Time and Cost Comparison of Construction of RCC, Steel and Composite Structure Building

At present, India requires construction of many houses at right prices because of huge housing shortage. With the use of conventional or traditional materials and technology, it is not possible to complete the construction of buildings with rapid pace. Therefore, the industry must use some alternative materials and technology for fast-track building construction. The paper presents a comparative study on time and cost of building made up of three different structural systems like Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC), steel and composite structures. Taking the same plan, floor area, floor-to-floor height and loading conditions, the building was designed considering three structural systems, and the structural element cost was calculated for all the three structures. Microsoft Project (2003) (MSP) was used for time scheduling, and the optimum time required for building construction with the three structural systems was calculated. In comparison with RCC structure, steel structure saves 18.66% and composite structure saves 32.02% in construction time, thereby providing savings in net cost. The cost of construction of composite steel structure is 41.28% higher when compared to RCC structure and cost of steel structure is 38.19% higher when compared to RCC structure