"Civil work" is the term used across Pakistani construction for everything structural and permanent: excavation, foundations, RCC frame, masonry, plaster, drainage, external works. It is the vocabulary of tender documents, PC-I sanctions and work orders, and it is what an institutional or industrial buyer means when they say they need a contractor.
It is a different conversation from a residential one. A homeowner asks what a house costs. A civil work client already has drawings, a bill of quantities, and usually a procurement process to satisfy, and needs to know whether a contractor can execute to specification, document it properly, and get paid through the approval structure without the project stalling.
Naffees & Sons has been doing that work in Karachi since 1972, including a substantial body of government-tendered institutional projects. This page sets out what we cover, how we contract, and what the work costs.
What Civil Work Covers
| Element | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Site works | Clearance, demolition, excavation, levelling, disposal, temporary works |
| Substructure | PCC, anti-termite treatment, footings, raft or pile foundations, plinth beams, DPC |
| RCC superstructure | Columns, beams, slabs, staircases, shear walls, shuttering and formwork |
| Masonry | Block and brickwork, partitions, lintels, parapets |
| Finishes to civil scope | Internal and external plaster, screeds, waterproofing |
| Drainage and external | Manholes, sewer lines, storm drainage, boundary walls, pavements, ramps |
| Structural repair | Crack treatment, member strengthening, jacketing, slab repair, retrofitting |
Civil work normally excludes MEP fit-out, joinery, and interior finishing unless bundled into the contract. We do all of those as well, but they are priced as separate scopes, and a clear boundary between civil and fit-out is one of the things that prevents disputes on a multi-contractor site.
Who This Is For
Institutional and government projects. Schools, colleges, clinics, community facilities. Work is tendered, sanctioned under a PC-I or equivalent, executed against a work order, and closed out with completion and handing-over certificates. The documentation is as much a part of the job as the concrete.
Industrial and warehousing. Factory sheds, warehouses, logistics facilities, cold storage, pump rooms, boundary and security works. Heavier loadings, longer spans, and floor slabs that have to take vehicle traffic.
Commercial buildings. Offices, retail, mixed-use structures. Usually the structural package inside a larger project with separate fit-out contractors, which means interface management matters.
Structural repair and strengthening. Buildings that have deteriorated, been damaged, or need to carry a load they were not designed for. Karachi's coastal belt makes this a recurring need: sustained salt exposure drives chloride ingress into concrete and corrodes reinforcement from the inside, and the visible spalling is usually well behind the actual condition.
Residential structural work. Grey structure for houses is civil work too, and we do a great deal of it. Our grey structure cost guide covers that scope specifically.
Our Government and Institutional Record
This is the part that distinguishes a civil work contractor from a residential builder, and it is documented rather than claimed. A selection:
Model school conversion, P&T Colony, Saddar Town (2007 to 2012). A PKR 96 lakh conversion of government boys and girls schools, executed under PC-I sanction exceeding PKR 1 crore, across four work orders, closed with a handing-over certificate. See the project.
SM Government Science College renovation (2004 to 2005). A PKR 48 lakh contract for the Works and Services Department, closed with three completion certificates and followed by a Principal's letter of appreciation in 2010. See the project.
Primary to middle school upgradation, Qasba Colony (1998 to 2003). PC-I value PKR 35.6 lakh for Works and Services, City District Government Karachi, with completion and handing-over certificates on record. See the project.
Education Sector Reform Programme, multi-school rehabilitation (2001 to 2006). Rehabilitation of facilities across multiple government primary schools in Karachi under the federal ESR programme, with Head Mistress satisfaction certificates and CDG Karachi work orders retained. See the project.
Alongside these: a two-classroom shelterless school built at GPS Abdul Ghaffar in Gadap under ADP sanction, renovation of Govt. Girls Pilot Higher Secondary School in Nazimabad within a five-school programme, compound wall and pump room works at a girls' secondary school in Sirjani Town, and a ground-up school build in Gizri.
What that record demonstrates is not just that we can pour concrete. It is that we have worked inside the tender, sanction, work order, inspection and certification structure repeatedly, over decades, and closed projects out with the paperwork intact. On an institutional job, a contractor who cannot produce a clean completion certificate has not finished, whatever the building looks like.
