I've just had a quote for a drive putting in with a 1ft deep of soil taking off 20ft x 40ft . He reckons it'll take a week & the quote was £5k in labour alone (there's only 2 of them) with £12K in other costs. That's why I'm watching plenty of videos to do it myself. 😅
Yea depends what material you had priced for and if vat is in that price .Also access and site conditions ie soakaways drainage manholes etc.If your able to do it all yourself then go for it and good luck send me a photo when its done 🙂👍🧱👌
Thanks Grizzly, good advice, I would also add something on for plant, digger and fuel etc, plus a bit towards wear and tear and replacement of tools, disc cutter, angle grinder, mixer etc
🤣🤣👍 thanks paul good points there mate .Was a small job so could get away with it but yes very good point and great point about the tools etc. Appreciate the comments Justin 👍
Agree with everything you said, great vid. The only thing I would add to it is to allow in your rate for downtime i.e bad weather, deliveries not on time etc. I calculated this year that between these two alone we lost 28days Also to allow for equipment maintenance etc which I know people have already mentioned in previous comments
Great comments and it just goes to show then how much work actually costs with all the bits on top you rightly stated. Then your up against idiots pricing to cheap . Great comments. Thanks Justin 👍
Exactly what I was thinking im new to pricing not sure if anyone else does it but my old boss told me after ive worked my exspences out i add a day or 2 labour depending on size of the job for any wiggle room like down time from deliveries if works taken a little longer than you thought ect also portaloo if customer wont allow you use of there's lol
Another great video I’am so glad you mentioned contingencies and the biggest one Profit, I think it’s very easy to miss when you first start out on your own, it’s taking on a whole new thing running a business this is why videos like this are great. Grizzly Adams and the Bear loved that programme you have to many grey hair 😂 all the best Tony 👍 Happy New Year and a prosperous one.
Haha a lot of valid points mate water 🚿 is key nightmare when no tap or non with neighbours exc. lol. a lot don’t realise how much certain bricks 🧱 in slabs can cost. Good video so pressed the subscribe bottom. 👍🏻
Great video. I know to many lads that think they should be pricing up privates like prices on site, but my experience is you can't price a wall just on per Bricks/block there is to many factors to take into consideration
Brilliant advice Justin!. There will be alarm bells ringing in people's ears now as I know people won't put the effort in to think like this when quoting. It's a minefield out there and like you said you don't know what's under the ground. Great video and a good eye opener 😁
Great video.. I left Bricklaying about 20 years ago a couple of years after completing my apprenticeship. I worked for some who expected me to have the same speed as guys with loads of experience. I gave up in the end, but toying with the idea of going back. Could you do a video advising how to get work on site? More specifically; how to approach and quote and get the work. Im guessing you just go up to a site agent but not sure.
Haven't been on site specifically for over 20 years now all my work is domestic works . An improver is what you'd be on site . I do have a video about quoting .Good luck 👍
great points justin its a far cry from working on a site to working for yourself in the private sector,and not suited to everyone,working on site is the easier option if you want a easy life but 100% right in saying you cannot rely on bricklaying alone to keep you busy unless you sub a bit of other small builders,you also mentioned costs which some people never even think of and which adds to more people undercutting the rest of us without realising they are and that they are undervaluing themselves in turn end up being busy fools
I would point out that your costs are based upon your own ways of building, I see lots of brickwork in wall around here where the knick ou the original wall and leave the base layers under soil level, They then build back on that rather than digging out new concrete. For cost you should know your basic daily costs for labour, tools and business items. then on top your materials plus labour ,plus a profit margin for things that go wrong and future things like emergencies when things go wrong or savings and takes and regulation changes
Thanks Paul appreciate all of that was just giving an insight to bricklayers who are thinking of leaving site but haven't because they struggle with price. My ideas i by no means a given and just a guide . Thanks paul Justin 👍
I was shopping around the builders merchants for prices, what a real eye opener. Travis want £80 for a jumbo bag of sand, Selco is £47. That is Cardiff btw, and i thought i had a trade account with Travis 😳😂
They all try it on you have to hagle its like going to a market stall in the 80s using a builders merchants. Shouldn't happen but it does im affraid darren
Great content and very useful video thank you! What does i’ll sort you a big drink mean I’m guessing abit of change £50+ alot of tradies say it vice versa when subbing out jobs not sure if your familiar with it?
