Brickies rates
Discussion
For blockwork, it's dependant on the thickness of the blocks.
100mm thick, on a small project, I'd not baulk at £14 / m2 laid. £18 / m2 tops.
Brickwork, flush pointed one side, £400 / 1000 bricks laid would sound about right.
This is based on a gang of two brickies and one labourer. You'll need to provide a mixing area for the mortar as well. And a small mixer from the likes of Speedy Hire. And mortar.
You could agree an hourly rate for each operative, which would mean about £30 / hr for each brickie and £22 / hr for the labourer.
Important factors to remember:
Ten blocks per m2 (applies to any thickness of block)
65 bricks per m2 (single skin laid stretcher bond)
Stretcher bond looks like this:
100mm thick, on a small project, I'd not baulk at £14 / m2 laid. £18 / m2 tops.
Brickwork, flush pointed one side, £400 / 1000 bricks laid would sound about right.
This is based on a gang of two brickies and one labourer. You'll need to provide a mixing area for the mortar as well. And a small mixer from the likes of Speedy Hire. And mortar.
You could agree an hourly rate for each operative, which would mean about £30 / hr for each brickie and £22 / hr for the labourer.
Important factors to remember:
Ten blocks per m2 (applies to any thickness of block)
65 bricks per m2 (single skin laid stretcher bond)
Stretcher bond looks like this:
Loving that someone replies to the OP with the prices that he would normally charge/expect and then someone who read a guide a year ago starts asking why a 33% increase in rates in a year without any understanding of circumstance, location, type of company etc... 
Anyways. OP, try one of the online quote engines, I've used them over the last few years to find trades and builders and generally get 3-5 contacts interested in the job posted. Get at least 3 of them round and pick the one you like the best. Note: not necessarily the cheapest!
Google find a trade, rate a trade, trade people, etc... it's relatively quick and painless to post a job and costs nothing.
Anyways. OP, try one of the online quote engines, I've used them over the last few years to find trades and builders and generally get 3-5 contacts interested in the job posted. Get at least 3 of them round and pick the one you like the best. Note: not necessarily the cheapest!
Google find a trade, rate a trade, trade people, etc... it's relatively quick and painless to post a job and costs nothing.
Rates have tumbled over the last couple of years here in Scotland. Of course rates will vary depending whereabouts in the country you are, the size of the job, complexity of the works and also continuity of work for any squad. Obviously this is a one off job but these are the rates that we were paying our squads (for timber kitted residential houses, mix of reconstituted stone, brick and block) the following;
4" block £8/m2
6" block £10/m2
brick/stone £15/m2 (£250/per 1000)
Brickie £12/per hour
Labourer £10/per hour
So a 2+1 squad will be £34 an hour or £272 a day
We were paying "through the openings" which means door and window openings were not deducted. If they were then brickies would expect additional costs for window/door reveals, expansion joints and lintels etc.
4" block £8/m2
6" block £10/m2
brick/stone £15/m2 (£250/per 1000)
Brickie £12/per hour
Labourer £10/per hour
So a 2+1 squad will be £34 an hour or £272 a day
We were paying "through the openings" which means door and window openings were not deducted. If they were then brickies would expect additional costs for window/door reveals, expansion joints and lintels etc.
Muncher said:
I can get labourers around here (East Anglia) for around £100 per day and could certainly go lower if I tried. Even very good plasterers at £120-150 for a full day.
The reason I ask is because over the last year or two these trades will have hardly been flush with work.
I've spent a bit of time on these forums, asking similar stuff, us East Anglians do seem to get things far cheaper than the rest of the country.The reason I ask is because over the last year or two these trades will have hardly been flush with work.
£100 a day for a brickie is about standard at the moment. Lots of them now doing pricework and working their balls off.
£120 for a good plasterer
I've found a cabinet maker/joiner working for £75 a day, and he's bloody marvelous too! He's worth double that all day long (comparing to what i've used, and what others do) not complaining though!
I'd lay money that more expensive parts of the country could save a fair bit of money by paying builders from this area £120 a day and paying for their digs too!
Spoke to couple of brickies in Banbury last week who were short of work for the first time in years. The only sitework they had been offered was in Abingdon (@25 miles away) for £100 a day, 7 AM start. Most sites they contacted were either slowing down or stopping. They've been used to £130 - £170 a day.
If going for a day rate bear in mind a brickies idea of a day is rarely as long as most peoples.
If going for a day rate bear in mind a brickies idea of a day is rarely as long as most peoples.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Sure, I'm sure The last bill of quantities I produced in September last year resulted in six tenders, for which the masonry elements ranged between £380 and £450 / 1000 (for two large-ish steel framed masonry clad buildings). Of course, the prices were tied in to a construction programme, which will influence the rates; a bricklaying gang can't piss arse around earning 250 quid / day if they are going to extend the completion date by 6 weeks when Liquidated Damages are £12,500 per week.
Also, what you pay a bricklaying firm is not what they pay their employees. I may be charged - for example - £18 / hr for, say, a pipelaying labourer but said labourer will be paid nearer £10 / hr.
Anyway, FWIW, if the OP can get a good 2+1 gang for £250 / day then
Nuisance Value, Even in hard times I cannot believe these rates,obviously I am doing something wrong as I charge double what you were paying and have no shortage of work as my calender is full for this year already, with jobs ranging from the smallest garden walls, all the way up to new build timber frames houses and all by word of mouth and reputation.
