A compiled reference of 45 verified statistics on construction quality: the measured cost of rework as a share of contract value and the study that the "5%" and "9%" figures actually come from, rework rates by project type, the share of rework caused by poor data and communication, the outcome distribution of 405,693 Los Angeles building inspections in 2025 computed from the city's open data, what contractors report about their own quality problems, the state defect-liability windows and retainage caps that turn punch list items into money, and the spending and completion denominators that let any of it be expressed per project. Every figure is drawn from a named public source (the Navigant Construction Forum's literature synthesis, the Get It Right Initiative, the PlanGrid and FMI industry survey, Dodge Construction Network, the Associated General Contractors of America, the Terner Center at UC Berkeley, California and New York statute text, the Census Bureau, and the Los Angeles and Philadelphia open-data portals) and independently checked before publishing. Several punch-list "statistics" that circulate on software vendor blogs could not be traced to any study and are listed at the end so they are not re-chased.
Key statistics
7 highlights from this report
Key statistics
Key takeaways
Every rework post on the internet quotes 5% or 9% and almost none of them says where the numbers come from: a 2012 Navigant synthesis of 29 studies, which also found that a third of the people reporting rework believe they are capturing only half to three-quarters of it. Half of that rework traces to bad information rather than bad workmanship. The inspection record says the same thing from the other side: in Los Angeles in 2025, fewer than half of inspections were approved outright and one visit in seven was wasted on work that was not ready. A punch list item is cheap in month one; the same item is a litigable defect for one to ten years, depending on the state.
Rework costs a measured median 4% of contract value directly, about 5% adjusted for under-reporting, and about 9% with indirect costs.
Nearly one in four Los Angeles building inspections in 2025 ended in corrections; fewer than half were approved outright.
One in seven Los Angeles inspection visits was wasted because the work was not ready or the site was locked.
Nearly half of US rework, about $31.3 billion a year, is caused by bad data and miscommunication.
A third of construction professionals say their recorded rework is only half to three-quarters of the real figure.
98% of contractors had a project with serious quality issues in three years; 11% of field crews always have the information they need.
New York caps retainage at 5% and starts a 30-day release clock at final approval; California caps public-works retention at 5%.
How we built this report
Every figure was compiled in September 2026 from named public sources and verified against the original document, dataset, or statute before publishing.
- Compiled from primary sources
The Navigant Construction Forum rework synthesis and the study tables inside it, the UK Get It Right Initiative research report, the PlanGrid and FMI survey of 599 industry leaders, Dodge Construction Network's 2024 quality brief, the AGC and Sage 2026 outlook survey of 951 firms, the Terner Center's defect-liability policy brief, California and New York statute text, and Census Bureau construction spending and housing completion releases.
- Computed from the raw records
The 2025 Los Angeles inspection outcomes were computed by RapidEye from the Department of Building and Safety's 11.7-million-record open dataset, and the Philadelphia figure from the Licenses and Inspections case dataset, on September 1, 2026. Those cards are marked Computed. The queries are on file and reproducible.
- Fabricated citations excluded
The punch-list statistics that circulate on software vendor blogs, attributed to an "ENR closeout study" or an "AGC closeout survey," do not correspond to any published study. They are listed in the final section rather than repeated.
- Arithmetic shown
The implied national rework figure is our own product of two verified inputs and is labeled as an estimate.
- Independent review
Written by one co-founder, reviewed by the other before publishing.
Scope caveat: the rework percentages are a synthesis of published studies with varying methods and sample sizes, not one survey, and the daily delay costs are from a 2012 survey of 24 professionals in 2012 dollars. The Los Angeles figures describe permit inspections in one city in one year; the Philadelphia figure describes complaint-driven code enforcement, a population pre-selected for problems, and is not a construction inspection fail rate. This page deliberately excludes injury and fatality statistics, which are covered elsewhere.
