1. Aggregates
Aggregate is a broad category of coarse particulate material used in construction, including sand, gravel,
crushed stone, slag, and recycled concrete. Aggregates are a component of composite materials such as
concrete and asphalt concrete; the aggregate serves as reinforcement to add strength to the overall
composite material.
Various construction aggregate products, which, by their individual design, are suitable for specific
construction purposes including specific types of coarse and fine aggregate designed for such uses as
additives to asphalt and concrete mixes, as well as other construction uses.
Figure 1 : 10 mm graded crushed rock or aggregate, for use in concrete.
Figure 2 : 20 mm graded aggregate
Sources for these basic materials can be grouped into three main areas: Mining of mineral aggregate
deposits, including sand, gravel, and stone; use of waste slag from the manufacture of iron and steel;

2. and recycling of concrete, which is itself chiefly manufactured from mineral aggregates.
The costs of different grades of aggregates are as follows:
Description Price per tonne
Macadam 3/8" (5-10 mm) Rs 338.00
Macadam 1/2" (10-14 mm) Rs 338.00
Macadam 3/4" (14-20 mm) Rs 324.00
Macadam 1/2" & 3/4" (10-20 mm) Rs 324.00
Crusher Run 0-20 mm Rs 386.00
Crusher Run 0-31.5 mm Rs 369.00

3. Concrete and Other Cement-based Materials
Concrete is a mixture of cement, water, sand, and gravel. By volume, 10 to 15% of concrete is cement.
As concrete hardens, the mixture becomes stronger. The hardening process can take years. Concrete
has the ability to withstand the pressure of heavy loads because it has high compression strength. It can
also be molded into any shape, can be made porous or watertight, and is a relatively cheap material for
use in construction projects.
Cement is powder and is one of the main ingredients in concrete. Modern cement is made of limestone,
silicon, calcium, and often aluminum and iron.
The type of cement used in almost all concrete is Portland cement. Portland cement has been around
since 1824. The name Portland does not refer to a brand name, as many might think. The original
inventor, Joseph Aspdin, was a British bricklayer and named his new invention “Portland” because its
color reminded him of the color of the natural limestone on the Isle of Portland which is a peninsula in
the English Channel.
Figure 3 : Portland cement
The price of Portland cement is Rs 182 per 50kg bags
Although Portland cement is the main cement used in concrete, there are other types of cement. The
three types that are often mentioned are Portland, blended, and hydraulic. All Portland and blended
cements are actually hydraulic cement. Hydraulic cement is actually the generic term in the construction

4. industry. It refers to any cement that will set and harden after it is combined with water. Most modern
construction cements are hydraulic. There are six different types of hydraulic cement:
Type GU: General Use
Type HE: High Early Strength
Type MS: Moderate Sulfate Resistance
Type HS: High Sulfate Resistance
Type MH: Moderate Heat of Hydration
Type LH: Low Heat of Hydration
Portland cement is a particular type of hydraulic cement. Portland cement contains hydraulic calcium
silicates.
The reason that there are different types of cements is not only required because of the different uses
of the cement, but also because of the type of materials available differ by location. Many of the types
described above actually cross-over between the different categories. This allows for flexibility in
particular construction projects.
Concrete is a composite construction material composed primarily of aggregate, cement and water.
Various chemical admixtures are also added to achieve varied properties. Water is then mixed with this
dry composite which enables it to be shaped (typically poured) and then solidified and hardened into
rock-hard strength through a chemical process known as hydration. The water reacts with the cement
which bonds the other components together, eventually creating a robust stone-like material. Concrete
has relatively high compressive strength, but much lower tensile strength. For this reason it is usually
reinforced with materials that are strong in tension (often steel). Concrete can be damaged by many
processes, such as the freezing of trapped water.
Figure 4 : Installing reinforcements in a floor slab during a concrete pour