The old idiom concerning monkeys and peanuts comes to mind.
The old idiom concerning monkeys and peanuts comes to mind.
albundy89 - Firstly, this isn't my company so I don't set the rates though I do advise on what we need to pay/charge in order to remain competitive. Secondly, being in the trade means you need to know what your competitors are paying and I know for a fact that these rates are consistent with the majority of major brickwork contractors in central Scotland. I certainly know of others paying less (i.e. deducting openings from measures, £0.50p less on a m2 rate, etc)
Even with rates as low as this, and correspondingly, low Main Contractor rates the company is struggling to secure forward workloads (large 50+ unit sites, enough to keep 12-15 men working), others are simply even cheaper. Profit margins are being squeezed to breaking point, and I imagine this company will go under shortly unless drastic measures are taken.
The brickies themselves are certainly not monkeys, and I resent that remark. We are simply in hard times, though not hard enough to buy work, which I suspect a couple of sub-contractors may be doing. If you are doing well then I would suggest you count your blessings.
Even with rates as low as this, and correspondingly, low Main Contractor rates the company is struggling to secure forward workloads (large 50+ unit sites, enough to keep 12-15 men working), others are simply even cheaper. Profit margins are being squeezed to breaking point, and I imagine this company will go under shortly unless drastic measures are taken.
The brickies themselves are certainly not monkeys, and I resent that remark. We are simply in hard times, though not hard enough to buy work, which I suspect a couple of sub-contractors may be doing. If you are doing well then I would suggest you count your blessings.
North West England, about 18 months ago, 7N 100mm blocks, the heavy ones, I was paying 90p a block, so £9 sqr m.
That was brickie with labourer, inc shifting blocks and all sand/cement etc about 30-40m by barrow.
Their mixer, barrow, towers. My water and tea
Then £300 a day for day rate for the two of them to fit a 6m windpost and beam and block 1st floor - and that was hard hard work - 'elf and safety would have had a coronary.
Note this was mid 2010, so prices may be completely irrelevant now.
For pointed up brickwork that needs to look a proper job as it won't be rendered over, I'd be paying decent rates rather than finding the cheapest new-estate bricklayer as a wobbly bricklayer is as bad as a partially sighted plasterer.
That was brickie with labourer, inc shifting blocks and all sand/cement etc about 30-40m by barrow.
Their mixer, barrow, towers. My water and tea
Then £300 a day for day rate for the two of them to fit a 6m windpost and beam and block 1st floor - and that was hard hard work - 'elf and safety would have had a coronary.
Note this was mid 2010, so prices may be completely irrelevant now.
For pointed up brickwork that needs to look a proper job as it won't be rendered over, I'd be paying decent rates rather than finding the cheapest new-estate bricklayer as a wobbly bricklayer is as bad as a partially sighted plasterer.
kiteless said:
For blockwork, it's dependant on the thickness of the blocks.
100mm thick, on a small project, I'd not baulk at £14 / m2 laid. £18 / m2 tops.
Brickwork, flush pointed one side, £400 / 1000 bricks laid would sound about right.
This is based on a gang of two brickies and one labourer. You'll need to provide a mixing area for the mortar as well. And a small mixer from the likes of Speedy Hire. And mortar.
You could agree an hourly rate for each operative, which would mean about £30 / hr for each brickie and £22 / hr for the labourer.
Important factors to remember:
Ten blocks per m2 (applies to any thickness of block)
65 bricks per m2 (single skin laid stretcher bond)
Stretcher bond looks like this:
way way out on those prices!! too much100mm thick, on a small project, I'd not baulk at £14 / m2 laid. £18 / m2 tops.
Brickwork, flush pointed one side, £400 / 1000 bricks laid would sound about right.
This is based on a gang of two brickies and one labourer. You'll need to provide a mixing area for the mortar as well. And a small mixer from the likes of Speedy Hire. And mortar.
You could agree an hourly rate for each operative, which would mean about £30 / hr for each brickie and £22 / hr for the labourer.
Important factors to remember:
Ten blocks per m2 (applies to any thickness of block)
65 bricks per m2 (single skin laid stretcher bond)
Stretcher bond looks like this:
Apologies to you Nuisance Value I didn`t mean that in a derogotary sense its just that I could not see myself working for these rates and luckily do not have to.
I take on work anywhere ranging literally the length and breadth of the country but mainly based around Perthshire, Tayside.
In fact in the last year I have been as far afield as Putney,Dublin, and even over to France,not because I needed to but because I fancied a change of scenery and even though times have supposedly been hard I always got what I asked for.
Possibly slightly different for me as I only have myself and 6-8 regulars to look out for and am fortunate I can more or less pick and choose who I work for.
I take on work anywhere ranging literally the length and breadth of the country but mainly based around Perthshire, Tayside.
In fact in the last year I have been as far afield as Putney,Dublin, and even over to France,not because I needed to but because I fancied a change of scenery and even though times have supposedly been hard I always got what I asked for.
Possibly slightly different for me as I only have myself and 6-8 regulars to look out for and am fortunate I can more or less pick and choose who I work for.
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff