Commercial & industrial construction: same cost structure as residential

Commercial construction (offices, retail) and industrial construction (factories, warehouses) use the EXACT SAME ten-category structure and per-unit costing (sqm floor area or linear meter) as residential construction - the difference is scale, not cost structure.

Because the structure is identical, this guide doesn't repeat the ten categories. See the residential construction guide for full detail, plus two practical differences below for larger-scale work.

Two differences worth knowing at larger scale

Prefabricated steel structure shows up far more than in residential work - for steel-frame industrial buildings, the structural package is often a turnkey subcontract (fabrication plus erection) rather than separate material and self-performed labor. Cost it under Subcontractors, not split into material and labor, when the steel contractor quotes turnkey.

Site overhead grows with duration - larger projects typically run many more months than a house, so site office, management and security accumulate proportionally. Enter it per month or phase exactly as described in the residential guide, not multiplied by area.

Which guide to use

• Houses, villas, low-rise apartments -> Residential construction.
• Roads, bridges, culverts, transport/water infrastructure -> Civil engineering & infrastructure.
• Offices, retail, factories, warehouses -> this guide, read alongside the residential guide for full category detail.