What does rework really cost?
Far more than the rework line in your cost report. The quality profession’s 1-10-100 rule holds that a defect costing $1 to fix at source costs $10 once built in and $100 after delivery. Two credible figures circulate, and they measure different things: the Get It Right Initiative puts the TOTAL cost of avoidable error at 10–25% of project cost once indirect and latent effects are counted, while roughly 5% of contract value is what shows up as DIRECTLY REPORTED rework. They are not two ends of one range.
The 1-10-100 rule
A defect caught at source costs $1 to fix. Caught once it is built in, $10. Caught after delivery, $100. The ratio is the reason inspection sequencing matters at all: construction is a sequence of concealments — concrete over rebar, blockwork over waterproofing, ceilings over ductwork — and the inspection regime is the only mechanism that verifies work while it is still a $1 problem.
Why the two headline figures disagree
The Get It Right Initiative’s 10–25% of project cost is a TOTAL figure: it counts indirect and latent effects — the disruption, the knock-on delay, the defect that surfaces in the defects liability period — not just the rework someone booked to a rework code.
The ~5% of contract value figure is narrower: it is what gets directly reported as rework. Most rework is never coded as rework, which is precisely why the two numbers are so far apart.
Reading them as a range (“5–25%”) is the mistake. They are different measurements of different things, and only one of them is trying to capture the full cost.
The cheap warning signal
First-time pass rate — approved inspection requests divided by total — is the leading indicator. A falling pass rate in one trade is the earliest and cheapest warning of rework, programme slip, and a bloated snag list at handover. Track it by trade and crew, never in aggregate: the aggregate hides exactly the problem you are looking for.
Terms
References
- module: /modules/inspections/ — Get It Right Initiative (10–25% total error cost); Navigant Construction Forum (~5% directly reported rework); the 1-10-100 quality-cost rule
Zepth is the construction project delivery platform — it runs construction, procurement and asset management on one record, and does the work: reading the drawings, reviewing the submittals, matching the invoices and flagging the risks, with a human sign-off on anything consequential.
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