Typical rate for bricklayer + labourer?

Sunbed · 7 Jun 2016 at 11:04

In usual unprofessional fashion, our gardener has arranged for a new wall to be constructed without written instruction or giving us a proper quote first. We did want it but wanted to know idea of price first. Now we come back from holiday and find wall built and he's asking us for a bill. It's a good job so I'm willing to pay but only for a fair price.

8m wall, roughly 1.6m high.

1474 bricks £850
Coping tiles £200
Skip £170
15 bags cement £60
2 tonnes sand £100
Labour £1400

Foundation:
Sand £50
MOT £50
Cement £30
Labour/collection coping £900

To me, the quantities look OK. I will count bricks tonight to check. But, labour seems very high.

What is typical daily rate for bricklayer + labourer? I don't think it took more than 4 days in total. (1400+900) / 4 = £575 per day seems ridiculous.

cheesyboy · 7 Jun 2016 at 11:10

Almost £4k for a 8m wall seems a lot, intuitively.

And googling suggests it really is a lot:

http://quotationcheck.com/garden-wall-prices/

R.O.S.S.I · 7 Jun 2016 at 11:23

Wowzers. Pants down moment right there. Labour seems very, very high.

Based on what I've just paid for some work in my garden I wouldn't be paying a bricky any more than £125-£150 a day and a general labourer £75-£100 a day.

£575 for the two of them is nuts imo.

Mark M · 7 Jun 2016 at 12:09

Just had a quote for a 35m wall - 5 bricks high above ground with top brick turned on its side (eg no coping tile) with breeze block behind it comes to £3,150. I had another for £4,200. I dont have a split on labour but unless its a bloody big wall or near impossible working environement it seems expensive?

booyaka · 7 Jun 2016 at 13:13

I think you've got him over a barrel.

He did work you didn't agree a price for and now wants paid £4k for it!

I think he knows he's messed up and has quote very high hoping that you agree at around £3k or so.

I would chop the labour costs in half for sure.

tom_e · 7 Jun 2016 at 13:34

I'd be close to telling him to tear it down and stick his bill just for the cheek of trying to charge that much labour!

badbiddy · 7 Jun 2016 at 13:42

Last time I checked (and that was not recently) a bricklayer would take about £12 per hour. Of course as a client, you will pay more than that (50% doesn't seem unreasonable).

However a quick Google suggests they are in demand and that you'll be expecting to pay a lot more than that.

At the end of the day, if you're not happy with the bill, don't pay it. Go get a quote from another builder before you fly off the wall though, it maybe that your 'idea' of what to pay for laying some bricks is unrealistic.

badbiddy · 7 Jun 2016 at 13:45

Just re-read your OP.

If you gave verbal consent to build it and be charged later you have no chance of questioning it. Also, how do you know it took 4 days if you were on holiday?

2x bricklayers at £250 each is hardly that much anyway is it?? I get charged out at over £1k per day for what I do (not that I even get to see a quarter of that)

koolpc · 7 Jun 2016 at 13:52

If you didn't give him the ok to start the job then i can't see how he can ask you for payment when you didn't see the costs / estimate in the first place!

Tell him that the price is way more than what you would ever pay and that if he doesn't come back with a more reasonable price he will have to pull the wall down at his own expense!

Sunbed · 7 Jun 2016 at 14:02

It's the £1400 for laying about 1400 bricks I have the biggest problem with. £1 per brick?!?!

Google tells me 50p per brick would be very high, but most pages are quite old. If £1 per brick in nice area of Manchester is the going rate these days then fine. It also tells me I need to quit my job and become a bricklayer.

koolpc said:
If you didn't give him the ok to start the job then i can't see how he can ask you for payment when you didn't see the costs / estimate in the first place!

Tell him that the price is way more than what you would ever pay and that if he doesn't come back with a more reasonable price he will have to pull the wall down at his own expense!

I'm nearly at that point but I'd rather just offer a new price but with a fair labour rate. He said brickies won't get out of bed for 50p. I'm not so sure.

tom_e · 7 Jun 2016 at 14:08

Get a couple of quotes from other local companies is probably going to be the best way to get an accurate labour cost for your area. You never know you may live in some sort of bricklaying bubble area that has massively inflated costs.

badbiddy · 7 Jun 2016 at 14:17

Sunbed said:
It's the £1400 for laying about 1400 bricks I have the biggest problem with. £1 per brick?!?!

On the face of it, that does sound like a lot- considering how fast a decent brickie can lay them, but was there a lot of prep work involved? It's hard to judge without knowing what happened.

You being unhappy with it though, all I can suggest is first try speaking to them, let them know you're just a bit surprised it's so much (try not to say it in a way that you don't think their time is valuable).

You may be able to negotiate it down to a figure you're both happy with, saving yourself an ongoing dispute which will probably end up more expensive than just paying the total bill now and forgetting about it.

lude1962 · 7 Jun 2016 at 16:07

'our gardener has arranged for a new wall to be constructed without written instruction or giving us a proper quote first.'

backhander from his brickie mate hence high cost?

day rates

I notice no mention of digger/ cemet mixer hire?

Sunbed · 7 Jun 2016 at 17:00

It's guy he always uses, and to be fair it's a good job. I imagine because he knows it's subcontracted he just gives an extremely high/uncompetitive rate.

koolpc · 7 Jun 2016 at 17:22

I wouldn't give 'him' a price. Tell him o come back with a more reasonable cost first. You can always tell him you will shop around for costs first. Hope it works out for you.

Dis86 · 7 Jun 2016 at 17:50

Brickies round here are on about 120 a day, labradors about 80.

Rotty · 7 Jun 2016 at 17:54

Dis86 said:
Brickies round here are on about 120 a day, labradors about 80.

This would be top end, less for cash

ash_91 · 7 Jun 2016 at 18:02

A lot depends where you are in the country, round here you would be looking at 180+ a day for Bricky and 100 for decent labourer

PlacidCasual · 7 Jun 2016 at 19:26

I'm not in the trade but for house building i was under the impression it was around £400-500 per 1000 depending on where you are but that may not be like for like.

ash_91 · 7 Jun 2016 at 22:38

PlacidCasual said:
I'm not in the trade but for house building i was under the impression it was around £400-500 per 1000 depending on where you are but that may not be like for like.

Yes, but that's new build site work, domestic work will be priced differently