Need to add say 25 days out the 200 working days per annum for downed days. Rainy days. These rainy days must be incorporated into private pricing aswell. Not always going to be able to do the job every day. Nature of our weather.
I accept all your considerations but surely the should have all been cost as you visit the site for estimates and ensure you are paid a fair rate for the job, That can be hard when the cheapy guys come along and underbid and often do an inferior job. I normally cost materials to the customer separate to labour tools cost and never had problems, unless they try to bid you down. when your doing pointing work it can become a problem as folks think its a sort of cheapy job so shouldn't cost much.
Pointing is a skilled job especially weather struck to get it right not everyone can do it can they. The rest the video is a guide Paul thats all and i wanted to bring to peoples minds the things i consider when i price and i have left things out before thats cost me so it was just to raise things that some of us dont think about mate. Thanks for your comments . Justin brickright 👍
I'm in the Greater London area and I do both site work and private work. I'll always lean towards private work but I still keep my CSCS card in date in case I can't find my own work and have to go on site. Now, speaking of the word 'site'. There's site work and then there site work. If you're doing met-sec work on the big concrete frames and you're working for the likes of Lee Marley or Landmark (the latter I'll never, ever work for again) the work is pretty poor. However, on medium sized jobs like one or two small blocks of flats or a small housing site the quality of work is comes under much greater scrutiny from the foreman but in general smaller firms are better to work for when you're on site.
@@brickrightbuildinglandscaping Site work in London isn't all doom and gloom (or "the dark side"). Like many trowels from around the UK I went to London because I was sick of just building houses and wanted to learn more and expand upon my experience. There's a different attitude in London compared to the rest of the UK in that if you want to learn a trade you don't have to wait in line to get on the trowel like I did before I left West Sussex and moved to London. Get rained off? Ask the plastering foreman if they need a labourer to knock up plaster and have a go on some bits that'll be hidden, if you catch my drift. In London you can get on much faster than the rest of the UK but the competition is so much more fierce.
@@evocarti again a great insight to london and how its so different to the uk .Glad your happy on site and thanks again for the insight. Justin brickright 👍
What I have found a lot recently is the client cutting out the builder and trying to run the job themselves, they will get a groundworker in who in turn recommends a bricklayer etc etc. All of whom will include materials This is all down to certain television programmes, I don't mind it personally because I can just turn up do my brickwork then on to the next one but on the other hand they are doing builders no favours
Mark dont even start me on those tv shows 🤣. Everyone wants an A1 standard job by the best peoole on a budget. Some peoole deserve exactly what the get mark 👍
@@brickrightbuildinglandscaping I know exactly what you mean justin and its those same people we all try to avoid, they're nearly as bad as the ones who want a quote on an extension on a house they don't own yet
🤣🤣 love them people. Or the ones that ask for a quote but they want it done say march i cant do the work until say for example june but they still want you to quote just to use you as a price comparison. A bloody cheek some people dont care do thay 🙂👍
Being a Builder in the private sector is no walk in the park, and I find pricing has got to be THE most difficult part of the job, competition out there can be fierce, I find there's just too many Builders who are only too willing to cut your throat to get the work. I'm a brickie myself who left the sites 30 years ago to start on my own, I haven't made my fortune, I'd say at times I've managed to make a decent living out of it, and at worst I've just managed to eek a living from it, what with recessions and double dips, and now we got this this pandemic (I'll refrain from getting on my soap box over that one). But as we all know, being recommended by previous customers is usually the best way to get the work, but that's still never a guarantee, I find the majority of people look at the bottom line first, and if they can save money, then they are usually quite happy to take a chance on some random guy who's quote came in a £1000 cheaper than yours (just to use as an example). Ha, and don't get me started on Plumbers, that's a licence to print money. But overall, you simply can't dress the building trade up in any way, it's far from being a glamorous occupation, whether you're on site or doing private work, it's all hard dirty work...Thankfully I haven't got that long to go before I retire, and TBH, I won't miss it...well, maybe I will...a bit
I can feel your frustration and what you have said i cant disagree with really .especially the bit about the money ive been to prive so many jobs up and loose out to an idiot that hasnt done the job to the standards i priced for so many times. Its like people dont want a good job sometimes. Its actually only a small percentage of people that do so i now go through qualifying questions before i even book a quote in. Its hard and frustrating all the time but you have to concentrate on the small few that actually get it and being able to route the other people out thats the tricks. Keep smiling keep at it dont let them get you down Justin brickright 👍
Alway tough not to take it personally though. I’ve been at this for over 20 years only to be undercut by an irk hat has just started with no vat and a new VW with low profiles. It shouldn’t be about the bottom line but we are all guilty of that. What qualifying questions do you like to ask Justin. Just found your site btw. Keep at it..
