Typical rate for bricklayer + labourer?

[Sunbed]

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.

 

[Sunbed]

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.

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.

 

[Sunbed]

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.

 

[Sunbed]

Would be nice to know Sunbeds outcome.

Just saw this thread again by chance. Ended up paying a little less than original quoted price but the whole experience (including garden stuff) could have been much better. Essentially I paid a premium for getting the landscape gardeners to sort everything rather than being patient and getting separate quotes for labour intensive jobs. I will have to put it down to a learning experience.

Just in case anyone comes across this thread again.
The price for the bricklayer was spot on. Your looking at a £ a brick for private work.
£900 for the foundation is where you have been stung. It would take a day to dig out and concrete that so roughly £200 - £250

Actually the £900 covered digging out and removing concrete/timber fence post plus a load of tree/ivy stumps, so it was probably more like 2-3 days. Even so it still sounds like I was over-charged here.