Can anyone give me a rough guide as to how many bricks a bricklayer should be able to lay in an hour/day/week, whatever it is measured in if working at a moderate pace? Assume the wall to have good access, be single skin, nothing complicated, and about 2m high. Many thanks.
Upwards of 60 bricks per hour, assuming he has a labourer to feed him materials. Also depends on the length of the wall though - he wouldn't want to be working two metres up when the first course is still soft :-)
Is it good level and plumb bricks, with arrises in line, perps kept plumb and full joints properly pointed? Or thrown down so that the cat can climb up it with hollow joints that will fall out after a couple of winters and mortar flung all over the place?
Are the bricks bone dry or soaking wet? Who is doing the labouring, how long is the wall, where are the materials is the ground level? Any corners or piers or openings. Any cut bricks and what type of bricks?
What is going on the top of the wall? Any copings are time consuming
When people ask this it normally means that a 'bricklayer' they know has said that "a good bricklayer can easily lay a 1000 a day in a straight wall" and that then if the bricklayer they then get to build the wall lays anything less, then they think they are being ripped off just to prolong the job.
Anywhere between 300 and 800 bricks a day for good face work can be expected.
There are industry figures used for estimating purposes, but this tend not to apply to domestic work. Either get a price for the job, or quote per
1000.dg
Why do you want to know?
Mary
300 a day? or is it 3000?
Hmm 7.5 hours, that's 40 an hour, or about 1 minute 30 seconds per brick...sounds slow...400 an hour (3000 a day) would be one every 9 seconds...do-able on a long straight run with a labourer and a skilled bricky.
I'd say 1000 a day is on, but 3000 is pushing it.
================== I remember some kind of competition in the 1960s when a bricklayer achieved a target of 1000 bricks in a normal working day. Apparently those 1000 bricks were common bricks laid very roughly just to achieve the target and if my recollection is correct a target of 3000 is very unlikely.
The real answer to the OP's question is that it depends very much on the quality of brickwork required and the type of brick being laid. The best bet is, as usual, to get 2 or 3 quotes for the job and pay an acceptable price for the job.
Cic.
my son (an apprentice bricky) recons 80 bricks (9x4x3) an hour is good going over an 8 hour day, if it's a basic straight wall and you want a quality job. but you have to remember there are limitations, a high short wall could take longer than a low long wall, even using the same number of bricks, because the mortar has to go "off" enough while the next courses are being laid.
he also said expect to pay around £1 per brick (for laying them not for the bricks).
LJ
In article , Cicero writes
Yes do bear in mind that you are going to have to live with the result for a long time and it will be around for perhaps your lifetime and longer!....
In article , in2minds writes
Quid a brick...1000 a day.. 5 x 1000 .. 5K a week
Christ M8!!!!
I'm off down the tech college then!,
I've already got my coat...bye>>>>>>>
That's 640 quid a day labour, unless I've got something wrong.
that's pricing for the whole job and includes foundations, setting out, forming for doors/windows etc. so a job for 1000 bricks may take 3 or 4 days
basically the guys he's working with make roughly £300 a day and out of that they have to pay a labourer
that's just a rough guide price, as with any trade it depends on the size of the job.
LJ
Never laid bricks for a living have we? ;-)
In message , bill writes
There is no set rate for laying bricks. There is the old chestnut about a 1000 bricks a day. The only time we actually did it was on our own premises (warehouse size all wall no windows and absolutely going for it after stacking out the bricks, having already got the footings nice and straight and raised the corners).
Meanwhile; in the real world. Lots of variables. What are the bricks being built on? How many corners? How long is the wall? What are the bricks like? An allowance has to be made for the weather. I reckon anyone who gives a quote for doing anything buildery per metre or per unit is asking to come a cropper.
Get several quotes from ppl who can give references.
Is this some sort of bricklaying robot that never stops for things like the toilet, dinner, a chat, a smoke, a rest? And spends no time setting out the wall?
You're also assuming that each brick is as easy to lay as the next one. Any brick laid below knee height and above chest height takes more time to lay. As do building the corners.
dg
What about windows and doors?
Mary
Thanks for this nugget of information, I amnow 2m up my house, and the walls went all wonkey at the top, I put it down to working at a strech, but my brickie frined just took the piss. Now I will raise the scaffold to keep the wall arround waist height, which produces my best work.
Rick - who never laid a brick before he started building a house.
80 quid an hour, I am in the wrong job !!!!!!!
I am still in the wrong job !!!!!
I pay my stone mason less than that, and I did not negioate him down.
Rick
Mary
>
Take a look at the latest free magazine at Travis Perkins - details of a bricklaying system where a different bonding agent is used. The 'muck' is dispensed in two perfectly measured lines along the whole course (for double skin wall) with the ends of the bricks to be laid buttered by the same machine with the bricks on the ground, in rows and on end. The result (they say) is a perfect bond and bricks laid in less time.
How many bricks now then guys?
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