@@Aussie.rules69 Welcome to the channel Taylor. I have to agree with you if someone undercuts me i just move on .I know my work my quality and my service as a hole has my clients best interests at heart but if people want to save money and think they will get the sane same experience then let em crack on good luck with that .If they haven't bought in to my business and what we are all about im glad i never got the job. My questions are just about site access and the job to build a picture Taylor. Good luck with everything mate keep smiling move on to the next one be better for it in the ling run. Justin 👍
Alrigjt Jim As i said it was just an exercise to show how to work out a wall just a rough gauge on labour prices that was for people to add there own labour prices . Also a key point is to consider how many days you would charge so it wasnt a definite price just a Tutorial Jim Thanks for your thoughts on it grear thanks jim Justin 👍
Site work is brilliant for a bricky.as for no pride or being rough.thats down to the forman to get rid of the muppets.in me experience if your shit you will soon be found out
Ok John It was about £1800 but made clear to the client they need a contingency as explain in the video. Was only an example of pricing John. Hope that helps Justin 👍
too reasonable never do private work for a third party unless you know them well or an architect who is a project manager danger people always want work done cheap, being too nice and inexperienced is a bad mix
Bricklayer should be getting $10 a brick building a whole house. All the builders sellers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars and the bricklayer work for free. Every one should stop working let the builder lay the ffff bricks them self
Good video, no wonder we get under cut though when you say it’s 150 a day for a bricklayer
I've just had a quote for a drive putting in with a 1ft deep of soil taking off 20ft x 40ft . He reckons it'll take a week & the quote was £5k in labour alone (there's only 2 of them) with £12K in other costs. That's why I'm watching plenty of videos to do it myself. 😅
Yea depends what material you had priced for and if vat is in that price .Also access and site conditions ie soakaways drainage manholes etc.If your able to do it all yourself then go for it and good luck send me a photo when its done 🙂👍🧱👌
If you dig out a cubic metre of earth out it bulks up by 30/50% also 1350 high 2 skins of stretcher got to be tied together 😮
Thanks Grizzly, good advice, I would also add something on for plant, digger and fuel etc, plus a bit towards wear and tear and replacement of tools, disc cutter, angle grinder, mixer etc
🤣🤣👍 thanks paul good points there mate .Was a small job so could get away with it but yes very good point and great point about the tools etc.
Appreciate the comments
Justin 👍
All very valid points Justin , So easy to overlook things . Explains the REALITY of the job .
Thanks very much
Hi mate, spot on and honest in wot your saying. I mainly do private work and agree with all the points you make.
Great video.
Thanks Simon definitely a subject that many can relate to 👍💯
Agree with everything you said, great vid.
The only thing I would add to it is to allow in your rate for downtime i.e bad weather, deliveries not on time etc.
I calculated this year that between these two alone we lost 28days
Also to allow for equipment maintenance etc which I know people have already mentioned in previous comments
Great comments and it just goes to show then how much work actually costs with all the bits on top you rightly stated.
Then your up against idiots pricing to cheap .
Great comments.
Thanks
Justin 👍
Exactly what I was thinking im new to pricing not sure if anyone else does it but my old boss told me after ive worked my exspences out i add a day or 2 labour depending on size of the job for any wiggle room like down time from deliveries if works taken a little longer than you thought ect also portaloo if customer wont allow you use of there's lol
Thank you very much this has given me so much to think about when qouteing as I've started my self at the start of covid
Your most welcome lee and good luck .If you need any help let me know
Justin
Great video much appreciated I myself have left site work and started private so much happier keep the videos coming.
