If you planning to renovate your current home there are few things that could be disrupted/broken like flooring , wall tiles/ plaster, entire wall, kitchen platform, bathroom, windows, anything. The cost of breaking any of the above mentioned elements varies with its work area.

Here is our fully revised and updated Cost Guide to Breaking. This guide will help you understand how much will you spend on breaking different items for renovation purpose.

The cost guide here includes labor charges of breaking the existing element (like flooring, wall tiles, platform, or any other element,) & collecting and placing the rubble/waste in one corner. Here the rubble transportation and disposal charges are not included. Rubble disposal is a separate task, taken care by other gang of people.

The cost of breaking flooring, wall, wall tiles and plaster in calculated on basis on per square feet, whereas the breaking of platform is calculated in running feet. But before starting with your renovation or breaking work, it’s very important to have society permission.

Here we have studied the Cost of Breaking in 4 main cities- Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Delhi. Will soon be coming up with more cities in future.

[updated on 17-Feb-2023 by Nitin, founder of Contractorbhai.com]

When you receive an estimate from the Contractor, the breaking cost is substantial if the homeowner is redoing the whole room or house.

Homeowners are surprised when they see breaking itself is going to cost 1 lakh or more…

For some reason there is the impression that braking should not take much time & money. But it does take some time and a lot of money.

A good contractor will explain to you what all happens as part of Breaking activity.

  • Flooring breaking
  • Skirting Breaking
  • Plaster Breaking
  • Window Frame Breaking
  • Door Frame Breaking
  • Any civil structure like wall or platform etc..

Above are breaking activities which require a lot of labour effort.

This is the phase when a lot of dust will be in the air. Lot of noise in the house. You might also get complaints from neighbors.

Breaking activity involves breaking & then bagging all debris. These bags are placed inside society ground premises. Once a lot of bags are collected, a truck/vehicle is called. This will take away all debris.

You just can’t throw this rubble anywhere on the street or normal garbage disposal area. It is against the law to dump rubble at such places.

Trucks which professionally do just rubble disposal work, they know the right place to dump. They have permission to do it.

In Mumbai city, for a very long time New building redevelopment projects got halted for this same reason. Mumbai authorities & builders couldn’t figure out where to dump rubble in the most appropriate way…

It is an important task & it takes a lot of hard work & hoemowner’s money. It will test your patience.

Bathroom Breaking

Tiles breaking, floor breaking, if breaking brick bat coba (1.5 inch or more), if old plumbing needs to go.

Brick Bat Coba Bathroom Breaking Renovation

Moving Rubble to Ground

In some societies it may be allowed to use Lift in certain hours of the day. If lift is not allowed, Labours have to use the staircase to move rubble bags to the ground floor.

While breaking activity goes on for 7-8 days, there could be dust on staircases. Labour at the end of day may require to wipe the floor using a broom.

Labour has to be very careful, if something goes wrong, it could damage the staircase or some building property. This will create unwanted nuisance in the project.

Disposal Truck

As mentioned earlier, disposal trucks come with a team of laborers. They load bags inside the truck.

At many sites, contractors ask these labours to unbag/dump rubble inside trucks & return bags.. Each bag costs a few rupees. If there are 200-300 bags, it saves you a few hundred rupees. However unbagging rubble, a lot of dust gets dispersed in the air. Your neighbors might not like this..

Wall Breaking

Direct hammers cannot be used freely. There could be a beam column.

Breaking wall tiles up to 5 feet high is not a problem. But wall tiles are sometimes up to 7 feet or 10 feet high.

In such cases, workers have to use a drum or ladder to climb and do breaking work. This takes extra time..

Kitchen Platform breaking

Old breaking platforms, workers try their best to get big granite or marble pieces. However in most cases it breaks & never comes out in big pieces. This also takes a lot of time. Rate for breaking platforms is never standard. Only after seeing the platform, a contractor can let you know the cost of breaking it.

Windows Doors Breaking

This is also charged on a lump sum basis. Breaking involves removing aluminum windows & doors.

Pest Control

After breaking activity is over. Do pest control of the whole house. Keep it locked for day or so. This is best time to do pest control.

If you aren’t comfortable with Chemical Pest control. There are vendors who do herbal pest control.

Breaking while living in house

If you are using the house while breaking is happening in other rooms, it is not easy. If there is any family member with dust allergy, he should move out of house for few days. If there are senior citizens or small kids, you have to be prepared. There will be humongous noise in the house for 8-10 days..

Are you Asthma patient? Please please rent a house for 2-3 months & let work get over.

Old furniture

Homeowners remove old furniture and keep it outside. They think it will get sold. If not sold, maybe bhangar wala (scrap vendor) will come & tell you the price of everything he will take. If you ask him to also take furniture. He may or may not take it. If he takes it, he will not pay you anything for it. he will pay for you for metal etc.. but for wooden furniture, scrap vendors will not pay you anything.

Water & Electric connection

Before breaking starts, everyone has to be present. Electrician, plumber, gas pipeline person, and ofcourse civil team.

First water inlet connection & electric connections needs to be stopped. Because if water is still flowing in pipes & current in wires.. a wrong blow on wall, can do a lot of damage to project..

Gas meters & pipelines need to be protected. If there is a need to move a meter or pipeline, this has to be done by an authorised person only.

After breaking is done, the contractor will connect electricity & water, Because both will be required for completing work..

Photo of wall

We have suggested so many homeowners to take picture of walls after breaking. Before new plaster, pipelines & electric wire paths are visible.. If you take this picture and email it yourself.. It will stay with you. After years, if you want to put a nail inside a wall or some other repair, this picture will help you to find out all the concealed networks behind the plastered wall…