Civil Work Rates in Karachi
| Scope | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| RCC structural frame, supply and fix | PKR 2,800 – 4,500 per sq ft | Foundation to roof slab, varies with span, loading and spec |
| Grey structure, residential | PKR 2,800 – 4,000 per sq ft | Includes masonry, plaster and MEP rough-in |
| Industrial floor slab, heavy duty | PKR 900 – 1,800 per sq ft | Thickness and reinforcement to designed loading |
| Boundary wall, block with piers | PKR 1,200 – 2,400 per running ft | Height and foundation dependent |
| Structural repair and jacketing | PKR 1,500 – 4,000 per sq ft affected | Highly condition-dependent, requires survey |
| Excavation and disposal | PKR 120 – 260 per cu ft | Soil type, depth and disposal distance dependent |
Rates cover labour, material and supervision on a with-material basis. They move with steel and cement, which is the honest caveat on any civil work rate quoted more than a quarter ago. Current material pricing is in our Karachi construction material prices guide.
Two cost drivers are worth stating explicitly because they are where civil work quotes diverge most.
Steel and cement are the budget. Together they are 35 to 45 percent of a grey structure cost. A quote that does not name steel grade and brand, and cement type and brand, is not a specification, it is a placeholder. We name both in the contract.
Foundation type is decided by the soil, not by the budget. Coastal and low-lying Karachi sites, including parts of Clifton and Bath Island and some newer developing localities, have higher groundwater and can require raft or pile foundations rather than strip or pad. That is PKR 150 to 300 per sq ft of difference on the substructure. A soil investigation at PKR 25,000 to 60,000 settles it. Anyone quoting a foundation without one is guessing in one direction or the other.
How We Contract Civil Work
Bill of quantities, priced line by line. For tendered work we price against your BOQ. For negotiated work we produce one. Either way the quantities are visible and the rates are attached to them, so you can see what you are buying rather than receiving a lump sum.
Written scope with an exclusions list. What is in, what is out, and to what specification. The exclusions page is the one that prevents arguments later, and a quote without one is not more generous, it is less complete. Our scope of work guide sets out what belongs in it.
Named materials. Steel grade and brand, cement type and brand, block specification, concrete grade per element. Mill test certificates on bulk steel above two tonnes, cube tests on structural pours.
Milestone payments against verified physical stages. Never against calendar dates. On institutional projects with certification points, we manage the progression through those touch-points as part of the job. Our payment schedule guide explains the structure.
A change order procedure agreed at signing. Variations priced against pre-agreed rates before the work happens, not renegotiated mid-phase when the site is stopped and leverage has shifted.
Fixed price at contract signing. Steel, cement and fuel movement after signing is ours to carry. Petrol is repriced daily now and feeds into every delivered material rate; we absorb that rather than passing it through.
Quality Control on Structural Work
Civil work has a property that finishing work does not: nearly all of it becomes invisible and unverifiable once the next stage covers it. Reinforcement disappears under concrete. Concrete disappears under plaster. If it was wrong, you find out structurally, years later.
So the controls happen at the only moment they can.
Reinforcement inspected before pour. Bar size, spacing, cover, lap lengths and binding checked against the structural drawing, and photographed. This is the single most valuable half hour on any RCC project.
Concrete grade verified by cube test. Samples taken at the pour, tested at 7 and 28 days, results recorded against the pour location. Structural concrete should reach its specified strength, and a cube test is the only way anyone knows whether it did.
Steel documented. Branded, certified bar with mill test certificates on bulk orders. Unbranded material sold as Grade 60 without documentation is a recurring source of under-strength structure in this market and is not a place to economise.
Curing enforced, not assumed. Concrete needs its curing period. Compressing it to make up schedule is the most common quiet defect in Karachi construction, and it produces cracking that shows up long after handover.
Shuttering and line checked. Formwork alignment, plumb and level verified before pour, because a column out of plumb is not correctable afterwards.
Materials and Sourcing
Structural material comes from Shershah and the SITE Industrial Area, which are Karachi's primary steel and structural markets. We have bought there for decades, which matters for two reasons beyond price: consistent grade quality from suppliers we know, and reliability on bulk order fulfilment when a pour is scheduled.
The price difference is real. Branded steel through an established trade account typically runs 3 to 6 percent below the retail counter price, and cement through a dealer account beats retail by PKR 20 to 40 per bag. On a civil works project consuming tonnes of steel and thousands of bags of cement, that is a material line in the budget rather than a rounding difference.
We also front-load procurement ahead of known disruption windows. Karachi supply chains stop for city-wide strikes and for Eid, and a project that has not pre-stocked before those periods sits idle while the client carries the holding cost.