Thanks Dean
All the best to you on privates good luck mate
Justin 👍
Another great video I’am so glad you mentioned contingencies and the biggest one Profit, I think it’s very easy to miss when you first start out on your own, it’s taking on a whole new thing running a business this is why videos like this are great.
Grizzly Adams and the Bear loved that programme you have to many grey hair 😂 all the best Tony 👍 Happy New Year and a prosperous one.
Thanks Tony for the kind comments. I do have to much grey hair thats running a business for you 🤣 same to you happy new year be safe mate 👍
Justin
Haha a lot of valid points mate water 🚿 is key nightmare when no tap or non with neighbours exc. lol. a lot don’t realise how much certain bricks 🧱 in slabs can cost. Good video so pressed the subscribe bottom. 👍🏻
Great appreciate it yes your right they dont understand how much materials and good materials cost .
Be safe justin 👍
Great video. I know to many lads that think they should be pricing up privates like prices on site, but my experience is you can't price a wall just on per Bricks/block there is to many factors to take into consideration
Absolutely right Michael
Thanks mate
Justin 👍
Brilliant advice Justin!. There will be alarm bells ringing in people's ears now as I know people won't put the effort in to think like this when quoting. It's a minefield out there and like you said you don't know what's under the ground. Great video and a good eye opener 😁
Thanks don appreciate it mate 👍
Great video.. I left Bricklaying about 20 years ago a couple of years after completing my apprenticeship. I worked for some who expected me to have the same speed as guys with loads of experience. I gave up in the end, but toying with the idea of going back. Could you do a video advising how to get work on site? More specifically; how to approach and quote and get the work. Im guessing you just go up to a site agent but not sure.
Haven't been on site specifically for over 20 years now all my work is domestic works .
An improver is what you'd be on site .
I do have a video about quoting .Good luck 👍
@brickrightbuildinglandscaping Thanks mate, appreciate it.
@@brickrightbuildinglandscapingdo you have the link to this video please 🙏
@@JimJimpmjj ruclips.net/video/RGk-fJKpQ2Y/видео.htmlsi=S0jeuNzWcc4PV5Il
@@brickrightbuildinglandscaping thanks so much 👍
great points justin its a far cry from working on a site to working for yourself in the private sector,and not suited to everyone,working on site is the easier option if you want a easy life but 100% right in saying you cannot rely on bricklaying alone to keep you busy unless you sub a bit of other small builders,you also mentioned costs which some people never even think of and which adds to more people undercutting the rest of us without realising they are and that they are undervaluing themselves in turn end up being busy fools
Spot on with what you say and i loose work to those people aswel very hard to deal with .
Great points
Thanks
I would point out that your costs are based upon your own ways of building, I see lots of brickwork in wall around here where the knick ou the original wall and leave the base layers under soil level, They then build back on that rather than digging out new concrete.
For cost you should know your basic daily costs for labour, tools and business items. then on top your materials plus labour ,plus a profit margin for things that go wrong and future
things like emergencies when things go wrong or savings and takes and regulation changes
Thanks Paul appreciate all of that was just giving an insight to bricklayers who are thinking of leaving site but haven't because they struggle with price.
My ideas i by no means a given and just a guide .
Thanks paul
Justin 👍
I was shopping around the builders merchants for prices, what a real eye opener. Travis want £80 for a jumbo bag of sand, Selco is £47. That is Cardiff btw, and i thought i had a trade account with Travis 😳😂
They all try it on you have to hagle its like going to a market stall in the 80s using a builders merchants.
Shouldn't happen but it does im affraid darren
I would add on break down cover for your van and mini digger ect
Hi Jack
Good shout it all counts mate
Justin 👍
Nice video some good Information thanks for taking your time out to make the video am going to start putting some of that profit Into my prices
Thanks Joshua
We are all guilty of not making a profit i still leave it now but we should all be making money not breaking even.
Glad it helped you 👍
Great content and very useful video thank you! What does i’ll sort you a big drink mean I’m guessing abit of change £50+ alot of tradies say it vice versa when subbing out jobs not sure if your familiar with it?
