Facade Project Timeline: Stage-by-Stage Durations & Costs

The facade project timeline at a glance

A facade project timeline is best read as five overlapping stages plus a programming discipline that ties them together: concept to design freeze, design-assist and shop drawings, mock-ups and testing, procurement and fabrication, and installation and handover. For a mid-rise commercial tower in Hyderabad, the headline number is 24 to 40 weeks from the day the design is frozen to the day the building is weather-tight.

The range is wide because the stages do not simply add up; they overlap where dependencies allow and stall where they do not. The list below is the mental model to carry through the rest of this article.

• Concept to design freeze: 4-8 weeks, sets the critical path for everything after.
• Design-assist and shop drawings: 4-8 weeks, can run in parallel with your detailed design.
• Mock-ups and testing: 6-10 weeks, belongs on the critical path for any exposed or high-area elevation.
• Procurement and fabrication: 6-14 weeks, glass and hardware are almost always the pacing items.
• Installation and handover: 8-20 weeks, driven by system type, access, crane and slab tolerance.

These do not sum to 24-40 weeks in a straight line, because design-assist overlaps concept, procurement overlaps late shop drawings, and installation overlaps ongoing fabrication. Managing those overlaps is the whole game, and it is exactly the sequencing you can see running across our recent projects.

What a facade actually costs: indicative INR ranges

Cost and timeline move together, because the specification that stretches the budget is usually the same one that stretches the lead time. The figures below are indicative supplied-and-installed rates for the Hyderabad and wider Telangana market as of 2026, and they move with glass coating, panel size, floor height and site access.

• ACP (aluminium composite panel) cladding: roughly Rs 350-650 per sq ft, the fastest-fabricated and most forgiving option on tolerance.
• Structural (spider or silicone) glazing: roughly Rs 550-850 per sq ft, depending on glass build-up and fitting quality.
• Semi-unitised and stick curtain wall: roughly Rs 750-1,300 per sq ft including thermal breaks and gaskets.
• Fully unitised curtain wall: roughly Rs 850-1,600 per sq ft, higher for double-skin, high-performance low-e or oversized modules.
• Performance mock-up (VMU + PMU) programme: often Rs 4-12 lakh as a one-off, quickly repaid the first time it catches a detail.

Glass alone can be 35-45 percent of the facade cost, which is why coated and insulated units dominate both the budget and the critical path. When you compare quotes for curtain wall glazing, check that wind-load calculations, deflection limits, structural silicone and adjustable anchors are all inside the rate, because the cheapest per-square-foot number often excludes exactly the items that protect the schedule.

Stage 1: Concept to design freeze (4-8 weeks)

This is where performance intent becomes buildable geometry, and the decisions made here set the critical path for everything that follows. Resolve the envelope strategy before the facade package goes out to tender, not after.

• Fix the system type early: stick-built curtain wall, unitised, structural glazing with IS 2553 governing the structural silicone, or a punched-window and ACP hybrid.
• Lock performance criteria on the drawings: U-value and SHGC for ECBC compliance, visible light transmittance for daylight, acoustic Rw for the site, and wind pressures derived from IS 875 Part 3 for the local basic wind speed.
• Confirm design wind load, deflection limits and inter-storey drift so section depths can be sized rather than guessed.
• Decide the opening strategy now, because vents, doors and their ironmongery drive both the extrusion schedule and the hardware lead time.

Engaging a facade partner for design-assist at this stage, rather than post-tender, is where most schedule risk is removed. A section depth chosen to suit an available profile is free; the same depth discovered to be inadequate during shop drawings costs a redesign loop and pushes procurement to the right. This early collaboration is a core part of our services for architects and developers across the region.

Stage 2: Design-assist and shop drawings (4-8 weeks)

Once the system is chosen, the contractor translates intent into fabrication-ready detail. Shop drawings are not a formality; they are where interfaces are actually resolved and where the facade project timeline is either protected or quietly blown.

• Expect general arrangement drawings first, then typical details, then every non-typical condition: corners, parapets, soffits, slab edges, expansion joints and interfaces with RCC, blockwork and roofing.
• Structural calculations verify mullion sizing, anchor design and glass thickness against the specified wind load and deflection limits, taking L/175 for single glazing and L/240 or 12 mm for insulated glass units.
• Thermal and condensation checks confirm the specified U-value and SHGC are met by the actual build-up, not just the vision glass.
• Hardware selection is finalised here too, from floor springs and door closers at ground-floor entrances to concealed vent gear, so nothing goes to procurement as a placeholder.

We provide design-assist, structural and thermal shop drawings, fabrication and installation for architects across Hyderabad, Secunderabad and the wider Telangana and Andhra Pradesh market, which lets these calculations run in parallel with your detailed design rather than after it. Running them in series is one of the most common and most avoidable causes of a slipped facade programme.

Stage 3: Mock-ups and performance testing (6-10 weeks)

Mock-ups are the cheapest place to find problems, and on projects with meaningful area or exposure they belong on the critical path, not the wish list. A curtain wall mock-up returns its cost the first time it catches a detail before mass fabrication.

• A visual mock-up (VMU) confirms colour, finish, sightlines and workmanship before you commit to bulk fabrication and bulk glass orders.
• A performance mock-up (PMU) tests air infiltration, static and dynamic water penetration, and structural deflection to ASTM E283, E331 and E330 respectively.
• Book independent test-lab or on-site rig slots early, because lab availability, not the testing itself, is usually the real constraint on this stage.
• Test the weak points deliberately: transom-to-mullion joints, movement joints, and any spider or bolted fitting where point loads concentrate on the glass.

