large west windows in every single review, cooking the room at exactly the hours it is used
- Every bedroom breathing through TWO walls — single-aspect and fully landlocked rooms recur constantly, and a room borrowing light through its own door reads dim and stays damp
- At least one solid backdrop wall per living space — open-on-three-sides living rooms leave the TV, art and sofa nowhere to anchor, so furniture floats mid-room
- The parking arithmetic done with real numbers: a sedan wants ~4.8m nose-in clear of the gate line, the gate width checked against the road it turns in from, and a marked spot for two-wheelers and cycles
- The bed arithmetic done the same way: a king plus two side tables plus walking passage needs ~3.5m of wall — a 3.4m room is a queen room, and knowing that on paper is free
- No toilet sharing a wall with the cooking zone, and no toilet door in the dining sightline
- Toilet entry necks checked — the metre-wide dog-leg lobby into a toilet wastes more space than it serves
- Wet points clustered, not scattered — toilets spread across the plan multiply drainage runs and slab sleeves
- A drying yard that exists, is reachable from the utility, and is covered enough for the monsoon
- Open courtyards and voids read against the monsoon: wind-driven rain enters open-to-sky courts, and a void carries cooking smells straight up to the bedrooms
- For a household with children or elderly members: unguarded level changes, water bodies and the night-time distance between their rooms and yours, read deliberately
- An oversized single volume — a living space more than double a bedroom grows a dead walking strip through its middle, paid for at full rate
- The room a plan forgot to label — an undefined space becomes a store by default, after it was priced as a room
Aggregated from Kolo floor-plan reviews of real submitted plans (2026) — anonymised; no plan, place or household is identifiable
What the drawing does not show — the questions a review sends back
Half of every real review is not findings but absences — things the sheet does not state, each of which someone on site will otherwise decide for you. A drawing is also reviewed for what it refuses to say, and every absence below goes back to the architect as a question BEFORE quotes are invited.
- Hob, sink and fridge positions actually drawn — a kitchen without them cannot be reviewed, wired or priced, and the platform gets decided by whoever tiles first
- The dimensioning basis stated: centre-line dimensions lose roughly 20cm per wall to plaster and block — 'my 3.6m room' may be 3.2m clear, and furniture is bought against the clear figure
- A column grid on the sheet — spans, the porch and any large glazing need known column positions before a single quote is priced
- On a renovation: existing and proposed work differentiated on the drawing, and load-bearing walls identified before any wall-cut is recommended, let alone executed
- Gate position, compound wall and driveway geometry shown — the site does not end at the plinth
- Service positions decided while they are cheap: the duct route for an island chimney, pump and plant rooms for any water body, washing-machine drainage, the gas cylinder's home and a service door for it
- A lift, if ever intended: the shaft held at ~152×168cm minimum BEFORE plaster tolerance eats it, and its pit understood as the deepest waterproofing point of the building
- Stair geometry verified as numbers — flight width, landing depth, riser count and headroom under mid-landings — not assumed from the way the drawing looks
- Every 'not shown on this sheet' converted into a written question to the architect, with the answer in the next revision rather than in someone's memory
Aggregated from Kolo floor-plan reviews of real submitted plans (2026) — anonymised
The questions a plan review asks first
Before a reviewer reads a single wall, they ask these — because half the verdicts depend on answers no drawing contains. An unanswered one does not disappear: it becomes an assumption someone else makes for you.
- The plot and its road: which sides face one and how wide it is — the parking and gate verdicts hang on the road width
- The household, exactly: how many people, children with their AGES, elderly members — a room review without them is generic
- Work-from-home or abroad-based owners declared — both change what the plan must hold
- Vehicles owned AND planned — the porch is sized for the next car, not the current one
- The Vastu preference graded (strict, moderate, none), and the budget named — a review against an unstated budget cannot flag over-design
- A brief that lists rooms instead of people — the review then checks geometry but not fit
- The budget withheld 'until quotes come' — by then the plan has already spent it
Kolo plan-review intake questionnaire — the questions every real review starts from
Fee mechanics seen in real consultancy agreements
The clauses that decided real disputes were the small mechanical ones, not the grand ones. Each of these appeared ambiguous or one-sided in reviewed agreements; each is a one-line question before signing.
- The fee's AREA basis defined: 'per built-up sq.ft' of WHICH area — plan area, sanctioned area, or as-built — decided in writing, because the three differ and the fee scales with the answer
- Stage payment TIMING: paid when a stage's deliverable ARRIVES, not when the stage begins — 'on commencement of Stage B' is payment for work not yet done
- 'Non-refundable' clauses read against the exit clause together — a non-refundable advance plus a consultant-may-exit clause is the owner funding both outcomes
- The consultant's exit: what is delivered, what is refunded and what compensation applies if THEY withdraw — reviewed drafts answered only the owner's exit
- A validity period on the engagement — an agreement with no time-for-performance lets a stalled consultancy hold the drawings hostage indefinitely
Aggregated from Kolo consultancy-agreement reviews of real signed and draft agreements (2026) — anonymised
Red flags and money traps
Built-up area is the single biggest cost lever you control. Each extra square foot gets excavated, built, plastered, floored, wired and painted. Trimming area at design costs a pencil line; trimming later costs demolition.
Remember: Decide the area number against your budget, not against the neighbour's house.
TMT is bought by brand AND grade - the grade carries the strength. A quote naming only the brand leaves the grade to the supplier's convenience. The same trap applies to cement class and concrete grade.
Insist on: Brand and grade written together for steel, cement and concrete - in the spec, before quotes.
Corridors wider than needed, a living room so long its far end is a walking track, oversized balconies that collect dust - every square foot of it is priced like a bedroom. If the living room runs past fifteen feet while bedrooms squeeze under ten, the plan is serving guests, not you.
The question: For each open area: what happens HERE daily? No answer means reclaim it.
Dining must sit directly beside the kitchen, and the kitchen needs rear or side access to a service area for washing and drying. Crossing the living room with hot food, or a kitchen with no service door, is a mistake you will make three times a day for thirty years.
Check now: Trace the walk: stove to table, sink to drying line. Count the rooms crossed.
A competent brief captures household size and composition; elderly members and any ground-floor or step-free need; work-from-home rooms; vehicle count; future expansion, which affects foundations and columns now; entertaining patterns; storage; and domestic-help provision. It is the yardstick the floor-plan review measures against.
Trade practice, not a code: Trade practice on Indian sites, rather than a published standard.
A complete residential set spans architectural — dimensioned plans, sections, elevations, door-window and finishes schedules; structural — foundation layout, column, beam and slab details, reinforcement schedules; MEP — electrical with point counts, plumbing and drainage with a stack diagram, any HVAC; and detail drawings — staircase, toilets, kitchen, joinery, waterproofing.
Trade practice, not a code: Trade practice on Indian sites, rather than a published standard.