Bricklayer daily rate?

[stuart45]

So, you claim a brick champion does 900 in an hour (more like 750; go look at the results of the SMBL500) and you say my claim of a rate of 1000 in a day (125 an hour) is unlikely?

The winner of the Specmix lays around 900. I've been to the competion. The record was 914. The reason it's often in the 750 or 800 region is that most of them get deductions from the total when the quality is checked, so 900 goes down to 700. Most of them lay over 900.
Your claim of 1000 a day was for manholes. I've built quite few manholes and you can't lay anyway near as many bricks as you would on a 9 inch party wall.
The work is all done using the level. Bricklaying is at it's quickest laying to the line. As soon as you have to start using the level, like for piers, manholes etc, the numbers drop a lot.
Manholes are also built with engineering bricks, so that slows you down a bit as well.

 

[Charlie George]

Agree with what Stuart said, you also can't compare site rates with domestic rates, building extensions etc you would be doing well to average around 4 to 500 a day for a single brickie.

 

[stuart45]

I only work on an hourly rate nowadays, so 400 sounds good to me. The difference with doing an extension is that you need to make sure the quality is good enough for the customer and all his family, mates and people who look at the photos on forums to study and say yeah, not a bad job.
On site, working for a subby, on a big housing estate, not many people know who's done the rough bits.

 

[pete01]

Whats the rush anyway? Money?

When my house was built in the 1930's I wonder how many bricks they were laying per day?

 

[stuart45]

Bricklaying is the trade where speed seems to be the most important factor. It's quite common for people not even in the trade to ask you if you can lay 1000 a day, because they've been told that's what a good brickie can do. They wouldn't ask a sparks how many houses he could rewire in a month, or a plumber how many taps he could fit in an hour.
It was said in Victorian days that bricklayers averaged 1000 a day, doing a 12 hour shift. This included all the rough work. The party and partition walls were all brick and could go up a lot quicker, and the face work was usually 9 inch Flemish bond.

 

[^woody^]

1000 a day is no problem. And I will always guarantee clients that at least 50 of them will be good.

 

[noseall]

1000 a day is no problem. And I will always guarantee clients that at least 50 of them will be good.

I did 950+ in a long day once (7:30am - 7pm), running a 9" wall in. lined the front and free-handed the back. All was pointed. Never again.