What happens when the inspector shows up: Los Angeles, 2025
RapidEye Research computation from 405,693 determined inspections plus 86,888 not-ready or no-access visits, LADBS open data, Sep 1, 2026Result of inspections that reached a determination
Attempted visits that produced no determination
Scheduling and administrative statuses (inspection scheduled, cancelled, permit finaled, permit expired) are excluded from both denominators because they are not field determinations. Dataset spans January 2013 to August 2026 with 11,691,152 records.
Construction quality, by the numbers
All 45 figures, grouped by theme, each from a named public source and independently verified, or computed by RapidEye from a named public dataset.
What rework actually costs
The figures everyone quotes come from one document. According to the Navigant Construction Forum's 2012 synthesis of 29 published rework studies (cmaanet.org), the median direct cost of rework on capital projects is 4.03% of original contract cost, most likely understated, with a probable range of 4.03% to 6.05% and a median of 5.04%. Marked up 80% for the indirect costs a University of Alberta study measured ($1.72 total per $1.00 direct), total rework runs 7.25% to 10.89% with a median of 9.07%. The same synthesis found rework drives about 9.82% schedule growth, roughly 72 days on a two-year job, and that measured rework rates rose from 2.01% in studies from 1989-2000 to 5.21% in studies from 2002-2011. According to the UK's Get It Right Initiative (getitright.uk.com), the direct cost of avoidable error is about 5% of project value, roughly £5 billion a year, above the industry's typical 3% profit margin, and 10% to 25% once indirect and latent costs are counted.
Statistic 1
The median direct cost of rework on capital improvement projects is 4.03% of original contract cost according to published studies, with a probable true range of 4.03% to 6.05% and a median of 5.04% after accounting for under-reporting.
Navigant Construction Forum, rework impact synthesis (2012)
Statistic 2
Including indirect costs, total rework cost runs 7.25% to 10.89% of project cost, with a median of 9.07%.
Navigant Construction Forum, rework impact synthesis (2012)
Statistic 3
Every dollar of direct field rework carries about 80% in additional indirect cost: a University of Alberta and Construction Owners Association of Alberta study measured $1.72 in total cost per $1.00 of direct rework.
Navigant Construction Forum, citing the Alberta study (2012)
Statistic 4
About one third of surveyed construction professionals believe their recorded rework is only 50 to 75 percent of the rework actually experienced.
Construction Industry Institute survey, cited by Navigant Construction Forum (2012)
Statistic 5
The Construction Industry Institute's field rework study measured a total field rework factor of 4.4% across 109 industrial projects.
CII research report, as tabulated by Navigant Construction Forum (2012)
Statistic 6
Rework varies tenfold by project type: light industrial averaged 9.3% total field rework, modernization 6.5%, infrastructure 5.7%, buildings 4.6%, heavy industrial 4.5%, and projects over $100 million 0.9% (359 projects; 7 in the largest bracket).
Hwang, Thomas, Haas and Caldas (2009), as tabulated by Navigant Construction Forum (2012)
| Project category | Projects | Total field rework factor |
|---|---|---|
| Light industrial | 31 | 9.3% |
| $50 to $100 million contract value | 12 | 7.3% |
| Modernization | 82 | 6.5% |
| Infrastructure | 14 | 5.7% |
| Buildings | 32 | 4.6% |
| Heavy industrial | 102 | 4.5% |
| Construct-only delivery | 39 | 3.0% |
| Over $100 million contract value | 7 | 0.9% |
Hwang et al. (2009) rework rates as tabulated in the Navigant Construction Forum synthesis. Small cells (7 and 12 projects) are indicative only.
Statistic 7
Design errors and omissions are the largest single cause of field rework at 1.5% of total construction cost across 177 projects, versus 1.3% for owner changes and 0.3% for constructor errors and omissions.
Hwang et al. (2009), as tabulated by Navigant Construction Forum (2012)
Statistic 8
Rework produces roughly 9.82% schedule growth on the average project, about 72 days of delay on a two-year job.
Navigant Construction Forum (2012)
Statistic 9
84% of projects were completed late with an average delay of 17% of the planned schedule, and rework was the cause of 52.1% of overall cost growth in a 161-project study.
