Rate Analysis Worked Examples: RCC, Brickwork, Plaster

This is the lesson where the course stops describing rate analysis and does it — three complete build-ups for the items that together form 60–70 percent of a typical residential BOQ. Work through each table with a calculator. Every constant comes from Lessons 2 and 3; every percentage is labelled with its convention. All prices are indicative mid-2026 market ranges — always substitute your city's current quotations; the structure, constants and arithmetic method are what you are learning here.

Price assumptions used throughout (state yours the same way at the top of any analysis you issue): cement Rs. 380/bag, sand Rs. 1,600/m3, aggregate 20 mm Rs. 1,100/m3, bricks Rs. 8 each, mason Rs. 1,000/day, mazdoor Rs. 650/day, bhisti Rs. 650/day. One India-specific wrinkle: the material dealer's credit cycle moves these numbers. A cement price on 30-day udhaar (dealer credit) typically runs Rs. 5–15 per bag above the cash rate, and contractors who float projects on dealer credit quietly build that spread into their rates — so when you compare quotations, ask whether material prices are cash or credit terms, and compare like with like. Percentages as commonly applied in CPWD-style analysis: water charges 1 percent on the materials + labour + plant subtotal, then contractor's profit and overheads 15 percent on the result.

Example 1: RCC M20 (1:1.5:3), machine mixed and vibrated — per m3

Scope note first, because this is where quotations diverge: this rate covers concrete only — mixing, placing, compacting, curing. Steel and shuttering are separate BOQ items (billed in kg and m2 respectively). A composite "RCC including steel and shuttering" rate is a different, much larger number — Lesson 7 shows how confusing the two triggers disputes.

Sanity checks worth memorising: materials are about 61 percent of this rate, labour about 23 percent, and cement alone about 40 percent. If a quoted M20 rate is far below yours, the money is usually coming out of line A1 — fewer bags than 8 per m3 — or out of curing.

With 100 percent RMC instead of site mixing, lines A and C collapse into the RMC invoice price plus pumping, and labour drops to placing-finishing-curing only; rebuild the table rather than patching it.

Example 2: Brickwork in CM 1:6, superstructure, 230 mm wall — per m3

Notice bricks alone are nearly half this rate — which is why the per-brick price and the regional brick-count constant (Lesson 2) dominate masonry economics. A Rs. 1 change in brick price moves the rate by about Rs. 575 per m3 after percentages.

Example 3: Cement plaster 12 mm, CM 1:6, internal — per m2 (built per 10 m2)

Plaster is measured in m2 (IS 1200 convention for thin surface work), but the arithmetic is cleaner per 10 m2 — divide at the end.

Plaster inverts the RCC pattern: labour is about 63 percent of the rate and materials only about 22 percent. That is why plaster rates vary between cities far more than concrete rates — they track wages, not cement. It also means surface preparation and rework discipline (Module 8) matter more to plaster cost than any material negotiation.

This lesson's rate build-ups drop straight into the downloadable rate analysis format — one sheet per item, same five-layer structure.

Reading the three examples together

When you must cut cost, this table tells you where negotiation has room and where it can only damage quality: squeezing a plaster rate attacks wages (feasible within limits); squeezing an RCC rate below the material floor attacks cement content (never acceptable).

These three tables are also your dispute armour. When a running-account bill (Module 7) arrives with M20 billed at Rs. 8,400 against an agreed Rs. 7,670, the worked analysis behind the agreed rate is what lets you refuse the difference in writing instead of splitting it "adjust ho jayega" style — and when the contractor claims a cement price rise, the analysis shows exactly how much of the rate cement is (Rs. 3,063 of Rs. 7,670), so a Rs. 20-per-bag rise justifies 8.06 x 20 x 1.01 x 1.15 = about Rs. 187 per m3, not the Rs. 730 being claimed. In the RERA era, where buyers can demand cost substantiation and every claim rides on paper, the party holding the dated build-up controls the adjustment.

Common mistakes

• Quoting the concrete-only RCC rate against a composite expectation (or vice versa). Always write the scope line above the table.
• Percentage order errors — applying 15 percent before the 1 percent, or 16 percent flat. Small per item, systematic across a BOQ.
• Copying these illustrative prices. The constants travel; the prices do not. Refresh every price against local quotations dated within the month.
• Dropping the plant line when site-mixing — the mixer does not run on goodwill — or keeping full mixing labour when switching to RMC.
• Rounding each line instead of the final rate. Round once, at the end, and say so ("say Rs. 7,670").

What comes next

You can now build a rate from scratch. The obvious question: why build one at all when the CPWD DSR publishes thousands of ready-made rates? The next lesson explains what the DSR is, what its rates contain, and exactly when to trust it over the market — and the market over it.