5. Mineral admixtures are fine-grained materials that are added to the concrete mix to improve the
properties of concrete, or as a replacement for Portland cement (blended cements). Examples are:
Fly ash: A by-product of coal-fired electric generating plants; it is used to partially replace Portland
cement (by up to 60% by mass). The properties of fly ash depend on the type of coal burnt.
Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS or GGBS): A by-product of steel production is used to
partially replace Portland cement (by up to 80% by mass). It has latent hydraulic properties.
Silica fume: A by-product of the production of silicon and ferrosilicon alloys. Silica fume is similar to fly
ash, but has a particle size 100 times smaller. This results in a higher surface to volume ratio.
High reactivity Metakaolin (HRM): Metakaolin produces concrete with strength and durability similar to
concrete made with silica fume. While silica fume is usually dark gray or black in color, high-reactivity
metakaolin is usually bright white in color, making it the preferred choice for architectural concrete
where appearance is important.
The prices for concrete are as follows:
Description Price per m3
Premix Concrete Grade 15 Rs 2977.00
Premix Concrete Grade 20 Rs 3085.00
Premix Concrete Grade 25 Rs 3215.00
Premix Concrete Grade 30 Rs 3347.00
Premix Concrete Grade 35 Rs 3470.00
Premix Concrete Grade 40 Rs 3485.00
Lightweight Concrete Rs 6478.00

6. Wood and wood products
Engineered wood products, glued building products "engineered" for application-specific performance
requirements, are often used in construction and industrial applications. Glued engineered wood
products are manufactured by bonding together wood strands, veneers, lumber or other forms of wood
fiber with glue to form a larger, more efficient composite structural unit. These products include glued
laminated timber (glulam), wood structural panels (including plywood, oriented strand board and
composite panels), laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and other structural composite lumber (SCL)
products, parallel strand lumber, and I-joists.
Engineered wood products display highly predictable and reliable performance characteristics and
provide enhanced design flexibility: on one hand, these products allow the use of smaller pieces, and on
the other hand, they allow for bigger spans. They may also be selected for specific projects such as
public swimming pools or ice rinks where the wood will not deteriorate in the presence of certain
chemicals, and are less susceptible to the humidity changes commonly found in these environments.
Engineered wood products prove to be more environmentally friendly and, if used appropriately, are
often less expensive than building materials such as steel or concrete. These products are extremely
resource-efficient because they use more of the available resource with minimal waste. In most cases,
engineered wood products are produced using faster growing and often underutilized wood species
from managed forests and tree farms.
Wood unsuitable for construction in its native form may be broken down mechanically (into fibers or
chips) or chemically (into cellulose) and used as a raw material for other building materials, such as
engineered wood, as well as chipboard, hardboard, and medium-density fiberboard (MDF). Such wood
derivatives are widely used: wood fibers are an important component of most paper, and cellulose is
used as a component of some synthetic materials. Wood derivatives can also be used for kinds of
flooring, for example laminate flooring.
Description Price per m2
Plywood for fairface formwork Rs 265.00
Plywood for rough formwork Rs 133.00

7. Bituminous Materials and Mixtures
Pitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum
products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also
known as resin.
Tar pitch is a viscoelastic polymer. This means that even though it seems to be solid at room
temperature and can be shattered with a hard impact, it is actually fluid and will flow over time, but
extremely slowly. The heating (dry distilling) of wood causes tar and pitch to drip away from the wood
and leave behind charcoal. The terms tar and pitch are often used interchangeably. However, pitch is
considered more solid while tar is more liquid.
Asphalt, also known as bitumen, is used in road construction, where it is used as the glue or binder
mixed with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete. Its other main uses are for bituminous
waterproofing products, including production of roofing felt and for sealing flat roofs.
Figure 5 : Refined asphalt
Description Price per m2
Asphalt concrete base (binder) course, 80mm thick Rs 992.00
Asphalt concrete wearing course, 50mm thick Rs 646.00

