Building Laws
Building Laws
Building Laws
Building Laws 16
• In Rural areas, these bye-Laws are directed by Revenue authorities
1. Building Lines:
(a) Set back or front building line: The line upto which the plinth of a
building adjoining a street or an extension of street or on a future
street may lawfully extened.
• This line is laid parellel to the plot boundries by the authority beyond
which nothing can be constructed.
(b) Control line: Certain buildings such as cinemas, business. centre
factories etc which attract large number of vehicles should be further
setback a further distance. apart from building line. This line which
accounts for extra-margin is called as control line.
(c) General building line: Sometime a line is fixed called general building
line & no building or its portion should project beyond this building
line.
Distances of building line & control line:
Type of road In open & River develop- Actual limit in
Agricultural ment along urban area.
country approach
Building control Building Control Building Control
Line Line Line Line Line Line
1. National & State
Highways 30 m 56 m 18 m 30 m 30 m 45 m
2. Major District
Roads 24 m 45 m 9m 15 m 15 m 24 m
3. Other District
Roads 15 m 24 m 6m 9m 9m 25 m
4. Village Roads 12 m 18 m 6m 9m 9m 25 m
National building code published in 1970, current version (2005)
Building Material Construction 87
Special point:
(i) Generally in urban areas, the distance of control line is taken as one
& half times that of building line.
(ii) These distances are measured from centre of Roadway.
(iii) National building code specifies a minimum frontage of 6m on any
street.
Advantages of fixing such building lines:
(i) It facilitates future widening of street.
(ii) It keeps away the noise & dust of street.
(iii) It prevents formation of blind corners at intersection of streets and
provides open spaces.
2. Built- up (or covered Area) Limitation:
Total covered Area of all Floors
Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R) = 100
plot Aera
Floor Space Index (F.S.I)/Plan Efficiency/FAR
• FAR is used in classifying type of construction.
• FAR values are specified in Natinal Building code for different
occupancies and types of construction.
• The covered area is governed by F.A.R or F.S.I.
• Following limitations for bult-up area have been Recommended
(i) In a buisness area, the covered area shall not exceed 75% of the area
of site. provided sufficient space for parking, etc is available on the
same site.
(ii) In an industrial area the built - up area or covered area shall not
exceed 60% of the site areas.
(iii) In Residential areas, the covered areas are indicated as below.
(b) Kitchen:
(i) For kitchen - cum- store room, the minimum area = 5. sq.m with
minimum width of kitchen =1.8m
(ii) For kitchen having separate store, the minimum area for kitchen =
4.5 sq.m.
(iii) For kitchen having separate store, the minimum area = 9.5 sq.m
with minimum width of 2.4 m.
(c) Bathrooms & water - closets:
(i) For bathroom minimum size = 1.5 x 1.2 or area = 1.8 sqm.
(ii) Minimum area of floor = 2.8 sq.m
with a minimum width = 1.2 m
(iii) For water closet, minimum floor area = 1.1 sq.m.
(d) Mezzanine floor : It is an intermediate floor in a building which is
partly open to the Double-height ceiling floor below or which does not
extend over the which floor space of a building.
(i) The minimum area of mezzanine floor, which to be used as a
living room = 9.5 sq.m.
(ii) The total area of such mezzanine floor, in a building should not
exceed 1/3 rd of plinth area of a building.
(e) height of building & rooms.
• Height of the building is decided by two factors.
(i) Either by the width of street on which it fronts
(ii) The minimum width of rear space.
Maximum height limits of building
Width of street Height of the building
Say W-m height =1.5 W + front open space
(In general)
upto 8 m 1.5 times the width of street
8m to 12 m not more than 12 m
Above 12m Not more than width of street in
no case more than 24 m
Note: No plinth or building portion or out house shall be less than 30 cm
above any portion of around within 3 m distance of such a building.
• Minimum heights of individual rooms as specified by national building
code of India are as followed:
(a) For habitable rooms = 2.75m
90 Civil Booster (Civil Ki Goli Publication 9255624029)
• When only one w.c is provided in a dwelling the bathroom and the
water closet should be separataly accommodated.
(ii) Dwellings without individual - conveniences should have at least
following:
(I) One tap with draining arrangement in each terement.
(II) One w.c and one bath for crazy two terements &
(III) Water taps in common bathrooms & commom w.c.
(B) Building other than residence:
(i) For public building meant for offices, schools, colleges etc. should
be provided is determined on the basis of one person for each 5
sq.m of floor area of each room.
• For every 25 persons , there should be a w.c.
• For every 100 persons there should be an urinal.
• The sanitory unit for either six should be separate.
(ii) For buildings meant for cinemas, theaters and public assembly
halls one w.c for every 200 males or females there should be
provided urinals ,should be provided at the rate of one for 100
parsons.
(iii) For factory & workshop buildings there should be an absolute
minimum one w.c. for either six & total number of w.c. and uri-
nals are provided at following rate.
• One water closet for every 40 persons &
• One urinal for every 100 persons
Note: The number of persons in factory are decided on the basis of one
person per sq.m of grass floor area
6. Structural design or sizes & sections
(A) Depth of foundation should be taken as Below:
(i) For single- storeyed building =0.75 to 1.0m below finished G.L
(ii) For Double- storeyed building = 1.0m to 1.30m below finished G.L
(B) Width of foundation -The thickness of the wall in spread foundation
or stepped footings is extended by an offset on each side equal to half
brick width i.e. 5 cm
• The thumb rule to deternine the width of foundation is to Double
the thickness of wall in superstructure (just above plinth) and add
30cm
• The thickness of concrete in foundation should nearly be equal to
5/6 of the thickness of wall in superstructure .
92 Civil Booster (Civil Ki Goli Publication 9255624029)
(C) Plinth : This portion of the building is in between the surface of the
overounding ground level
• The plinth level of the building is generally kept higher (generally
30 cm or more) than the surounding ground level such that ad-
equate drainage of site is assured.
• In case that the plinth is 20cm or less, then there is no need to
provide any step.
(D) Damp- proof course: D.P.C is provided to prevent moisture rising up
the wall.
• The horizontal D.P.C is usually 4.0cm thick of cement concrete
(3:2:4) is provided about 10 to 20 cm above final ground level.
• Materials used for D.P.C
(i) Flexible materials : Hot bitumen, bituminous felts, plastic sheet,
metal sheets of lead copper etc, bituminous sheet
(ii) Semi-Rigid materials, mastic asphalt, or combination of materials
or layers.
(iii) Rigid materials: use of classic brick, stones, slates etc in course;
cement concrete layer,