@db_0042 I no what you mean 👍
Thankyou my man Justin, great advice. This video, aswell as others has really helped!!! 👌Loving your work 💪
Glad it helped .
Good luck to you mate
Justin 👍
Need to add say 25 days out the 200 working days per annum for downed days. Rainy days. These rainy days must be incorporated into private pricing aswell. Not always going to be able to do the job every day. Nature of our weather.
Absolutely spot on i think there Christopher
Justin 👍
I accept all your considerations but surely the should have all been cost as you visit the site for estimates and ensure you are paid a fair rate for the job, That can be hard when the cheapy guys come along and underbid and often do an inferior job.
I normally cost materials to the customer separate to labour tools cost and never had problems, unless they try to bid you down.
when your doing pointing work it can become a problem as folks think its a sort of cheapy job so shouldn't cost much.
Pointing is a skilled job especially weather struck to get it right not everyone can do it can they.
The rest the video is a guide Paul thats all and i wanted to bring to peoples minds the things i consider when i price and i have left things out before thats cost me so it was just to raise things that some of us dont think about mate.
Thanks for your comments .
Justin brickright 👍
Fantastic video and insight as usual Justin! 🙌💯⚒
Thanks George appreciate that mate 👍
I'm in the Greater London area and I do both site work and private work. I'll always lean towards private work but I still keep my CSCS card in date in case I can't find my own work and have to go on site. Now, speaking of the word 'site'. There's site work and then there site work. If you're doing met-sec work on the big concrete frames and you're working for the likes of Lee Marley or Landmark (the latter I'll never, ever work for again) the work is pretty poor. However, on medium sized jobs like one or two small blocks of flats or a small housing site the quality of work is comes under much greater scrutiny from the foreman but in general smaller firms are better to work for when you're on site.
Great point from a London perspective very different there to the rest of the uk 👍
@@brickrightbuildinglandscaping Site work in London isn't all doom and gloom (or "the dark side"). Like many trowels from around the UK I went to London because I was sick of just building houses and wanted to learn more and expand upon my experience. There's a different attitude in London compared to the rest of the UK in that if you want to learn a trade you don't have to wait in line to get on the trowel like I did before I left West Sussex and moved to London. Get rained off? Ask the plastering foreman if they need a labourer to knock up plaster and have a go on some bits that'll be hidden, if you catch my drift. In London you can get on much faster than the rest of the UK but the competition is so much more fierce.
@@evocarti again a great insight to london and how its so different to the uk .Glad your happy on site and thanks again for the insight.
Justin brickright 👍
What I have found a lot recently is the client cutting out the builder and trying to run the job themselves, they will get a groundworker in who in turn recommends a bricklayer etc etc. All of whom will include materials
This is all down to certain television programmes, I don't mind it personally because I can just turn up do my brickwork then on to the next one but on the other hand they are doing builders no favours
Mark dont even start me on those tv shows 🤣.
Everyone wants an A1 standard job by the best peoole on a budget. Some peoole deserve exactly what the get mark 👍
@@brickrightbuildinglandscaping I know exactly what you mean justin and its those same people we all try to avoid, they're nearly as bad as the ones who want a quote on an extension on a house they don't own yet
🤣🤣 love them people.
Or the ones that ask for a quote but they want it done say march i cant do the work until say for example june but they still want you to quote just to use you as a price comparison. A bloody cheek some people dont care do thay 🙂👍
@@brickrightbuildinglandscaping brings back the old argument about paying for quotes👍🍻🧱
@@markanderson6969
I no people that do and yes it would rule out all the idiots and theres plenty out there its a great point to make mark 👍
From my previous comment I'm going to make a generic spreadsheet using your info. Cheers Grizzly.😊
Glad to help.
Think ive opened my own can of worms with thre grizzly thing 🤣🤣 i dont mind all good fun 🤣👍
Love the vid, I'll stick to site work 🤣, I'm retired Thank The Force
May the force be with you George mate 👍
Delivery of materials and the mark up on materials
Excellent point there Bob.