8. Steel
Structural steel is steel construction material, a profile, formed with a specific shape or cross section and
certain standards of chemical composition and mechanical properties. Structural steel shape, size,
composition, strength, storage, etc., is regulated in most industrialized countries.
A rebar is a common steel bar, and is commonly used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete and
reinforced masonry structures holding the concrete in compression. It is usually formed from carbon
steel, and is given ridges for better mechanical anchoring into the concrete.
Figure 6 : A tied rebar beam cage. This will be embedded inside cast concrete to increase the tensile strength of the concrete.
Steel has an expansion coefficient nearly equal to that of modern concrete. If this were not so, it would
cause problems through additional longitudinal and perpendicular stresses at temperatures different
than the temperature of the setting. Although rebar has ribs that bind it mechanically to the concrete, it
can still be pulled out of the concrete under high stresses, an occurrence that often precedes a larger-
scale collapse of the structure. To prevent such a failure, rebar is either deeply embedded into adjacent

9. structural members (40-60 times the diameter), or bent and hooked at the ends to lock it around the
concrete and other rebar. This first approach increases the friction locking the bar into place, while the
second makes use of the high compressive strength of concrete.
Welded wire mesh is a steel reinforcement material in concrete. The mesh is used for replacing the
traditional "cut & bend" and placing of steel thermo-mechanical treated bars. The mesh is an electric
fusion welded prefabricated reinforcement consisting of a series of parallel longitudinal wires with
accurate spacing welded to cross wires at the required spacing. Machines are used to produce the mesh
with precise dimensional control. The product results in considerable savings in time, labour and money.
In wet and cold climates, reinforced concrete for roads, bridges, parking structures and other structures
that may be exposed to deicing salt may benefit from use of epoxy-coated, hot dip galvanized or
stainless steel rebar, although good design and a well-chosen cement mix may provide sufficient
protection for many applications. Epoxy coated rebar can easily be identified by the light green color of
its epoxy coating. Hot dip galvanized rebar may be bright or dull grey depending on length of exposure,
and stainless rebar exhibits a typical white metallic sheen that is readily distinguishable from carbon
steel reinforcing bar.
Description Price
6mm, 5.5m Rs 41.40
8mm, 9m Rs 122.77
10mm, 9m Rs 191.66
12mm, 9m Rs 276.00
16mm, 9m Rs 492.86
20mm, 9m Rs 766.67
25mm, 9m Rs 1189.65

10. Plastics
In building construction, plastics abound in plumbing fixtures, siding, flooring, insulation,
panels, doors, windows, glazing, bathroom units, gratings, railings and a growing list of both
structural and interior or decorative uses.
For pipes, valves and fittings, plastics offer superior corrosion resistance and are lighter, easier to
install, and more cost effective than their alternatives. Impervious to chemicals and sulfur-
bearing compounds, plastic piping safely transports everything from fresh water to salt water,
and from crude oil to laboratory waste.
These qualities also have combined with plastics' high strength-to-weight ratio to produce
materials for bridge construction, including tough reinforcement rods, nonskid surfacing and
quickly installed replacement decking.
For commercial buildings that contain sensitive electronic equipment, plastics can provide highly
protective housing that does not interfere with radio frequency or magnetic waves.
Description Price per m
Polystyrene, 25mm thick Rs 40.00
PVC pipe, 160mm diameter Rs 256.67
PVC pipe, 110mm diameter Rs 82.50
PVC pipe, 75mm diameter Rs 47.50
PVC pipe, 63mm diameter Rs 44.17

11. Referencing
National Schedule of Rates by Construction Industry Development Board
http://www.aboutcivil.org/engineering-materials.html
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.gamma.mu/docs/Materials%20Cash%20Pricelist%202009.pdf
Quotations from Quicaillerie Bon Marché, Phoenix
http://www.plasticsindustry.org/AboutPlastics/content.cfm?ItemNumber=634&navItemNumber=1118
http://www.aboutcivil.org/Wood%20as%20construction%20material.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Construction_aggregate