To estimate construction cost: first work out your covered area across all floors; second, multiply it by a per-square-foot rate for your city and finish; third, split that into grey structure and finishing; fourth, cross-check the total against material quantities like bricks, cement and steel; and fifth, add a 5 to 10 percent contingency. Each step below with the 2026 numbers.
Step 1 — Work out covered area, all floors
Covered area is the sum of the built floor area on every storey, including the mumty. It is not your plot size. A 5 marla double storey is about 1,975 square feet, a 10 marla about 3,150, a 1 kanal about 4,700. If you have a floor plan, measure each room and add them; if not, apply your society's coverage rules to the plot. This single number is the multiplier everything else rides on.
Step 2 — Apply a per-square-foot rate
Multiply covered area by a rate for your city and finish. In 2026 a complete standard build is roughly PKR 5,800 to 6,400 per square foot; economy sits lower, premium higher. So 1,975 square feet at about PKR 5,850 gives you a first-pass total near PKR 1.1 crore. Treat this as a bracket, not a promise.
Step 3 — Split grey structure from finishing
Grey structure is about 45 to 53 percent of the total; finishing is the rest. Splitting it matters for two reasons: you often build grey first and finish later, and finishing is where your choices move the number most. Knowing the split tells you how much of your estimate is fixed engineering and how much is still in your control.
Step 4 — Cross-check with quantities
A rate can lie; quantities keep it honest. Estimate bricks, cement bags and steel from thumb rules per covered square foot, price them at today's rates, and check that the grey portion of your per-square-foot total roughly lands where the quantities say it should. If the two disagree badly, your rate or your area is off. This is exactly the take-off the calculator does automatically.
Step 5 — Add a contingency
Add 5 to 10 percent for the things no estimate catches: steel price swings during the build, a design change, site conditions, wastage. A build with no contingency is a build that will overrun, because something always moves between quote and completion.
That five-step method is exactly what Brick Pakistan automates — covered area from your design or floor plan, live rates, the grey and finishing split, a quantity take-off and an itemised total — so you can skip the arithmetic and go straight to a figure you can defend.