Resolve any failure before fabrication release. A joint redesign found at PMU costs weeks; the same fault found at handover costs the facade, plus the re-work, plus the reputational damage of visible water staining on a finished elevation. In Hyderabad's monsoon window this matters doubly, because a wall that passes a lab hose test can still reveal site-workmanship leaks under real June-to-September rain.

Stage 4: Procurement, fabrication and hardware lead times (6-14 weeks)

This stage runs concurrently with late design but cannot start until glazing schedules and profiles are frozen. Glass is almost always the critical path, and hardware is the item most often forgotten until it delays glazing on site.

• Coated, laminated and insulated glass units carry 6-12 week lead times; imported low-e coatings, oversized lites or heat-soaked toughened glass extend this further.
• Aluminium extrusion, powder coating or PVDF finishing, gaskets and structural silicone each carry their own lead times that must be sequenced against the glass, not assumed to arrive with it.
• Architectural ironmongery has its own procurement clock: patch fittings for frameless entrances, floor springs, locks and sliding systems for balcony and terrace access should be ordered in the same wave as the glass.
• Factory glazing of unitised panels overlaps with fabrication, whereas stick systems shift more of this labour to site and lengthen the installation stage.

As a dealer for Taiton, Enox and Ozone, we hold and supply the fittings that so often stall a facade at the last metre, and specifying them into the drawings early keeps the procurement wave in one piece. Every change instructed after fabrication release triggers rework and re-procurement, typically at 4-6 times the cost of the same decision made during design-assist, so treat the frozen schedule as genuinely frozen.

Stage 5: Installation and handover (8-20 weeks)

Site duration depends on system type, floor plate, crane and hoist access, and how clean the preceding structure is. Slab-edge tolerance is the usual site villain, and honest programming allows for it rather than pretending the RCC is perfect.

• Set out and install brackets and anchors first, because RCC slab-edge tolerances rarely match the plus-or-minus 3 mm the facade assumes; specify adjustable anchors to absorb the difference.
• Unitised panels install fast and go weather-tight floor by floor, often 30-60 modules a day with good crane access, while stick systems need more sequential site labour, scaffolding and weather protection.
• Field water testing to AAMA 501.2 on installed sections verifies workmanship before internal finishes chase the enclosure up the building.
• Hang and adjust doors, locks and entrance closers as a distinct commissioning task, not an afterthought squeezed into the final week.

Snagging, sealant curing, protection removal and cleaning close out the programme, and these steps consistently get compressed when earlier stages slip. Leave real time for handover rather than borrowing it from the tail; a facade that is 95 percent complete but leaking at one parapet is not a facade you can hand over.

Common mistakes that blow the facade programme

Most facade delays are not caused by exotic technical failures; they are caused by a handful of predictable sequencing errors that repeat from project to project. Recognising them is half the cure.

• Tendering the facade before the system type and performance criteria are frozen, which guarantees a redesign loop during shop drawings.
• Treating the mock-up as optional and discovering a joint failure on a live elevation instead of on a rig.
• Ordering glass and hardware in separate waves, so the fittings arrive weeks after the glass and hold up glazing on site.
• Ignoring slab-edge tolerance and specifying rigid anchors, then losing days on site fabricating packers and shims.
• Instructing a colour or profile change after fabrication release, absorbing a 4-6x cost premium and a re-procurement delay.

Each of these is avoidable with early coordination. The facade is one of the few packages where an hour of decision-making at concept reliably buys a week of programme later, and the earlier that hour is spent, the more weeks it returns.

How Hyderabad and Telangana conditions shift the programme

Local conditions bend the generic timeline in ways worth planning for on any Hyderabad, Secunderabad or wider Telangana and Andhra Pradesh project. The numbers above are national averages; the following adjustments make them realistic for the region.

• Monsoon float: the June-to-September rains constrain sealant application and site water testing, so add float to any installation stage that lands in that window.
• Summer heat: peak April-to-June temperatures affect structural silicone cure times and can slow glazing crews, nudging the installation stage toward the upper end of its range.
• Logistics: imported coated glass and specialist profiles route through distant ports and add transit time on top of factory lead times, so order these first among the procurement wave.
• Local supply strength: sourcing standard glass, aluminium and Taiton, Enox and Ozone hardware within Telangana shortens the procurement tail for everything that does not need importing.

Building these local realities into the baseline programme, rather than treating them as surprises, is the difference between a facade schedule that holds and one that becomes the trade everyone blames. When curtain wall glazing is programmed against real regional conditions from day one, the 24-to-40-week range becomes a plan rather than a hope.

Building a facade programme that holds

Sequence realistically and the facade stops being the trade everyone blames for delay. A handful of habits keep the facade project timeline honest from concept through handover.

• Engage the facade contractor at concept for design-assist, not after tender, and let procurement start the day schedules freeze.
• Protect the mock-up on the critical path, because it is faster and far cheaper to redesign a joint on a rig than on a live elevation forty metres up.
• Freeze glazing, profile and hardware decisions before releasing fabrication, and treat any later change as a programme event rather than a minor detail.
• Order glass and all associated fittings in a single procurement wave so nothing arrives out of sequence.
• Add explicit float around the monsoon and around any single-source imported component.

Do these five things and the 24-to-40-week range becomes a plan you can defend to a client, rather than a hope you revise every month. If you want that programme sized to your own drawings and glass spec, our team in Hyderabad can build it with you from the first concept sketch.