The construction of the house involves more than 100 different materials. You will have to spend lot of time towards buying all those materials. You have to exercise care when you are buying all the materials.
Among them, cement is the most important raw material used in the construction of the house. It is available in grey colour in bag. One bag of cement contains 50kg weight of cement. Buying cement also involves lot of stages like selection of right type of cement, searching for the right supplier of the cement.
This process of buying any material is time consuming and demanding. It is not too easy as one may think.
Hence here we give some basic tips which will help you while buying cement:
A) Personnel:
01. Is Cement Need or Desire?
Of course, the cement is one’s need to construct the house, but you have to check whether the purpose for which you are buying cement is your need or desire. i.e. whether construction of a swimming pool in the house is a need or desire?
02. Why You Need the Cement for Constructing a House?
It is most the useful binding material. Hence it is used for different purposes i.e. RCC work, plastering, flooring, filling cracks, making of compound wall, septic tank, etc. The purpose will define the type of cement you need. You will need different types for different purposes.
03. Quality and Specification of Cement:
i) There are many types of cement available in the market to suit your need. Although there are major three types of cement used in construction like:
- Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)
- Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC)
- White Cement
ii) You have also to decide whether you really want some specific cement like sulphate resistant cement, low heat cement, etc. To know more about special cement click here. You will need to decide whether to buy OPC or PPC.
iii) Grade of Cement:
The grade of cement is very important while you are buying cement bag. It is available in different grades like 33 grade, 43 grade and 53 grade. It indicates the strength of cement. To know more about cement grades click here. Nowadays most of the manufacturer’s manufacture only 53 grade PPC cement.
04. Study of Product Literature:
Courtesy - Gujarat Ambuja Cement Ltd.
When you buy cement, you should read all the properties which are generally described on the bags of cement and on the manufacturer’s website. To know more about product literature click here.
B) Finance:
01. Budget:
Cement is essential and must for the construction of the house, so you can’t economise on the cost of the cement. But first, you should fix the overall budget of the house. And if you have limited budget try to save on other material but not on cement.
e.g. Your budget for fixing vitrified tiles is Rs. 10,000 and cost of cement is Rs. 2000 and tiles is Rs.8000. You can’t save on cement. You will have to save Rs.1000 in tiles only.
02. Quantity you want to Buy:
You have to estimate the right quantity. i.e. how many cement bags do you need? It depends on which purpose you want to use the cement, i.e. in flooring, in plastering, etc.
03. From where you can buy the Cement?
Once you estimate the quantity of cement, then you should find right supplier or manufacturers of the cement i.e. whether it is directly available from the manufacturers or manufacturer’s sales depot who provides testing like cube test, etc. According to that, the price of the cement may be different.
04. Cost of Transport including Taxes:
You can transport the cement bag by truck if you are buying in bulk otherwise you can use other small vehicle. The cost of transporting cement bag depends upon the location of site from the cement plant or manufacturer’s depot. You should also include all the taxes like service tax, loading, unloading, etc.
C) Quality & Brand:
01. Popular Brand of Cement:
Courtesy - Gujarat Ambuja Cement Ltd.
Courtesy - Ultratech Cement
You can use the cement of some popular brands like Ultratech, Ambuja, AAC, Birla, JK Laxmi, Jaypee, Binani, etc. Some mini cement plant is also available in the market.
02. Testing:
Once you are buying the cement, you have to check the quality of cement. For that, you can do some field test and laboratory test if the work is big and you are buying in bulk. To know more about the field test of cement click here.
You may also like:
What is Setting Time of Cement?
What is Soundness of Cement?
03. Certification of Cement:
In India, for any manufacturers getting ISI is compulsory, including other cement plants. So you just check whether on your cement bag, written ISI mark or not.
D) Life of Material:
Courtesy - Shutterstock
- Cement does not last long. It is not recommended to use cement more than 3 months old.
- For how long period you can use the cement? For that you can go through the following link:
For how long period cement can be used?
Can I Use One Year Old Cement Bag?
So you should buy only that quality that you can use immediately, particularly in monsoon or when monsoon is near, and of course you have enough space to store the cement. Cement loses strength with time.
E) Conclusion:
It is thus keeping in view all above factors; one has to buy the right cement bag as per their need. From above factor, we can conclude that
- Select the right type and grade of cement and its manufacturer or brand.
- If you are buying a huge number of cement bags, try to place a written order and this written order should include the specification, quantity of cement, time of delivery, terms of payment including advance, etc.
- When you receive the cement on site, please check the quantity that you ordered.
- Check whether cement bags do not have any damages like wear and tear of bag or lumps of cement.
- Once you are satisfied with the quality as well as the quantity of cement bags as you ordered, make the payment as per your contract and obtain the receipt of payment.
- Preserve all the bills and cement bags literature given by the manufacturer. Keep them safe; you may need them in future in case of any emergency.
