How to do Concrete Rate Analysis?

The rate analysis of concrete does not mean just putting the rates against the material quantities and estimating lumpsum labor. Often the most important item of work in a construction project, concrete rate analysis involves an in-depth study of the costs, that are associated with finding out the correct quantities of the materials, their carriage, cost of production, and many more.

To find out the concrete rate per m3, here we will see the step-by-step rate analysis of the M30 grade. The grade is for example only, and the same analysis you can use for other grades as well. Also, we will provide you with the rate analysis excel sheet to practice with variations of the ingredients.

The CPWD Analysis of Rates

How many of you have already gone through the CPWD rate analysis for concrete? Those who did might feel that although the CPWD rate analysis is a great and handy tool, often there are parameters that you don’t feel have backup calculations to support. CPWD does not provide the break-up of their labor cost consideration. Also, CPWD considers a lumpsum amount for the production equipment cost of concrete which you cannot explain to your client.

To get into the detail, we are not considering ready-mix concrete. Instead, we will show as many details as possible to make you understand the subject well.

Here we will have the backup of all such calculations so that you don’t feel embarrassed if asked to explain. Let’s start.

Before we proceed further, download the excel spreadsheet of the rate analysis. So that you go on to understand the calculations along with this article.

You can download it from here:

The Material Part of Concrete

We all know what makes concrete. Cement, Fly ash (optional), water, coarse sand, coarse aggregates (most commonly 20mm and 10mm down size), and admixture.

In the first step, we will check if the quantities are correct. For this, we need to keep the list of the mix design handy. Let’s have a look at that.

Now, we will put the quantities directly from the mix design list, for cement, coarse sand, aggregates, and admixture.

As we can see from the above list, the quantities of sand and stone aggregates are in ‘Kg’ unit. That’s OK if we have the material rate in the same unit. But, in most of the project sites the aggregates are purchased in cubic meter unit. Well, you have the bulk density mentioned for each item in your mix design.

Volume of the aggregate = (Weight of the Aggregate / Bulk density)

As we have the purchase rate of cement in ‘Bags’ unit, we simply divide the quantity of cement by 50. 50 is the weight in KG of the standard bags of cement. Here, for the M30 grade, there is no Fly ash, so we skip that.

After we put the material rates in the relevant place, the spreadsheet will look somewhat like the below:

Here, we have considered the carriage charge on an approximate basis. Depending on the distance of the source it will vary. Your vendor or Purchase Manager is the best person to provide you with more a accurate price for the same.

The Labour Part of Concreting work

Labour for concrete can be analyzed in two ways. One, put the item rate you provide to the contractor. But, if there is no contractor doing the work on an item rate basis, you have the second option. That we will discuss below.

Most of the projects has a specific team of workmen who does the regular concreting work. Estimate the number of workmen in the same team. Also, check what is the average requirement of concreting work as per your plan.

Say, you have 45000 cubic meter of concrete in your project scope. And, you will do that over a period of 12 months.

So, it’s 45000/12 = 3750 cubic meter on an average basis every month.

Per day requirement of concreting (average) = 3750 / 25 = 150 cu.meter.

Fact is, if you have less concreting planned for a particular day, you don’t get to reduce the workmen suddenly. Similarly, if you have a higher plan for a particular day, you need to manage with the available workmen only, unless it’s a big pour.

So, let’s consider you have 8 Masons and 40 workmen on your site who execute the concreting work every day.

So, we get the labor coefficients from here. All we have to do to find the labor cost is to put these numbers against their individual daily wages.

We have considered the sundry amount to counter any relevant miscellaneous costs e.g. tools & tackles etc.

Plant & Machinery for Concreting

Now comes the most interesting part. To find out what is the actual cost of this component, we will divide this in 3 parts.

1. Equipment rental or depreciation
2. Fuel Cost
3. Operation cost

1. Equipment rental or depreciation:

Gather all the equipment that are required to produce and pour concrete. First, you will need a Batching Plant. We have considered one of CP-30 (30 cu.m. per hour capacity). Also, we have considered a loader for loading the aggregates to the bins, 3 transit mixers to transport the concrete to the pouring location from the plant, and one concrete pump to place the concrete. Also, to run the batching plant we need a power backup, which we will provide through a 125KVA DG set. Pumps are required to supply the water as required.

After we consider the prices and assume a life-span for each of them, we get what we see here:

If you own the machines, it’s depreciation. If you hire, it’s a rental. The cost is yours.

2. Fuel Cost

We just put the approximate consumption of fuel for each of the equipment and working hours. We get the fuel cost multiplied the same with the rate of diesel.

Read more: What is Resource leveling in Project Management?

3. Operation Cost

In this category, the cost of manpower (Operators, Electricians, Mechanics, etc.), initial set-up, and infrastructure cost per cu.m. etc. will come. Make this list as detailed as you can, so that you can correctly quote the actual cost.

Now, we link all the above 3 costs to the main page to get the rate analysis of concrete work.

The final additions

Now, what we get summing up the material, labour, and plant & machinery cost we add the water charges @1% and profit & overhead @15% as per standard practice. Adding these two what we get is the final price of the item, excluding taxes.

You need to add the applicable taxes on the above price to get the final price including taxes.

In this case, we have added 18% GST (Goods and Services Tax) and 1% Labour Cess. It may alter based on the location of the work and Government rules. Even for the same location, taxes may change from time to time.