Major building construction cost is material cost and labour cost. Building construction cost breakup for constructing building is shown in detail below.
Total cost of construction can be divided into two following types:
- Labour Cost – 35% of total cost
- Material Cost – 65% of total cost
All major construction material and labour cost associated in a building construction is shown below.

Percentage Breakup of Construction Cost
Percentage of total cost of building helps to make quick estimate easier. Major cost of material in building construction is cement and steel.
Percentage cost of building material is approximately 65% of the total cost of building. Major cost heading in building construction are shown below:
- Labour cost – 20% of building cost
- Bricks cost – 12% of building cost
- Cement cost – 20% of building cost
- Steel cost -15% of building cost
- Wood Cost – 13% of building cost
- Supervision cost – 15% of building cost
- Other Expenses – 5% of building cost
The above percentage of building cost is approximate cost of building in general. Cost of building construction depends upon the location and local market rates and many other factors.
The cost of building construction is approximate cost. Below we have shown the cost of construction based on material and labour cost in general.
Material Construction Cost Breakup
Material construction cost breakup for building construction is shown below. Major cost of material in building construction constitute Cement, steel, sand and bricks.
Pie chart of material construction cost is shown below.
Major construction material and its percentage cost is listed below:
- Cement cost – 17.9% of total material cost
- Steel cost – 15% of total material cost
- Sand cost – 11.4% of total material cost
- Aggregate cost – 5% of total material cost
- Bricks cost – 9.3% of total material cost
- Wood cost – 7.1% of total material cost
- Window cost – 5% of total material cost
- Flooring cost – 9.3% of total material cost
- Plumbing Cost – 8.6% of total material cost
- Electrical cost – 4.3% of total material cost
- Painting cost – 2% of total material cost
- Other material cost – 5.1% of total material cost
Labour Construction Cost Breakup
Labour cost in construction depends upon the skill set of labour and prevailing market labour cost. Construction cost of labour can also be calculated based on per square feet rate or per square meter rate.
Shown below is the approximate cost of labour for particular work in both per sq. ft. and sq. m. rate.
Construction Item | Rate per Sq. m. | Rate per Sqft | Percentage |
RCC Construction Work | 1023 | 95 | 35% |
Masonry and plaster work | 646 | 60 | 22% |
Plumbing work | 162 | 15 | 6% |
Waterproofing work | 130 | 12 | 4% |
Carpentry Work | 87 | 8 | 3% |
Tile fixing work | 323 | 30 | 11% |
Electrical work | 195 | 18 | 7% |
CATV Antenna points | 54 | 5 | 2% |
Painting work | 162 | 15 | 6% |
Departmental labour | 130 | 12 | 4% |
Total | 2911 | 270 | 100% |
Major cost of construction is the RCC work of a building. 35% of the total cost of labour goes into RCC construction work.
After RCC work of beams, column and slab, masonary work is started which is second most costly work. Almost 22% of total cost of labour is attributed to masonry work.
After these 2 work is finished then comes the finishing activities like plumbing, electrical work, tiling and painting works.
Major Labour construction cost of building are as listed below:
- RCC construction work – 35% of total labour cost
- Masonry and plastering work – 22% of total labour cost
- Plumbing Work – 6% of total labour cost
- Water proofing work – 4% of total labour cost
- Carpentry work – 3% of total labour cost
- Electrical work – 7% of total labour cost
- Tile fixing work – 11% of total labour cost
- Painting work – 6% of total labour cost
- Departmental labour – 4% of total labour cost
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