Navigant Construction Forum, citing its 2011 study with McGraw-Hill Construction and Love's Australian study (2012)
Statistic 10
Surveyed professionals put a contractor's field office overhead at about $15,000 per day of delay and liquidated damages at about $12,750 per day (24 responses, 2012 dollars); on a hypothetical two-year project the rework-driven exposure totals $1,998,000.
Navigant Construction Forum survey and worked example (2012)
Statistic 11
Measured rework rose 259% between study generations: nine studies from 1989-2000 averaged a 2.01% total field rework factor, twenty studies from 2002-2011 averaged 5.21%.
Navigant Construction Forum (2012)
Statistic 12
In the UK, the measured direct cost of avoidable error is about 5% of project value, roughly £5 billion a year, higher than the industry's average profit margin of around 3%.
Get It Right Initiative, research report (2016)
Statistic 13
Counting unmeasured and indirect costs, latent defects, and unrecorded waste, UK estimates of the total cost of error range from 10% to 25% of project cost, £10 billion to £25 billion a year.
Get It Right Initiative, research report (2016)
What this means: The cost of rework exceeds the industry's profit margin, and the people reporting it think they are missing a quarter to a half of it. The largest cause is not the crew but the drawings: design error accounts for five times the rework that constructor error does.
How much rework traces to bad information
According to the 2018 PlanGrid and FMI industry survey of 599 construction leaders (plangrid.com), construction professionals spend 35% of their working hours, 14.1 hours a week, on non-optimal activities: 5.5 hours looking for project data, 4.7 hours on conflict resolution, and 3.9 hours dealing with mistakes and rework. Applied to the 2018 spending forecast, that non-optimal time was modeled at $177.5 billion in US labor cost. The survey found 48% of US rework directly caused by inaccurate, inaccessible, or incompatible project data and poor communication, about $31.3 billion a year, and 52% globally, about $280 billion. The top cause of poor project data, named by 34.4% of respondents, was data that was simply wrong or outdated.
Statistic 14
Construction professionals spend 14.1 hours a week, 35% of their time, on non-optimal activities: 5.5 hours looking for project data, 4.7 hours on conflict resolution, and 3.9 hours dealing with mistakes and rework.
PlanGrid and FMI industry survey (2018)
Statistic 15
Time spent on non-optimal activities was modeled at $177.5 billion in US construction labor cost in 2018 (2018 spending forecast, times 39% labor share, times 35% non-optimal time).
PlanGrid and FMI industry survey (2018)
Statistic 16
At an assumed 5% of construction spending, US rework was forecast at $65 billion in 2018.
PlanGrid and FMI industry survey (2018)
Statistic 17
48% of all US rework is caused by poor project data and miscommunication, more than $31.3 billion a year; globally the share is 52%, about $280 billion.
PlanGrid and FMI industry survey (2018)
Statistic 18
Of that rework, 26% is attributed to poor communication among stakeholders ($17 billion a year) and 22% to poor project data ($14.3 billion).
PlanGrid and FMI industry survey (2018)
Statistic 19
The primary cause of poor project data was erroneous or outdated data, named by 34.4% of respondents, followed by difficulty accessing needed data at 23.8%.
PlanGrid and FMI industry survey (2018)
Statistic 20
71% of owners said capturing and retaining more data during design, construction, and closeout would reduce lifecycle operations costs, and owners ranked as-built data as the most valuable category for reducing long-term facility costs.
PlanGrid and FMI industry survey, owner responses (2018)
What this means: Half of rework is an information failure, and the owners who inherit the building say the record of what was actually built is the data they value most. That is the case for photographing the work before it is covered, which is the premise of our construction site inspection guide.
Inspection outcomes, computed from open data
No agency publishes a national building-inspection pass rate, so RapidEye computed one city's. Of the 405,693 Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety inspections that reached a field determination in calendar 2025 (data.lacity.org), 48.9% were approved outright, 22.4% received partial approval, 5.4% conditional approval, and 23.3% ended with corrections issued. A further 86,888 attempted visits, 15.3% of the total, found the work not ready for inspection or the inspector unable to get access. Philadelphia's Licenses and Inspections data (phl.carto.com) tells a different story because its population is complaint-driven: 71.4% of code enforcement investigations closed in 2025 confirmed a violation.
