How to Quote Bricklaying Jobs in the UK
Bricklaying Runs on Price Per Thousand, Not a Guess
A “price gang wanted” advert in a UK bricklaying group set the rates out in black and white: £675 per thousand for subs, £710 per thousand for supers, £17 per square metre on blockwork, sundries and lintels paid extra. That is how a huge share of bricklaying is genuinely priced, and it is a completely different system to the day-rate or lump-sum quoting most other trades use. Get the rate, the extras, or the ground conditions wrong at this stage and there is no fixing it later without an argument.
This guide covers how to price and quote bricklaying jobs properly, whether you are working day rate, price work, or quoting a domestic job direct.
Day Rate vs Price Work: Know Which One You’re Agreeing To
Bricklayers are engaged on two fundamentally different bases, and confusing them is where most disputes start. Day rate means you are paid for your time regardless of output, straightforward but exposed if the job runs slower than expected due to access or ground conditions. Price work means you are paid per thousand bricks laid or per square metre of blockwork, which rewards pace but only works if the rate was calculated properly in the first place and extras are agreed upfront.
Rates commonly differ between “subs” (standard rate) and “supers” (a premium rate for supervisors or more experienced hands), and blockwork is priced separately from brickwork, usually per square metre rather than per thousand. Agree which basis applies before you start, in writing, not on trust.
How to Price a Bricklaying Job Properly
Step 1: Survey the Job, Not Just the Drawings
Never price purely from a set of drawings or a phone call. Visit the site, check access for materials delivery and scaffolding, look at ground conditions if footings are involved, and check for anything that will slow the work down, awkward bonding, feature brickwork, working at height, or a tight footprint that limits how many can work at once.
Step 2: Calculate Your Rate Per Thousand or Per Square Metre Properly
If you are pricing per thousand bricks, work out your day rate target, then divide by a realistic number of bricks a competent bricklayer lays per day for that specific job, feature work, awkward bonding, and tight access all reduce output per day compared to a straightforward long run of stretcher bond. Do the same for blockwork per square metre. Do not simply copy a rate you saw advertised without checking it covers your actual costs for this specific job.
Step 3: Separate Extras from the Base Rate
Lintels, DPC, cavity trays, movement joints, and any feature brickwork or special bonding should be priced separately from the base per-thousand or per-square-metre rate. State this clearly, “brickwork £X per thousand, blockwork £Y per m2, sundries and lintels charged as extras”, so there is no ambiguity when the invoice arrives.
Step 4: Account for What You Cannot Control
Weather stops brickwork, mortar cannot be laid in a frost, and wet weather slows everything down. If you are on price work, build in how you will handle days lost to weather, either a day-rate fallback for those days or a contingency built into your price. State this upfront rather than discovering it mid-job.
Step 5: Confirm the Basis in Writing
Whether it is day rate or price work, confirm the agreed basis, the rate, and what counts as an extra in writing before you start, an email or a written quote, not just a verbal agreement or a text. This is what protects you if the contractor or customer later disputes the invoice.
Step 6: Write the Quote Clearly
A good bricklaying quote or price agreement includes:
- Client or contractor name and site address
- Date and validity period
- Whether the job is day rate or price work
- Rate per thousand bricks and/or per square metre of blockwork
- What counts as an extra (lintels, DPC, cavity trays, feature work)
- CIS treatment if invoicing a contractor
- Payment terms
- Start date and estimated completion
Quoting Domestic Work Direct
For domestic jobs, garden walls, extensions, driveway edging, quoted directly to a homeowner rather than through a main contractor, a straightforward itemised quote works better than a per-thousand rate the customer will not understand. Break it into labour, materials, and any extras, and take a deposit before ordering materials, typically 25 to 50 percent for a job of any size.
Handling Variations
Ground conditions, access problems, and design changes happen on bricklaying jobs regularly. Never agree to extra work or a change verbally and assume you will sort the money out later. Issue a variation quote or confirm the additional cost in writing, get sign-off, even a text reply is better than nothing, and add it to the relevant invoice.
