Landed A&A Reconstruction: Profit margin of the Contract

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Landed A&A Reconstruction: Profit margin of the Contractor
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I think that the cost of construction very much depend on whether concrete pillars and sheet pilings, etc. are required. In a normal case, where concrete footings are required, it is cheaper than Piling. It depends on the soil condition and the structure to be constructed.

For example, some terraces were initially planned for 2 floors, but to build an extra floor, the existing pillars cannot support the extra weight, therefore you will need to add additional pillars which are supported by a Concrete footing or Concrete Piling.

If the building structure was built to 3 floors loading requirements, but it is currently only 2 floors, then adding another floor would be quite cheap, because it can "LOAD" the extra floor onto the existing structures.

CUT AND BENT STEEL
Cut and Bend steel rods, the last time I check in Dec 2008, it was going for about $1200 per ton. This price includes steel that is cut and bent to specification.

CONCRETE
Concrete could be pre-mix concrete, in which case the cost of sand is already included inside the concrete price. For smallish development, I was told that due to space constraint, mixing concrete on site may not be optimal for work flow as it takes up too much space.

The steel rods also needs to be "tied together" as specified, labour is required for this work and casting of concrete as well, these are services that require on-site man-power.

Excavation and Reinforcement
If there are digging, there would require reinforcements, patching, protection structure.

CONCRETE FLOOR or WOODEN FLOOR for 3rd level
There are marked difference in prices and hence the load.

STAIRS
Concrete Stairs I was told could be cheaper than Metal stairs. Esthetics such as Glass railings are very expensive.

ROOFING
If building an extra floor requires tearing down the roof, then you would need to re-tile the roofs. While the tiles are cheaper, they are understood to be more expensive to lay as the cost incurred by the contractor to lay it will of course translate into higher cost for you.

VARIABILITY of COST/PRICE
I think the Professional Engineer, Civil Engineer and structural engineer plays an important part in how much your construction will cost. If you can work with your designer or architect to be mindful of structural costs and come up with some design that is workable and cheaper and Fast and easy to implement, the savings could be had in the form of reduction of costly structural improvisations or labour servicing.

If you know a contractor well, I feel that it is important to have an open dialog. Perhaps you can work with him to charge material at cost. You must then undertake some risks in the form of higher prices in case material costs goes up and in the case of material prices coming down, of course you will benefit from lower prices.

In many cases the home owners want the contractor to guarantee a fix price, so the contractor will make some estimation of the material prices. As they assume large risks in variability of material prices, it is normal for any sensible businessperson to build in some protection margin. This protection margin becomes higher prices for you. It's like buying insurance in a sense.

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