Statistic 21
Of 405,693 Los Angeles building inspections that reached a determination in 2025, 23.3% (94,482) ended in corrections issued, 48.9% (198,544) were approved outright, 22.4% (90,862) received partial approval, and 5.4% (21,805) conditional approval.
RapidEye Research analysis of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety open data (2026)
Statistic 22
15.3% of attempted Los Angeles inspection visits in 2025, 86,888 visits, found the work not ready (75,392) or the inspector unable to get access (11,496).
RapidEye Research analysis of LADBS open data (2026)
Statistic 23
Los Angeles logged 11,691,152 building inspection records between January 2013 and August 2026.
RapidEye Research analysis of LADBS open data (2026)
Statistic 24
In Philadelphia, 71.4% of code-enforcement investigations closed in 2025 ended in a failed status (86,599 of 121,241 with a recorded result); these are complaint-driven investigations, not permit inspections, so the population is pre-selected for problems.
RapidEye Research analysis of Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections case data (2026)
What this means: An inspector's visit is a coin flip on a clean approval, and one visit in seven is a wasted trip. Both numbers are scheduling and readiness failures before they are quality failures, and both are visible in a photo taken the day before the inspector arrives.
What contractors say about their own quality
According to Dodge Construction Network's 2024 brief on the cost of poor collaboration (construction.com), 98% of contractors in the US and Canada had projects with serious quality issues, meaning errors, omissions, and rework, in the previous three years; 33% named onsite coordination as the root cause, and only 11% of field personnel reported always having the information they need about what and where to build. According to the Associated General Contractors of America and Sage 2026 outlook survey of 951 firms (agc.org), 53% of contractors named worker quality a top concern for 2026, behind only recession fears (62%), worker supply (57%), and labor costs (56%); 32% said productivity improved in the prior year while 24% said it declined; and 61% said they use AI or plan to increase investment in it, up from 44%.
Statistic 25
98% of contractors in the US and Canada had projects with serious quality issues, meaning errors, omissions, and rework, in the last three years.
Dodge Construction Network, collaboration and quality brief (2024)
Statistic 26
33% of contractors say coordination issues on site are the root cause of the quality problems they experience.
Dodge Construction Network (2024)
Statistic 27
Only 11% of field personnel report always having access to the information they need about what and where to build.
Dodge Construction Network (2024)
Statistic 28
53% of construction firms named worker quality a top concern for 2026, behind economic slowdown (62%), insufficient supply of workers or subcontractors (57%), and rising direct labor costs (56%).
Associated General Contractors of America and Sage, 2026 outlook survey of 951 firms
Statistic 29
32% of construction firms reported productivity improved over the prior 12 months, 41% saw no change, and 24% reported a decline.
Associated General Contractors of America and Sage, 2026 outlook survey
Statistic 30
61% of construction firms say they use AI or plan to increase investment in it, up from 44% a year earlier; 45% deploy it for office and administrative work, 23% for estimating, and 20% for design or preconstruction.
Associated General Contractors of America and Sage, 2026 outlook survey
What this means: Nearly every contractor has a quality problem, a third of them blame coordination, and nine in ten field crews are sometimes building without the information they need. The AI investment is going to the office first; the field, where the rework happens, is last in line.
Defect liability, warranty, and retainage: where the punch list becomes money
According to the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley (ternercenter.berkeley.edu), California's construction defect liability period is ten years for for-sale homes and four years for rental products, and the law reaches non-structural items including bubbling paint, nail pops in drywall, and improper paint application; only an estimated 3% of multifamily homes built in California from 2011 to 2021 were for sale rather than rental. Minnesota's 2017 reform set one year for workmanship and materials, two years for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing installation, and ten years for major structural defects, with mandatory mediation; Utah runs a six-year limit with claims restricted to parties in privity of contract; New Jersey has run a two-year and ten-year new home warranty program since 1977. Retainage is set by statute too: Cal. Pub. Contract Code 7201 caps public-works retention at 5% of each payment at every tier, and N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law 756-c caps private retainage at 5% with release due within 30 days of final approval of the work.
