The process of building a house is complicated. Why is it so? It is because the whole process requires the involvement of a lot of professionals whose expertise determine how homey you will find your brand-new place. To discuss the entire process of home construction, it is needed to spot a light on so many important angles and aspects, each of which demands a detailed and separate article. Therefore, this one limits its focus to the labour required for the construction of the house’s grey structure and its cost.
Contractor/builder
After finalising the blueprints of your house and getting them approved from the authorities concerned, the most important part is finding and hiring the right builder or contractor. You can do this by three ways. First, you let your architect find the right contractor, who will take care of hiring labours and look after the entire construction process. Second, you have to find a contractor yourself and supply them with the designs and give them authority to choose the building material and labours. Last, you can find the contractor yourself but provide them with the required building material to ensure quality.
No matter which one of these ways appeals to you more, it is a humble recommendation to let the contractor hire the labours. Why to choose this? Generally, contractors in the market are mostly established ones who have enough revenue and contacts to take care of the work without bothering you at every step of the process. You can also work the other way around and pay the contractor in advance to proceed with the construction process. In any case, the agreement is written and has legal value, where the interests of both the contractor and the owner are protected by law.
The contractor is then responsible for dealing with all the professionals when it comes to wiring and electrification and plumbing and sanitation, etc. A good contractor would hire labours for the entire duration of the project rather than getting new ones every week, or worse, every day. This tends to ruin the homogeneity of the structure being built.
Labour Costs
Now let’s get to one of the most important parts of home construction, i.e. labour costs. At present, the daily minimum wage for an 8-hour work day is Rs. 650 (and Rs. 16,900 for 26 working days). On the other hand, a skilled mason (aka raaj mistry) can be hired for something between PKR 1,000 to PKR 1,200 per day.
Please note that it suits the labours to deliver one month’s worth of work in 45 days, for obvious reasons, but a good contractor (which can also be the raaj mistry in some cases) will make sure that the construction process is finished in time without costing you too much extra. Since the contractor is aware of the per-day work capacity of the labours, they will ensure that they don’t cheat in any way.
In almost all cases, the contractors commit to the owner when the individual construction phases of the house, for instance foundation work, will be finished. So, if the contractor says 30 days for foundation work, they have to deliver in the committed time. If they fail to do so without valid reasons such as inclement weather or shortage of supplies in the market, you are free to ask questions, and you should!
