Brickies wage?!

Amps · 11 Sep 2008 at 21:52

I am a Site QS

A brickie is not the highest paid trade the highest paid non specialist trade is electrical.

A brickies chargeout rate in this part of the country is around £24/per hour an electrician is around £30.50. Joiner around £24-£26 depending on type/skills.

In the building trade trades people either get paid on a price i.e. per M2 of brick or by the hour brickies are generally paid by the M2 but it depends on how the work is tendered initially.

Heliospherez · 11 Sep 2008 at 21:52

Round here it's £500 a week cash in hand....but thats for a 30 hour week roughly. £100 a day (most here work just 6 hours) if you know the guys. £150 if you want the 8 or 9 hours off them.

There's big variations in quality though.....and some can take double the amount of time to build the same wall. And in this environment, do you really think there's a need for extra brickies..... most I know are lloking to move to Aus as they've had virtually no work for the last 6 months.

The Polish will do it for £5 less an hour....Virtually no new builds are being completed....and how many people have the money for a big extension ?

Hedge · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:01

Amps said:
I am a Site QS

A brickie is not the highest paid trade the highest paid non specialist trade is electrical.

A brickies chargeout rate in this part of the country is around £24/per hour an electrician is around £30.50. Joiner around £24-£26 depending on type/skills.

In the building trade trades people either get paid on a price i.e. per M2 of brick or by the hour brickies are generally paid by the M2 but it depends on how the work is tendered initially.

Are electricians not a specialist trade? woah i didnt know that lol. is a gas fitter a specialist trade?, if not. what is classed as one?

Amps · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:04

Hedge said:
Are electricians not a specialist trade? woah i didnt know that lol. is a gas fitter a specialist trade?, if not. what is classed as one?

Gas fitters are paid similarly to electricians , infact slightly more I kind of overlooked them as I have never employed any on a construction site.

Hedge · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:05

Amps said:
Gas fitters are paid similarly to electricians , infact slightly more I kind of overlooked them as I have never employed any on a construction site.

yeah ive always seen the similarity in wages, but when you say specialist trade, what kind of trades would they be?

Amps · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:16

Ornate stone repairers , plaster repairers (Ie the guys that fix ancient cornicing) or repair old statues , asbestos handling.

It depends on the contract but we are sometimes instructed to use specialist subcontractors to carry out specialist works an example of which would be the reconstruction of the cornicing of a court building I am currently refurbishing. Historic Scotland provided us with company names and trades people that we must use as they were to be of a certain standard.

doublehelix2 · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:46

So £30 x 37 is 1110 a week. Are they self employed? (Nice wage)

Feek · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:47

If work's slack, you can always go and live in a hut in Germany.

Hedge · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:49

Amps said:
Ornate stone repairers , plaster repairers (Ie the guys that fix ancient cornicing) or repair old statues , asbestos handling.

It depends on the contract but we are sometimes instructed to use specialist subcontractors to carry out specialist works an example of which would be the reconstruction of the cornicing of a court building I am currently refurbishing. Historic Scotland provided us with company names and trades people that we must use as they were to be of a certain standard.

ah yeah i see.

thanks for info mate

Rotty · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:51

My day was a brickie for most of his life, bever made anything like £1000 a week

as said £80-100 a day for cash in hand is about normal,"on the books" a bit less , contractors maybe a bit more and

lemonkettaz · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:54

Im sure if steel erectors can make £1000 a week.. surely brickies can?

mind you steel erectors got to work 7days and the digs money is with that working away.

Working away on site is where the money is apparently

Hedge · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:54

Rotty said:
My day was a brickie for most of his life, bever made anything like £1000 a week

as said £80-100 a day for cash in hand is about normal,"on the books" a bit less , contractors maybe a bit more and

A lot of figures seem to be out of the ordinary. I know a number of gas fitters and plumbers, and i have 2 uncles who are plasterers, and friends who are brickies..

they earn a solid wage, but certainly not 1k+ per week

bigredshark · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:55

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!

You need to find a new employer, I'm an infrastructure architect and I've made £450/day contracting...

SB118 · 11 Sep 2008 at 22:57

doublehelix2 said:
Out of interest what do the sparky and joiner earn? /nosy

Dunno the exact numbers but my dad was just quoted over a grand to get a 3 bedroom place rewired. :eek:

Which is why muggins is doing it for nowt

Hedge · 11 Sep 2008 at 23:02

SB118 said:
Dunno the exact numbers but my dad was just quoted over a grand to get a 3 bedroom place rewired. Which is why muggins is doing it for nowt

over a grand for a 3 bedroom house rewire is a good price

bigredshark · 11 Sep 2008 at 23:04

Hedge said:
over a grand for a 3 bedroom house rewire is a good price

I was going to say, including cabling and stuff, sounds like a very good price?

NeoReloaded · 11 Sep 2008 at 23:11

Well i finished my apprenticeship last July and im "only" on £120 a day, 42-50 hours a week! Your only going to make £1000+ if your on price work and busting your balls chucking bricks/blocks down!

doublehelix2 · 12 Sep 2008 at 13:45

Rofl. I bumped into a lad I went to school last night in the pub, and he was saying his uncle is in the trades and on 150k. I was surprised for two reasons. One, he is asian. Two it was quite a coincidence.

mrk · 12 Sep 2008 at 13:58

doublehelix2 said:
Rofl. I bumped into a lad I went to school last night in the pub, and he was saying his uncle is in the trades and on 150k. I was surprised for two reasons. One, he is asian. Two it was quite a coincidence.

So you're saying if I became asian then i could get 150k ??!

Ex-RoNiN · 12 Sep 2008 at 14:10

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!

Why not use your qualifications to get a proper I.T. job, instead of wasting away as an Infrastructure Engineer?

EDIT: bigredshark has shown how to do it. With a degree, you should be architect/designer/analyst, not engineer/insertotherspecialistrolehere