Statistic 31
California's construction defect liability period is ten years for for-sale homes and four years for rental products.
Terner Center for Housing Innovation, UC Berkeley, defect liability brief (2024)
Statistic 32
California's defect law allows legal action for non-structural items including bubbling paint, nail pops in drywall, and improper paint application.
Terner Center for Housing Innovation (2024)
Statistic 33
An estimated 3% of all multifamily homes built in California between 2011 and 2021 were for sale rather than rental.
Terner Center for Housing Innovation (2024)
Statistic 34
Minnesota's 2017 reform gives homeowners one year to raise defects in workmanship or materials, two years for faulty installation of heating, cooling, electrical, or plumbing, and ten years for major structural defects such as foundation or roof, with mediation required before a lawsuit.
Terner Center for Housing Innovation (2024)
Statistic 35
Utah has a six-year statute of limitations for construction defect claims that cannot be extended, and claims may be brought only by a person in privity of contract with the original contractor, architect, engineer, or developer.
Terner Center for Housing Innovation, quoting Utah Code (2024)
Statistic 36
New Jersey has run a state New Home Warranty Program since 1977: two years of coverage for workmanship, materials, and systems, extending to ten years for major structural defects.
Terner Center for Housing Innovation (2024)
Statistic 37
California caps retention on public works at 5% of each payment, from the public entity to the contractor and at every subcontract tier below.
Cal. Pub. Contract Code 7201
Statistic 38
New York caps retainage on private construction contracts at 5% of the contract sum, with release due no later than 30 days after final approval of the work.
N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law 756-c, as amended November 2023
Statistic 39
Hawaii subsidizes condominium defect mediation through its Condominium Education Fund: the first hour costs the owner or association $375 and the fund covers the remainder up to a cap.
Terner Center for Housing Innovation (2024)
What this means: A nail pop is a punch list item in month one and a claim in year nine. On a $10 million job, 5% retainage is $500,000 sitting behind the last open item, and in New York the release clock does not start until final approval. The photo of the closed item is what starts it.
The denominators
According to the Census Bureau's monthly construction spending release (census.gov), US construction spending ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,157.6 billion in July 2026, with residential at $859.0 billion and public construction at $543.4 billion. According to the Census Bureau and HUD's new residential construction release, privately owned housing completions ran at an annual rate of 1,212,000 units in July 2026, 878,000 of them single-family. RapidEye Research calculation: applying Navigant's 9.07% median total rework rate to $2,157.6 billion implies roughly $196 billion a year in rework, or about $109 billion at the 5.04% direct-cost median; both are estimates, not measurements.
Statistic 40
US construction spending in July 2026 ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,157.6 billion.
Census Bureau, monthly construction spending release (September 2026)
Statistic 41
Residential construction ran at an $859.0 billion annual rate in July 2026 and public construction at $543.4 billion.
Census Bureau, monthly construction spending release (September 2026)
Statistic 42
Privately owned housing completions ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,212,000 units in July 2026, 878,000 of them single-family; starts ran at 1,239,000 and permits at 1,443,000.
Census Bureau and HUD, new residential construction release (August 2026)
Statistic 43
Applying the 9.07% median total rework rate to the $2,157.6 billion annual spending rate implies roughly $196 billion a year in US construction rework; at the 5.04% direct-cost median, about $109 billion.
RapidEye Research calculation on Navigant (2012) and Census Bureau (2026) figures
Statistic 44
On Navigant's hypothetical two-year, $50 to $100 million project, rework's 72 days of delay converts to $1,080,000 in extended field office overhead and $918,000 in liquidated damages.
Navigant Construction Forum, worked example (2012)
Statistic 45
Construction spending was 0.5% below the revised June 2026 estimate of $2,167.7 billion, and housing completions were 16.8% below the July 2025 rate of 1,456,000.
