Sharing preliminary research on iron welding walas:
Houses typically need window grills, main gates and decorative / protective iron pipe or bar reeling on balcony and border wall. Here is my research till now:
1) Window grills - Labor starts from Rs.35 - Rs.40 per sq ft. for simplest pipe design and soars upward with respect to the complexity thereof. Remember, for windows rate is sq ft, at least in islamabad and pindi. If you have a window of 8 ft by 6 ft and suppose you just want to put one horizontal and one vertical pipe (for the sake of example) welder will charge you for complete 8 X 6 = 48 sq ft. Yes empty spaces are counted as worked for labor calculation and to be honest this is pure ghunda gardi.
2) Main Iron Sliding gate - sliding gate labor starts from Rs.120 per sq ft for simple square tubes and sheet design and increases with complexities in design.
3) Decorative pipes - These pipes are charged @ running ft basis and are subject to variation in rates depending on the location where they need to be fitted and their cutting and joining. But still labor rates for such works are not value for money.
Iron pipes and other material prices and research will be shared once i visit market for procurement of same.