They always go up in January aswell
Justin 👍
Being a Builder in the private sector is no walk in the park, and I find pricing has got to be THE most difficult part of the job, competition out there can be fierce, I find there's just too many Builders who are only too willing to cut your throat to get the work. I'm a brickie myself who left the sites 30 years ago to start on my own, I haven't made my fortune, I'd say at times I've managed to make a decent living out of it, and at worst I've just managed to eek a living from it, what with recessions and double dips, and now we got this this pandemic (I'll refrain from getting on my soap box over that one). But as we all know, being recommended by previous customers is usually the best way to get the work, but that's still never a guarantee, I find the majority of people look at the bottom line first, and if they can save money, then they are usually quite happy to take a chance on some random guy who's quote came in a £1000 cheaper than yours (just to use as an example). Ha, and don't get me started on Plumbers, that's a licence to print money. But overall, you simply can't dress the building trade up in any way, it's far from being a glamorous occupation, whether you're on site or doing private work, it's all hard dirty work...Thankfully I haven't got that long to go before I retire, and TBH, I won't miss it...well, maybe I will...a bit
I can feel your frustration and what you have said i cant disagree with really .especially the bit about the money ive been to prive so many jobs up and loose out to an idiot that hasnt done the job to the standards i priced for so many times.
Its like people dont want a good job sometimes. Its actually only a small percentage of people that do so i now go through qualifying questions before i even book a quote in.
Its hard and frustrating all the time but you have to concentrate on the small few that actually get it and being able to route the other people out thats the tricks.
Keep smiling keep at it dont let them get you down
Justin brickright 👍
Alway tough not to take it personally though. I’ve been at this for over 20 years only to be undercut by an irk hat has just started with no vat and a new VW with low profiles. It shouldn’t be about the bottom line but we are all guilty of that. What qualifying questions do you like to ask Justin. Just found your site btw. Keep at it..
@@Aussie.rules69
Welcome to the channel Taylor. I have to agree with you if someone undercuts me i just move on .I know my work my quality and my service as a hole has my clients best interests at heart but if people want to save money and think they will get the sane same experience then let em crack on good luck with that .If they haven't bought in to my business and what we are all about im glad i never got the job.
My questions are just about site access and the job to build a picture Taylor.
Good luck with everything mate keep smiling move on to the next one be better for it in the ling run.
Justin 👍
I'm gonna have to start charging more ' cos I'm drinking a lot more these days🍺🍺🍺
Brilliant Ian 😂😂😂😂
the way you ve worked out just to build the wall 1000 bricks bricklayer + labourer £ £205 per day that works out 410 per tho 500+ anywere
Alrigjt Jim
As i said it was just an exercise to show how to work out a wall just a rough gauge on labour prices that was for people to add there own labour prices .
Also a key point is to consider how many days you would charge so it wasnt a definite price just a Tutorial Jim
Thanks for your thoughts on it grear thanks jim
Justin 👍
@@brickrightbuildinglandscaping 👍
Brilliant, informative video. I'm definitely going to incorporate this into my pricing. Might not get as much work but no one does it for free.
Awsome channel
Thanks means a lot that
Justin 👍
Great information
Thank you james 👍
Great advice
Thanks Nick 👍
Site work is brilliant for a bricky.as for no pride or being rough.thats down to the forman to get rid of the muppets.in me experience if your shit you will soon be found out
Great post Anthony thanks mate great to here your thoughts
Justin 👍
Any slow down will sort out the dead wood.
So how much did you price for the wall in the end?
Ok John
It was about £1800 but made clear to the client they need a contingency as explain in the video.
Was only an example of pricing John.
Hope that helps
Justin 👍
Thank you for your quick reply, it was A very entertaining video, the one about the old bridge is great too 👌
@@johnbewley9166
Thanks John
All the best mate 👍
Pricing his hard because everybody works at different speeds
Another valid point again great comments
Thanks
Justin 👍
Job
too reasonable never do private work for a third party unless you know them well or an architect who is a project manager danger people always want work done cheap, being too nice and inexperienced is a bad mix
Fair comment Simon my experience of architects project managing ist good they haven't got a clue .👍
Bricklayer should be getting $10 a brick building a whole house. All the builders sellers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars and the bricklayer work for free. Every one should stop working let the builder lay the ffff bricks them self
Spot on 😀 they do make a killing just isnt fair 👍