COST DATA

CWICR catalog

55,719 standardised construction cost positions across 11 regional markets. Full resource breakdowns. Semantic and full-text search. Updated on a rolling basis.

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What is CWICR?Hierarchy and structure Position schema Regional coverage Search and retrieval Update cadence and migrations

What is CWICR?

CWICR (Construction Work Item Cost Reference) is a hierarchical cost-coding standard developed for use across global construction markets. It provides a common vocabulary for construction work items, enabling consistent comparison of costs across projects, markets, and time periods.

ZRO uses CWICR as the primary schema for all estimation work. The database contains 55,719 verified positions across 11 markets. Each position is independently sourced, reviewed against current market pricing, and attributed to its source.

Hierarchy and structure

CWICR positions are organised in a four-level hierarchy. Every BOQ in ZRO maps to this structure.

example

01  Substructure
  01.01  Foundations
    01.01.010  Reinforced concrete strip foundation, 600mm × 300mm
    01.01.020  Reinforced concrete pad foundation, 1200mm × 1200mm × 450mm
  01.02  Ground-bearing slabs
    01.02.010  Reinforced concrete ground slab, 150mm, C25/30
    01.02.020  Reinforced concrete ground slab, 200mm, C30/37

02  Frame
  02.01  Concrete frame
    02.01.010  Reinforced concrete column, 300mm × 300mm, C30/37
    02.01.020  Reinforced concrete suspended slab, 200mm flat, C25/30
  02.02  Structural steel
    02.02.010  Structural steel column, UC 254×254×89 grade S275
    02.02.020  Structural steel beam, UB 457×191×74 grade S275

Position schema

Every position in the database carries the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
code	string	CWICR position code — e.g. 03.01.010
title	string	Full position description
unit	string	Unit of measure — m², m³, m, no., tonne, kg, etc.
market	string	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
currency	string	ISO 4217 currency code for rates in this market
labour	decimal	Labour component per unit
material	decimal	Material component per unit
equipment	decimal	Plant and equipment component per unit
overhead	decimal	Overhead and profit component per unit
totalUnitRate	decimal	Sum of all components per unit
lastVerified	YYYY-MM	Month the rate was last reviewed against market data

json

{
  "code": "02.01.020",
  "title": "Reinforced concrete suspended slab, 200mm flat, C25/30",
  "unit": "m²",
  "market": "DE",
  "currency": "EUR",
  "labour": 34.20,
  "material": 58.80,
  "equipment": 7.40,
  "overhead": 12.60,
  "totalUnitRate": 113.00,
  "lastVerified": "2026-01"
}

Regional coverage

Code	Market	Currency	Positions
CH	Switzerland	CHF	5,890
DE	Germany	EUR	6,210
FR	France	EUR	5,740
IT	Italy	EUR	5,320
ES	Spain	EUR	4,980
GB	United Kingdom	GBP	5,600
US	United States	USD	5,480
CA	Canada	CAD	4,820
AU	Australia	AUD	5,190
BR	Brazil	BRL	4,310
ZA	South Africa	ZAR	4,179

Note

Position counts reflect the number of active, verified items per market as of January 2026. Positions flagged as unverified (lastVerified older than 18 months) are excluded from default search results but accessible via the API with includeStale=true.

Search and retrieval

ZRO offers two complementary search modes:

Mode	How it works	Best for
Semantic	Vector embeddings matched by meaning, not just keywords.	Natural-language queries: 'insulated flat roof', 'precast stairs'
Full-text	Index on code and title fields.	Known position codes or exact title fragments: '02.01.020', 'suspended slab'

Both modes are available simultaneously in the BOQ editor search panel. Semantic results are ranked by cosine similarity; full-text results by text relevance score. Results from both modes are merged and deduplicated.

Update cadence and migrations

Regional rates are reviewed on a rolling basis — approximately one to two markets per month. Updates are distributed as versioned SQL migration files.

bash

# Pull the latest update
git pull

# Apply new cost data migrations
npx drizzle-kit migrate

# Verify position count
curl /api/health | jq '.cwicrPositions'

Note

Applying a cost data update does not alter any existing estimates. Rates in saved estimates are stored at the time of creation and are unaffected by subsequent updates to the database.

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What is CWICR?

Hierarchy and structure

CWICR positions are organised in a four-level hierarchy. Every BOQ in ZRO maps to this structure.

example

01  Substructure
  01.01  Foundations
    01.01.010  Reinforced concrete strip foundation, 600mm × 300mm
    01.01.020  Reinforced concrete pad foundation, 1200mm × 1200mm × 450mm
  01.02  Ground-bearing slabs
    01.02.010  Reinforced concrete ground slab, 150mm, C25/30
    01.02.020  Reinforced concrete ground slab, 200mm, C30/37

02  Frame
  02.01  Concrete frame
    02.01.010  Reinforced concrete column, 300mm × 300mm, C30/37
    02.01.020  Reinforced concrete suspended slab, 200mm flat, C25/30
  02.02  Structural steel
    02.02.010  Structural steel column, UC 254×254×89 grade S275
    02.02.020  Structural steel beam, UB 457×191×74 grade S275

Position schema

Every position in the database carries the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
code	string	CWICR position code — e.g. 03.01.010
title	string	Full position description
unit	string	Unit of measure — m², m³, m, no., tonne, kg, etc.
market	string	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
currency	string	ISO 4217 currency code for rates in this market
labour	decimal	Labour component per unit
material	decimal	Material component per unit
equipment	decimal	Plant and equipment component per unit
overhead	decimal	Overhead and profit component per unit
totalUnitRate	decimal	Sum of all components per unit
lastVerified	YYYY-MM	Month the rate was last reviewed against market data

json

{
  "code": "02.01.020",
  "title": "Reinforced concrete suspended slab, 200mm flat, C25/30",
  "unit": "m²",
  "market": "DE",
  "currency": "EUR",
  "labour": 34.20,
  "material": 58.80,
  "equipment": 7.40,
  "overhead": 12.60,
  "totalUnitRate": 113.00,
  "lastVerified": "2026-01"
}

Regional coverage

Code	Market	Currency	Positions
CH	Switzerland	CHF	5,890
DE	Germany	EUR	6,210
FR	France	EUR	5,740
IT	Italy	EUR	5,320
ES	Spain	EUR	4,980
GB	United Kingdom	GBP	5,600
US	United States	USD	5,480
CA	Canada	CAD	4,820
AU	Australia	AUD	5,190
BR	Brazil	BRL	4,310
ZA	South Africa	ZAR	4,179

Note

Search and retrieval

ZRO offers two complementary search modes:

Mode	How it works	Best for
Semantic	Vector embeddings matched by meaning, not just keywords.	Natural-language queries: 'insulated flat roof', 'precast stairs'
Full-text	Index on code and title fields.	Known position codes or exact title fragments: '02.01.020', 'suspended slab'

Update cadence and migrations

Regional rates are reviewed on a rolling basis — approximately one to two markets per month. Updates are distributed as versioned SQL migration files.

bash

# Pull the latest update
git pull

# Apply new cost data migrations
npx drizzle-kit migrate

# Verify position count
curl /api/health | jq '.cwicrPositions'

Note

Applying a cost data update does not alter any existing estimates. Rates in saved estimates are stored at the time of creation and are unaffected by subsequent updates to the database.