Using Software to Quote and Invoice Faster
Building quotes and invoices around per-thousand and per-square-metre rates is slow if you are doing it on paper or in a spreadsheet every time. Tradify is built specifically for UK tradespeople and lets you save your standard rates and common extras, then generate a professional itemised quote or invoice in minutes, with CIS deductions calculated automatically where they apply.
Pricing: From ~£34/month per user. Free 14-day trial, no card required.
Jobber is a strong alternative if you want an online client portal for domestic customers to approve quotes and pay deposits digitally.
MTD and Your Records
Making Tax Digital requires sole traders to keep digital records of income and expenses and submit quarterly updates to HMRC. The £50,000 income threshold is already live for 2026/27, with the £30,000 threshold following in April 2027. If you are tracking price-work jobs in a spreadsheet, check whether it meets HMRC’s definition of digital record keeping, most basic spreadsheets do not count on their own.
Common Pricing Mistakes Bricklayers Make
- Copying an advertised rate without checking it covers this job’s conditions, feature work and tight access reduce output per day
- Not separating extras from the base rate, always itemise lintels, DPC, and cavity trays separately
- No weather contingency on price work, decide upfront how lost days are handled
- Agreeing the basis verbally, always confirm day rate vs price work in writing before starting
- Quoting domestic customers in trade units, a homeowner does not understand “per thousand”, itemise labour and materials instead
- Agreeing variations on site without confirming cost in writing, always get sign-off before continuing
The Bottom Line
The bricklayers who make consistent money are the ones who price properly for the actual conditions of the job, keep extras separate from the base rate, and get the basis agreed in writing before the first brick goes down. A properly priced job protects your margin no matter which basis you are working on.
If you want to speed up quoting and make sure everything converts cleanly into CIS-compliant invoices, Tradify is worth a look.
Frequently Asked Questions: Quoting Bricklaying Jobs
Rates typically range from around £600 to £750 per thousand for standard rate (“subs”) work, with a premium rate for more experienced hands (“supers”) often £30 to £40 per thousand higher, depending on region and job complexity. Blockwork is usually priced separately, commonly £15 to £20 per square metre. Feature brickwork, awkward bonding, or difficult access should command a higher rate than a straightforward long run.
Day rate means you are paid for your time regardless of output. Price work means you are paid per thousand bricks laid or per square metre of blockwork, rewarding pace but requiring the rate to be calculated properly for that specific job’s conditions. Confirm which basis applies in writing before starting, since disputes commonly arise from this being assumed rather than agreed.
Lintels, damp proof courses, cavity trays, movement joints, and feature brickwork or special bonding patterns are typically priced as extras on top of the base per-thousand or per-square-metre rate. State clearly in the quote what is included in the base rate and what will be charged as an extra, to avoid disputes when the invoice arrives.
For domestic work, garden walls, extensions, driveway edging, use a straightforward itemised quote rather than trade pricing units the customer will not understand. Break the quote into labour, materials, and any extras, state a validity period, and take a deposit of 25 to 50 percent before ordering materials for any job of size.
This should be agreed upfront rather than assumed. Some price-work agreements include a day-rate fallback for weather-affected days, others build a contingency into the per-thousand rate. Whatever is agreed, state it clearly before work starts so it is not a point of dispute when a job overruns due to weather.
Tradify is the most widely used quoting app among UK bricklayers who need unit-based pricing. It lets you save standard rates per thousand bricks or per square metre plus common extras, then generate a professional itemised quote or invoice in minutes, with CIS deductions calculated automatically.
Related Guides for Bricklayers
- UK Bricklayers Hub, all our bricklayer guides and reviews in one place
- Best Apps for Bricklayers UK
- Best Job Management Software for Bricklayers UK
- Best Invoicing Software for Bricklayers UK
- Tradify Review for Bricklayers UK
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