How Rising Material Costs Are Hitting Construction Hard

The construction industry is under pressure like never before. From copper wiring to sheet metal and mechanical piping, material costs are rising fast—and unpredictably. Contractors scramble to keep budgets intact and schedules on track. Today’s success hinges on how well you can adapt to volatility in today’s environment.

The message is clear: Price swings are here to stay. And without the right tools, they can wreak havoc on your bottom line. Learn how Rhumbix helps Contractors stay ahead of uncertain material costs.

The New Normal: Volatile Prices Across the Board

The construction industry has learned a hard lesson in recent years. Material prices are now unstable.

They are also difficult to predict. Global supply chains remain fragile, demand remains high, and inflation affects everything from commodities to logistics. This has created a turbulent pricing environment across all trades.

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) says new tariffs on steel and aluminum will likely raise construction costs. This could also delay project completion.

Even modest projects can incur thousands in unexpected costs if prices swing mid-project. The impact is even greater in fields like electrical and mechanical. In these areas, materials make up a large part of the total cost.

Contractors now have a tough challenge. How do you bid on a job today? Your cost assumptions might be wrong in three months.

Welcome to the Era of Unpredictable Pricing

The Associated General Contractors of America reports that prices for nonresidential construction materials and services rose 0.8% in January 2025. This increase continues a trend that makes contractors nervous. Core materials such as steel products, copper shapes, and aluminum are still seeing significant increases each year.

The AGC emphasizes that many suppliers only guarantee prices for 15 to 30 days. This forces contractors to deal with sudden price increases during a project or rush to renegotiate.

This ongoing volatility makes it difficult—if not impossible—for contractors to bid on jobs confidently. A project that seems profitable when bidding can quickly turn into a financial burden before materials arrive on site.

The Hidden Risk: Delayed Field Visibility

One of the biggest challenges isn’t rising prices themselves—it’s the delay in discovering and reporting those costs.

Crews often track time, material use, and productivity with paper timecards, spreadsheets, or jobsite whiteboards. Teams turn these in days or weeks later, if at all, leaving project managers and finance teams flying blind. Contractors only realize they’ve gone over budget long after the fact, with no time to adjust or push back on costs.

When relying on lagging indicators instead of real-time visibility, you lose your ability to make proactive decisions.

The Rhumbix Advantage: Real-Time Cost Control

Rhumbix was built to solve precisely this problem. Contractors can connect what happens on-site with what they track in the office. It does this by capturing field data in real-time. This includes labor hours, material usage, production progress, and out-of-scope work.

This means no more unexpected overruns and no more waiting until month-end to learn that a project is losing money.

With Rhumbix, project leaders can see daily cost drivers in real time. This helps them make better decisions, respond to changes quickly, and forecast more accurately. Managing a multi-phase project or handling several jobs at once can be tough. This insight is a game-changer for controlling costs.

How Rhumbix Helps You Stay Ahead of Rising Material Costs

Rhumbix is more than a timekeeping tool. A jobsite command center turns field activity into useful financial insights. Here’s how it helps:

Track Material Usage Across Every Job

Understand which materials are being used, how quickly they’re being consumed, and whether those patterns match your original estimates. With real-time tracking, you can adjust procurement plans before overages accumulate.

Capture Out-of-Scope Work Instantly

Scope creep and material substitutions are common when suppliers change availability or prices spike. Rhumbix helps you record changes in the field with timestamped T&M documents. This way, your team can quickly create accurate and strong change orders.

Eliminate Field-to-Office Lag

Forget the lag time between when data is recorded in the field and when it’s available to project teams. Rhumbix links the field and office with easy mobile workflows. These workflows update your records automatically. This means no more transcription errors or delays from paperwork.

Strengthen Your Negotiation Power

When prices increase unexpectedly mid-project, detailed digital records give you leverage with GCs and owners. With Rhumbix, you can justify change orders with real data and reduce pushback.

Protect Profit Margins

By noticing trends in material use and cost overruns early, you can change your project plans. You can also rebalance crews and improve labor controls before it’s too late. Rhumbix turns reactive guesswork into proactive cost management.

Field Data is the Frontline of Financial Control

Contractors often think of finance and the field as separate. But in reality, the jobsite is where most construction costs occur—and where financial control starts.

Rhumbix helps bridge this divide by giving project managers and finance teams access to the same real-time data. Whether it’s material usage, timekeeping, or progress tracking, all stakeholders work from a single source of truth.

And when things go wrong—materials spike, productivity lags, or delivery dates shift—you can spot and solve problems fast.

Contractors Can’t Afford to Wait

It’s clear that material volatility isn’t going away. In fact, it’s likely to become even more disruptive as global supply chains continue to shift. Contractors who use old methods will face more challenges. They will have smaller profits and greater risks.

But with the right digital tools, you can turn chaos into clarity. Rhumbix helps teams manage their data, budgets, and profits, even when material costs are unpredictable.

Rhumbix helps you take action against rising material costs

You cannot control the market, —but you can control your response. Rhumbix gives you the visibility and speed to outmaneuver rising prices and protect your projects from cost overruns.

Ready to build smarter?

Learn how our field-first solutions are helping contractors thrive—even in tough markets.

Rhumbix Timekeeping helps:

• Avoid surprises in labor costs tied to material rework or delays.
• Verify change order labor accurately for copper-related scope changes.
• Benchmark productivity to adjust crews or workflows in real time.

Explore Timekeeping

Rhumbix Custom Forms and Production Tracking helps:

• Strengthen the paper trail for claims related to price escalation.
• Improve accountability across subcontractors and suppliers.
• Reduce disputes and delays in billing because of documentation gaps.

Explore Rhumbix Forms

Explore Production Tracking