Estimating The Contractor’s Cost For Constructing Your Dream House

Now that the lockdown restrictions have been mostly lifted up across India, there has been a gradual pickup in the economic activities in the country. In the event of work from home scenario, many citizens are eyeing to have their house of dreams get materialize. However, many must be wondering about how to get the construction done and how much will it cost.

Well, there are different options available for getting your dream house constructed. To make things simpler, I have described the following options which can be opted by you as per your suitability-

• Daily Wage Contract- The client himself manages the construction and sourcing of raw material. He appoints workers on a daily wage basis to complete the construction work.
• Item/ Material Rate Contract- The contractor is responsible to supervise the work, arrange labor, and procure material for the construction work as per the finalized layouts. The client only seeks periodic progress reports and pays intermittent site visits.
• Labour Rate Contract- This is a preferred mode of procurement if the client is not acquainted with the techniques and specifications of the construction work to be executed. Also, it is advantageous if the client is personally not able to supervise the work and want to ensure that the best quality of material is procured personally. The contractor arranges manpower, pays them, and looks after the quality and speed of work at the site.

Having knowledge and clarity about what procurement route we want to adopt, we can now have a tentative view of the rates of different work items, that are charged by a contractor in a labor rate contract-

SERIAL NO.	DESCRIPTION OF WORK	RATE (INR)
1	Excavation of Earth	7.5/cft
2	Earth filling	4/cft
3	Plain Cement Concrete (PCC)	40/sqft
4	Bar bending	6/kg
5	Shuttering	45/sqft
6	Footing concrete	45/sqft
7	Column concrete	56/sqft
8	Beam & slab concrete	58/sqft
9	6” exterior block work	26/sqft
10	4” internal block work	20/sqft
11	Internal plaster	18/sqft
12	External Plaster	18/sqft
13	Ceiling Plaster	20/sqft
14	Parapet wall (blockwork and plaster)	50/sqft
15	Sump tank (RCC Wall)	4/cft

This range can vary depending upon the number of work items to be managed by the contractor and numerous other factors that we will discuss towards the end of this post.

It must be noted that the construction cost increases by 5% to 7% with the increase in the number of floors as we go up towards the subsequent floors. The table below illustrates the per-day cost of different workers in Indian Rupees across India.

WORKER	INR/DAY
Mason	700-900
Labour	400-700
Plumber	650-900
Electrician	800-1100
Carpenter	700-900
Bar Bender	500-700
Tile Laying Mason	600-800
Painter	650-850

These rates mentioned above are liable to change with respect to a number of factors such as-

• Experience and expertise of the contractors.
• Geographical location i.e., Cost will be more in Chennai or Bangalore as compared to a small town such as Karnal or Kanpur.
• Availability of workers (masons, labors, helpers, etc.).
• Quality of manpower available.
• Machinery and scaffolding used (which is to be arranged by the contractor).
• Complexity of the layout, sections, and elevations.
• Inflation rate and cost of living in the given location.

Based upon the above work items, costs associated with them, and daily wage rates of different workers, the cost of a contractor for labor rate contract lies between INR (160-220)/ sqft. Hence, if the area of the house to be constructed is 2000sqft and the contractor’s charge is INR 180/sqft, then the total liability towards the contractor will INR (180*2000= 3,60,000).
Please note this cost is exclusive of the cost for the electrician, plumber, painter, carpenter, and flooring mason.