How long should 2 brickies take to build a 3.5m x 3.5m L ?

[tvrbeaver]

well they started in October.. the odd day here and there... so far they have done 640 blocks.. and have a total time of 80 hours on the job.. thats 7.5 mins per block on average... okay, they may have to cut a few and measure up for 1 door / 2 windows... and mix cement.. .but even if that took 1/3 of the time.. it's still an average of 5 mins per bock!!...
how long shouls a 3.5 L shape take?...

Untitled

• tvrbeaver
• 3 Jan 2015
• 1

 

[EddieM]

The answer of course depends on the situation, however 640 blocks between 2 brickies in 3 months is absolutely pathetic.

 

[tvrbeaver]

well.. the situation is as followes:-
they were meant to do the full job, but never got started... so I dug out and put in the foundations myself.. they turned up and did the blocks that got the foundations out of the ground (ive included these in the count BTW)... I then did the oversite myself and all the drains....
they have done the outer stone and the inner blocks (as the picture) fron on top of the foundation blocks, and we are as you see.. about 3/4 built to wall plate.
TBH I'm not bothered about the time it's taking to do as it allows me to save up... what does concerm me is the rate of build once on site....
as I said above... on average 7.5 mins per block!!

 

[EddieM]

Well if you're not bothered about how long its taking and the quality is acceptable, then assuming the price your paying is ok, then I guess there's no problem.

 

[noseall]

Horrific looking blocks to lay AND they are having to build a partial fill system!

Poor sods. I'd have ran a mile from that one. There is zero joy in that job.

 

[tvrbeaver]

Partial fill system??? What's that?

Its Costone. Is it that hard?

The problem with how long its taking is they are on a day rate and not a price for the job

 

[noseall]

Laying random stone is very time consuming. It not only requires an amount of head scratching time but is also difficult to cut and is low suction too. Horrible stuff.

Partial fill cavity as opposed to full fill. A lot more of a faff and adds to the time thing. I pity the brickies having to build that extension and I bet they can't wait to move on.

 

[tvrbeaver]

The stone comes in 3 sizes. 65,100 and 140 and I bought 3 lengths in each. So not a lot of cutting
On the fill, its 100mm gap with insulation? Isn't that standard?

So your thinking they are on the money? IYKWIM

 

[noseall]

On the fill, its 100mm gap with insulation? Isn't that standard?

Yes, but a more time consuming standard.
Full fill Dritherm is sooo much easier and no worse than yours.

So your thinking they are on the money?

Dunno, but I would not want to hang around on that one.

IYKWIM

Not a clue what this means.

 

[tvrbeaver]

IYKWIM... If you know what I mean

Just thought 1 brick,stone,block every 7.5 mins was a long time... I was watching the guys at work building our new factory. They are on 80p a stone and they fire them in 😉

 

[seasickstevie]

Looking at the picture, I wouldn't have thought it comparable with building a factory. Looks a pretty neat job.

80 hours = 2 weeks. I appreciate this has been spread over more that two months (you don't say early October, or late October, and we have had the Christmas break, so perhaps not 3 months as EddieM says)

You say you're not bothered that you've only got two weeks work out of them in the last (approx) two and a half months, and you haven't said what it's costing so far, so the issue is, is the end result (so far) worth what it's cost?

 

[tvrbeaver]

zoom in... for some reason I have pink cement??... cast ends showing.... sills out of centre and out of square.... blocks not covered and hit by frost that I'm taking down... etc etc... no, it's not the best.....
and communication with them is imposable.. I think it's this that gets me more than anything!...

 

[cjard]

Pay em some money now, a reasonable amount to cover the work done so far and ask them to leave it.. They might just be happy to!

 

[kazuya]

I finished a quite a large garden wall at the end of November, (13 packs of bricks) and it seemed to be taking forever, id turn up wait for it to stop raining, uncover everything do a mix, lay a few then cover up again coz it rained again etc. and then on the days it didn't rain it got dark so early it felt like I was never gunna finish lol, winter really isn't the best time to be building.

bit late now but if you buy red sand, against the light colour it will look pink

 

[highwaystar]

well they started in October.. the odd day here and there... so far they have done 640 blocks.. and have a total time of 80 hours on the job.. thats 7.5 mins per block on average... okay, they may have to cut a few and measure up for 1 door / 2 windows... and mix cement.. .but even if that took 1/3 of the time.. it's still an average of 5 mins per bock!!...
how long shouls a 3.5 L shape take?...

Untitled

• tvrbeaver
• 3 Jan 2015
• 1

I used to be responsible for paying stonemasons (was for 5 years, although that was 2003-08 ). First of all, in my humble experience never use brickies to do a stone job, and never use stonemasons to do brickwork - there are exceptions but its a bit "horses for courses" (no pun intended). Brickies will tend to do a good and quick/efficient job on brickwk and blockwk - that's what they're suited to and earn on. Whereas conversely, stonemasons will tend to do a good and quick/efficient job on stonework - that's what they're suited to and earn on.

As a rule of thumb, stonemasons do about 5 or 6 m2 per day i.e. about 25m2 - 30m2 per week.... at 2008 rates that was times £50/m2 so a decent stonemason could be earning easily circa £1,200 - £1,500 per week, and that was at rates as they were 5 years ago. Depending on the type of work etc the m2 per day could fluctuate (e.g. for curved/straight, whether there were loads of cuts etc) so the m2 could vary say 4m2 per day - 6m2 per day (per mason), although they would get paid say 10 or 15 mins per cut on top of the m2 rate. Masons are not cheap - supply/demand and falling numbers of apprentices etc, falling number of qualified tradesmen, so a mason worth his salt could really earn. I once had a pair of masons take on a job that they quoted £5,000 for - they started it on the Monday and finished it by the Wednesday and had Thurs and Fri off, so £2,500 each for 3 days work - and that was back in 2007.

Per your topic heading seems you've been using brickies to do stonework, although it seems to be 10mm joints? So more in the brickies territory (2mm or 3mm joints is more common for stonemasons). Even so, its a random pattern which would be more what stonemasons are used to in e.g. "random rubble" or "coursed rubble" walling which they do with relative ease.