Working Alongside Other Contractors
On most commercial and institutional projects the civil package is one of several contracts running on the same site, and the interfaces between them are where programmes actually lose time. Three are worth planning for explicitly.
Builder's work in connection with services. Chases, cutouts, sleeves, plinths and openings for MEP have to be formed as the structure goes up, not cut into finished concrete afterwards. Cutting a structural member to run a duct that was never coordinated is both expensive and, in the wrong location, genuinely dangerous. We take MEP drawings before the pour and form what is needed, and where the MEP contractor has not issued drawings in time, we say so in writing rather than pouring and letting someone else discover the problem.
Handover of levels and setting out. The civil contractor sets the datum that every subsequent trade works from. If floor levels drift, the finishing contractor absorbs it in screed thickness and the client pays for it twice. Levels are established, recorded and shared at the start.
Sequence and access. A fit-out contractor cannot start until the structure is weathertight and the slab is cured. Compressing the civil programme to let the next trade start early is a false economy that produces cracking and moisture problems in the finished building. Where a client is under pressure to hand over, we would rather set out honestly what can and cannot be accelerated than agree to a date we know will damage the work.
On projects where we hold the full scope rather than the civil package alone, these interfaces disappear because one party owns them. That is usually cheaper overall, and it is why we prefer end-to-end contracts where the client has the option.
Schedule Realities
Institutional and industrial work in Karachi has to be planned around the same calendar as everything else: Friday half-days across much of the workforce, one to two week Eid closures, Muharram and other observances, and unpredictable strike days. We build a 15 to 20 day buffer into each phase from the start rather than adding it later as an excuse, and we run a seven-day rotation with crews in shift, which is unusual in this market and is how our schedules hold through periods when the wider city slows.
For tendered work with liquidated damages attached to the completion date, this is not a soft consideration. A programme that ignores the calendar is a programme that will be late, and the penalty falls on whoever signed it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a civil work contractor do?
Civil work covers the structural and permanent elements of a building: site clearance and excavation, foundations, the RCC frame of columns, beams and slabs, masonry, plaster, screeds, waterproofing, drainage and external works. It typically excludes MEP fit-out, joinery and interior finishing unless those are bundled into the same contract.
What does civil work cost per square foot in Karachi?
An RCC structural frame runs PKR 2,800 to 4,500 per sq ft supply and fix, depending on span, loading and specification. Residential grey structure including masonry, plaster and MEP rough-in is PKR 2,800 to 4,000. Heavy-duty industrial floor slabs are PKR 900 to 1,800 per sq ft depending on designed loading.
Do you take government and tendered work?
Yes. We have delivered government-tendered institutional projects in Karachi since the 1990s, including school and college works under PC-I sanction for the Works and Services Department and City District Government Karachi, closed out with completion and handing-over certificates. We price against your BOQ and work to the tender documentation.
Do you handle structural repair as well as new construction?
Yes. Crack treatment, member strengthening, column and beam jacketing, slab repair and retrofitting. Coastal Karachi properties in particular develop chloride-driven reinforcement corrosion, and visible spalling usually understates the actual condition, so we survey before quoting rather than pricing from photographs.
How do you verify concrete and steel quality?
Reinforcement is inspected and photographed before every pour against the structural drawing. Structural concrete is cube tested at 7 and 28 days with results recorded against the pour location. Bulk steel above two tonnes carries mill test certificates. Curing periods are enforced rather than compressed to recover schedule.
Is a soil investigation necessary?
For any structure of consequence, yes. Foundation type is determined by ground conditions, and the difference between a conventional strip foundation and a raft or pile design is PKR 150 to 300 per sq ft on the substructure. At PKR 25,000 to 60,000, a soil report is inexpensive relative to what it decides.
Do you work as the structural contractor alongside other trades?
Yes. On commercial projects we frequently deliver the civil package with separate MEP and fit-out contractors. In that arrangement the scope boundary needs to be explicit in writing, particularly around builder's work in connection with services, because that interface is where multi-contractor projects most often lose time.
Is your quoted price fixed?
Yes. The price we give at contract signing holds regardless of subsequent movement in steel, cement and fuel. We absorb that volatility rather than issuing mid-project surcharges.
Get a Civil Works Quote
Naffees & Sons has executed civil works across Karachi since 1972, from residential grey structure to government-tendered institutional projects delivered under PC-I sanction and closed with full documentation.
Request a Civil Works Quotation →
Related reading:
