Skip to main content

Short notes: overhead charge, task work

Short answer

Overhead: indirect contractor expenses (establishment and job overheads), allowed as 15% of direct cost in Nepal. Task/out-turn: quantity of work a worker/gang completes in an 8‑hour day; it determines labour requirement (labour days = 1/out-turn).

Write short notes on: i) Overhead charge ii) Task or out turn of work.

i) Overhead charge

Overhead charges are the indirect expenses of the contractor that cannot be allotted to a particular item. They are of two types:

  • Establishment (general) overheads: head office rent, staff salary, insurance, licence fees, interest on capital and so on.
  • Job (site) overheads: site office, supervisors, watchmen, temporary sheds, water and electricity, and tools. In the Nepal rate analysis the contractor's overhead and profit together are allowed as 15% of the direct cost.

ii) Task or out-turn of work

The task (out-turn) of work is the quantity of work that a worker or a gang of standard composition can do in one working day (8 hours), for example the area of plaster one mason does per day, or the volume of brickwork laid. Task work gives the labour required per unit of work (labour days = 1 / out-turn) and is the basis of labour in the norms. It depends on the skill, the conditions and the method of work.

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

Related questions

All Estimating and Costing chapter 4 questions →