Census Bureau construction spending and new residential construction releases (2026)
What this means: At current spending, rework is a $100 billion to $200 billion a year line item, spread across 1.2 million homes and every commercial project completed this year.
The punch list numbers we could not verify
Several precise-sounding figures circulate on punch-list software blogs. None traced to a published study, and they are listed here so readers do not re-chase them.
Unverified claim 1
"25% of new homes experience a structural defect, at an average cost of nearly $50,000 each," attributed to NAHB or a home warranty company. Every instance is warranty-seller marketing with no study, year, or sample named, and NAHB publishes nothing matching it.
Warranty marketing copy only
Unverified claim 2
"A 2025 ENR closeout study found projects spend 3 to 5 weeks in the punch list phase" and "median time from substantial completion to final payment is 47 days manual versus 23 automated." No ENR study by that description exists; the precision without methodology is the mark of a fabricated citation.
Punch-list software blogs only
Unverified claim 3
"AGC's 2024 closeout survey found 78% of general contractors cite punch list management as their most time-consuming closeout activity." AGC's actual annual survey contains no closeout or punch-list questions.
Punch-list software blogs only
Cite this study
Academic or press use: copy a ready-made reference. RapidEye is the publisher.
Quick FAQ
What percentage of construction cost is rework?
The Navigant Construction Forum's synthesis of 29 published studies puts the median direct cost of rework at 4.03% of original contract cost, most likely understated, with a probable range of 4.03% to 6.05% and a median of 5.04%. Including indirect costs, total rework runs 7.25% to 10.89% of project cost with a median of 9.07%. That is where the widely quoted "5%" and "9%" figures come from.
What causes most construction rework?
Bad information. The PlanGrid and FMI survey found 48% of US rework directly caused by inaccurate, inaccessible, or incompatible project data and poor communication, about $31.3 billion a year. In the study data Navigant tabulated, design errors and omissions accounted for 1.5% of construction cost in rework versus 0.3% for constructor error.
What percentage of building inspections fail?
No national figure exists. RapidEye computed Los Angeles's 2025 outcomes from the city's open data: of 405,693 inspections that reached a determination, 48.9% were approved outright, 22.4% received partial approval, 5.4% conditional approval, and 23.3% ended in corrections issued. A further 15.3% of attempted visits found the work not ready or the site inaccessible.
How long is a builder liable for construction defects?
It depends on the state. California's period is ten years for for-sale homes and four years for rentals, and covers cosmetic items like nail pops and bubbling paint. Minnesota allows one year for workmanship, two years for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing installation, and ten years for major structural defects. Utah has a six-year limit. New Jersey's state warranty program covers two years for workmanship and systems and ten years for structural defects.
How much retainage can be withheld on a construction contract?
California caps retention on public works at 5% of each payment at every tier under Public Contract Code section 7201. New York caps retainage on private contracts at 5% of the contract sum under General Business Law section 756-c and requires release within 30 days of final approval of the work.
Data sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these named public sources, each checked against the original document, dataset, or statute before publishing.
Navigant Construction ForumRework impact literature synthesis and study tables (2012), hosted by the Construction Management Association of Americacmaanet.org
Get It Right InitiativeUK cost of avoidable error research report (2016)getitright.uk.com
PlanGrid and FMIConstruction industry data and communication survey of 599 leaders (2018)plangrid.com
Dodge Construction NetworkCollaboration and construction quality research brief (2024)construction.com
Associated General Contractors of America2026 construction hiring and business outlook survey, with Sageagc.org
Los Angeles Department of Building and SafetyBuilding and safety inspections open dataset, calendar 2025 (RapidEye computation)data.lacity.org
Philadelphia Department of Licenses and InspectionsCase investigations open dataset, calendar 2025 (RapidEye computation)phila.gov
Terner Center for Housing Innovation, UC BerkeleyConstruction defect liability policy brief (2024)ternercenter.berkeley.edu
California Legislative InformationPublic Contract Code section 7201, statutory textleginfo.legislature.ca.gov
U.S. Census BureauMonthly construction spending (July 2026) and new residential construction (July 2026) releasescensus.gov