Labor Requirement for Various Construction Works

Gopal Mishra

6 years ago

Reading time: 1 minute

The cost of construction project highly depends on the requirements of labor for various activities during construction.

There are direct and indirect costs associated with the labor. They are the salary of labors, their accommodation, food, insurance cost etc. Thus it is essential to understand the number labors required for each activity of the construction to estimate the final cost of project.

Labor Requirement for Various Construction Works

There are different types of labors that are required for the construction:

Skilled labor
Semi-skilled labor
Unskilled labor

All these types of labors have different skills and different salaries. Their optimum use in every work in construction is essential to minimize the construction cost.

The table below shows the recommended labor requirement for various civil engineering/building/construction works:

S. No.	Description of work	Unit	Labor	Recommended constant in days.
1)	Excavation over areas (hard/dense soil),depth up to 1.5m and removal (up to one meter from edge)	M³	Mate Labor	0.06 0.62
2)	Excavation in trenches (soft/ loose soil),for foundations not exceeding 1.5m in width and for shafts, wells, cesspits and the like, not exceeding 10m3 and on plan, depth up to 1.5m and removal(up to one meter away from edge)	M³	Mate Labor	0.05 0.50
3)	Returning, filling and ramming of excavated earth in layers not exceeding 20 cm in depth, watering, well ramming and leveling, lead up to 50m	M³	Mate Labor Bhisti	0.02 0.25 0.02
4)	Concrete : Mixing by machine (mixer) at banker, cement concrete (with 20mm graded coarse aggregate)	M³	Labor Bhisti Mixer operator Mixer	0.50 0.10 0.07 0.07
5)	Mixer mixed cement concrete	M³	mason Labor bhisti mixer operator mixer vibrator	0.10 1.63 0.70 0.07 0.07 0.07
6)	Reinforced cement concrete in situ in foundations, footings, bases for columns, etc excluding form work and reinforcement. (The constants for items include mixing, pouring, consolidating and curing. This does not include fair finish.)	M³	mason Labor bhisti mixer operator mixer vibrator	0.17 2.00 0.90 0.07 0.07 0.07
7)	Reinforced cement concrete in situ in suspended floors/roofs excluding form work, and reinforcement.	M³	mason Labor bhisti mixer operator mixer vibrator	0.24 2.50 0.90 0.07 0.07 0.07
8)	Mortars: Mixing by hand, cement mortar of any mix/proportions (Labor required will be approximately same for different mix proportions.)	M³	Labor Bhisti	0.75 0.07
9)	Brick work (straight walls): Brick work in walls exceeding one brick thick, in cement / lime mortar (The constants include labor involved in scaffolding.)	M³	mason Labor bhisti	0.94 1.80 0.20
10)	Brick work in walls, one brick thick, in cement/lime mortar. (The constants could be adopted for brick work with any mix or mortar.)	M²	mason Labor bhisti	0.25 0.40 0.10
11)	Formwork / Shuttering: a) fabrication and erection with all supports, struts, braces, etc, and dressing with oil as cleaning of formwork: 1) rectangular column and walls 2) suspended floors/roofs 3) sides and soffits of beam	M³ M² M²	Carpenter Labor Carpenter Labor Carpenter Labor	0.25 0.20 0.23 0.20 0.30 0.20
12)	Reinforcement: Bar reinforcement including cutting to length, hooked ends, cranking or bending, hoisting and placing in any position, binding wire and holding firmly so as not to be disturbed while placing and ramming of concrete	Quintal	Bar bender Labor	1.00 1.00
13)	Plastering and pointing: a) 15mm thick cement plaster to ceiling including mixing of mortar. b) 15mm thick cement plaster on brick walls (exterior) including mixing of mortar c) Tuck pointing to random rubble masonry in cement mortar including mixing mortar.	M² M² M²	mason Labor bhisti mason Labor bhisti mason Labor bhisti	0.08 0.10 0.10 0.06 0.10 0.10 0.10 0.15 0.10
14)	Damping proof course: a) Laying damp proof course 40mm thick cement concrete including form work and fair finishing to edges and mixing.	M³	Mason Labor bhisti	0.10 0.10 0.01

Note: Bhisti means water carrier.