Brickies wage?!

Mr_T

Mr_T

Mr_T

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Joined
7 Feb 2006
Posts
726
Location
Perth, Australia
I was chatting to some mates last night, one is a joiner the other is a sparky. We got chatting about wages etc and I was amazed to find out that a brick layer could earn £1000 a week, and that they were generally the highest paid tradesmen on a site.

Now I've no idea how hard it is to be a brickie, but I imagine I could learn the technique / skills etc in 6 months - 1 year.

Which then made me think about my own situation... 28, Infrastructure engineer for an IT company, earning around £500 a week. It's taken me, good gcse's, a levels, 4 years at uni, a tonne of other IT qualifications after uni to get where I am now. I'm not going to change career, but damn sometimes I ask myself why I bothered!
 
It's not that its a hard trade, its that there is limited supply of brickies around, so they can demand whatever wages they want. Same deal for plasterers.

Not saying its an easy job either, but thats the reason old boy.
 
and it's a somewhat essential part of building a house in general, same goes for plumbers and electricians being able to charge so much, if you have a need and there's not many people who can fill that need they can charge a lot
 
yeah they normally get paid per number of bricks they lay, not an hourly rate.

also, there are some crap brickies around, and some seriously good ones, its not as simple as it looks.

particularly when you look at some of the brickwork on modern builds now, with patterns and complex arches etc
 
When i was leaving school (1994) it was looked down upon if someone showed an interest in anything like that. plumbing/electrician any kind of trade really.

What a load of rubbish that was !
 
Its still looked down on probably, at least it was still when i left school in 2003.

Again i know people that have gone on to do it and they are laughing now with all the money they can make.

Me i'm still at Uni skimping about on a measly part time wage.

However i know that im going into a high demand sector so i should be laughing myself in a few years.

I hate the attitude that a lot of students have, just because they are at uni or college think they are better than the people that went into work after gcse's

It depends what they are doing, because a lot of students havent got a clue what they are doing in life and end up on dead end courses.
 
Mr_T said:
I was chatting to some mates last night, one is a joiner the other is a sparky. We got chatting about wages etc and I was amazed to find out that a brick layer could earn £1000 a week, and that they were generally the highest paid tradesmen on a site.

Now I've no idea how hard it is to be a brickie, but I imagine I could learn the technique / skills etc in 6 months - 1 year.

Which then made me think about my own situation... 28, Infrastructure engineer for an IT company, earning around £500 a week. It's taken me, good gcse's, a levels, 4 years at uni, a tonne of other IT qualifications after uni to get where I am now. I'm not going to change career, but damn sometimes I ask myself why I bothered!
Click to expand...

All that time wasted learning things for only £24k? how long have you been out of Uni?
 
Mr_T said:
I was chatting to some mates last night, one is a joiner the other is a sparky. We got chatting about wages etc and I was amazed to find out that a brick layer could earn £1000 a week, and that they were generally the highest paid tradesmen on a site.

Now I've no idea how hard it is to be a brickie, but I imagine I could learn the technique / skills etc in 6 months - 1 year.

Which then made me think about my own situation... 28, Infrastructure engineer for an IT company, earning around £500 a week. It's taken me, good gcse's, a levels, 4 years at uni, a tonne of other IT qualifications after uni to get where I am now. I'm not going to change career, but damn sometimes I ask myself why I bothered!
Click to expand...

You're not outside in the rain right now.
 
Mr_T said:
Now I've no idea how hard it is to be a brickie, but I imagine I could learn the technique / skills etc in 6 months - 1 year.
Click to expand...

What about the other 3 years you would have in an apprentiship?;)

They dont just start out and learn the technique in a year and they are on there way.
It takes a few years to be a quallified brickie
 
Mr_T said:
I was chatting to some mates last night, one is a joiner the other is a sparky. We got chatting about wages etc and I was amazed to find out that a brick layer could earn £1000 a week, and that they were generally the highest paid tradesmen on a site.
Click to expand...

I know Brickies who earn more than that, around here they usually get paid per 1000 bricks. Certainly isn't an easy job and you have to remember during the summer you will struggle to have any time off whatsoever but be sitting around doing nothing during the winter months. It is also very hard work and physically you need to be really tough because it isn't easy work. Sometimes you might need to make more complex patterns and these days a lot of people like fancy arches etc and you need to know what you are doing for those. Lets just say most brickies aren't the sharpest guys around and you will find that guys who love physical work rather than technical work are more attracted by jobs like that. Same goes for plasterers, good money but really tiring stuff and you need to be tough to cope with that kind of physical work.

Depends on what market you aim at as well, you gonna do normal extensions or much bigger new build homes and you need teams for that, you will probably need a little team even for small extensions. Smaller extensions and smaller jobs you usually get paid mainly cash but for bigger jobs it will probably be a bit more official lets say ;) You need to pay your guys well as well otherwise they will leave. You might find much of the time you train some guy up and once he knows what to do he will leave you, just the way it goes really.
 
Morba said:
All that time wasted learning things for only £24k? how long have you been out of Uni?
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more like 26k, but been out of uni since 2002... and yeah sometimes it feels like wasted time. I know I could earn more elsewhere the North East is notorious for poor IT wages.

monkeyspank said:
You're not outside in the rain right now.
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I don't think that would bother me too much, in fact sometimes I think being stuck at a desk being a "blob" is far worse :p
 
My Uncle has been a Brickie for years and years now, and my Cousin followed in his footsteps straight out of School. Why? 'Cause they make a fat wedge!

But yes, they're not very bright. :p
 
Truth^^

I imagine though that with the decline in development projects, there will soon be many brickies who are out of work, and with their lack of qualifications will struggle to find proper work elsewhere.
 
Mr_T said:
more like 26k, but been out of uni since 2002... and yeah sometimes it feels like wasted time. I know I could earn more elsewhere the North East is notorious for poor IT wages.
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Kinda, but it depends on who you work for.

Move to somewhere better paid?
Can't say i would want to be working out in the rain in the NE, it would be lots of days of no work, which when you are on a per brick rate, is not good!
 
They're usually hired as a freelance team with labourer etc and get paid either by the 1,000 laid or square yard/metre. Guys who are learning or not great craftsmen get the internal non facing stuff (usually blocks) and good bricklayers get the facing/showy stuff usually but as someone said, £1,000 a week sounds good until you find that you are only working 8 months of the year if you're lucky.

Each to their own I guess.
 
Mr_T said:
I was chatting to some mates last night, one is a joiner the other is a sparky. We got chatting about wages etc and I was amazed to find out that a brick layer could earn £1000 a week, and that they were generally the highest paid tradesmen on a site.

Now I've no idea how hard it is to be a brickie, but I imagine I could learn the technique / skills etc in 6 months - 1 year.

Which then made me think about my own situation... 28, Infrastructure engineer for an IT company, earning around £500 a week. It's taken me, good gcse's, a levels, 4 years at uni, a tonne of other IT qualifications after uni to get where I am now. I'm not going to change career, but damn sometimes I ask myself why I bothered!
Click to expand...

Out of interest what do the sparky and joiner earn? /nosy
 
£1000 a week isn't uncommon for a bricky but its just finding the work thats the hard bit and finding it consistantly. Some blokes I know can't get enough work and others won't get out of bed for less than £200 a day (finishing at 3pm)...
 
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