Bricklayer prices

[gaz1]

these are all used bricks jobs except the last pic as that was mixed between old and new matched bricks

3rd pic, ignoring the colour of them the older bricks are old the newer ones are darker and not as sun bleached but they are matched for a very old brick, the oldest are the very first brick

 

[gaz1]

What's a muck frame?

he means a mortar bar you slide along the bricks to fill with mortar

you dont need it just mix your cement wet enough so when you oush gently with the brick it sinks enough to fit to a brick line

 

[tom2207]

What's a muck frame?

a pice of shuttering for holding mortar in place , lets you trowel it off level then wet bricks and all you have to do is butter the end and set them ,,, slow but simple way of setting bricks. [ not really brick laying but it gets you by]

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Quick question, how many courses can you lay at a time?

 

[MetalMonkey]

And they say there is supposed to be a downturn in construction at the moment...


To be honest, just do it yourself. If you can fall off a log, you are probably overqualified to lay bricks.
You may not be very fast, or very neat, but if it is just a garden wall with reclaimed bricks it doesn't have to be either – and a good opportunity to practice.

 

[premmington]

And they say there is supposed to be a downturn in construction at the moment...


To be honest, just do it yourself. If you can fall off a log, you are probably overqualified to lay bricks.
You may not be very fast, or very neat, but if it is just a garden wall with reclaimed bricks it doesn't have to be either – and a good opportunity to practice.

Ageed 100% - (and better worded than I put it )

 

[MetalMonkey]

Quick question, how many courses can you lay at a time?

Usually something like 15 - 20 courses per lift, or put another way, far more than your back will put up with in one session.
It is physically very hard work, so just do it in manageable sections and concentrate on making it neat and laying to your lines - as with most things 90% of the job is in the prep and planning (or layout in this case), so get that bit right.

Don't go mad mixing up a huge batch of muck and then panicking trying to get them all laid. Give yourself plenty of time, you aren't on the clock!
It will take longer anyway as you will need to pick and choose your bricks to keep the best faces outwards.

 

[dobbslc]

Quick question, how many courses can you lay at a time?

If it's your first time it won't matter as it'll be half dry before the next course anyway

 

[Erie Fred]

If it's your first time it won't matter as it'll be half dry before the next course anyway

Yup ^^^ leave time to tuck point before the mortar sets too.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Better go and buy some sand then...

 

[weldingnovice]

If you're going to tackle it yourself get some mortar plasticiser/washing up liquid
Makes the mortar flow off the trowel easier and helps when setting the bricks, mortar should be wetter than what you would think for workability.
Easy once you get going.

 

[weldingnovice]

As for price, more than it should be

 

[mtt.tr]

Once

If you're going to tackle it yourself get some mortar plasticiser/washing up liquid
Makes the mortar flow off the trowel easier and helps when setting the bricks, mortar should be wetter than what you would think for workability.
Easy once you get going.

Be careful as some bags come with a plasticiser already mixed in

To be honest, just do it yourself. If you can fall off a log, you are probably overqualified to lay bricks.

Possibly, but then again maybe not, some people can not learn the muscle memory

 

[mtt.tr]

As for price, more than it should be

are you employed or self employed?

 

[weldingnovice]

are you employed or self employed?

Self employed since 91
Must have paid out a few hundred thousand to brickies over the years

Turn up with a bucket and some string want the earth

Make a dogs ar5e out of job rushing to get them down

Then follow-up trades have to work round.

 

[malcolm]

Pointing looks eroded. Was the wall built in lime? Lime is a handy system that keeps the bricks dry and reduces spalling. You do need to repoint every 100 years but if you forget to do that then the bricks can be cleaned up and used again. You can get NHL 3.5 from builders merchants. Shame to ruin it with more cement.

Quotes are mad the last couple of years. I'm doing my own partial rewire at the moment as I would need to do a few months work to cover the 10K quoted and I think it'll take a couple of weeks for me to do the work. For bricks 1K probably isn't unreasonable. It would take me more than 3 days to finish that wall. But it would end up beautiful.

I built my own wall (another 10K quote). That took ages.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Nice wall!
Never thought I'd be saying that.

No idea what mine was built with.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I was looking at brick spacers recently...you just pop them under each brick as you lay...a bit like tile spacers.

 

[rtcosic]

I built a garden wall using a 'Bricky', string, level and marked course stick after watching a few videos.
I'm sure any competent amateur would laugh but it worked for me.

The hard part was laying the stepped footings and the first few courses with acceptable accuracy.

Once the wall was at knee height it was vastly easier. Towards the end I barely needed the Bricky as I had got used to the amount of mortar to use per brick.

As @premmington says it's just grown-up Lego.

Very satisfying too, but don't underestimate how hard it is on your back doing courses below your knee level.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

In our garden we used new bricks that look aged...came out very nice. Big benefit was they were frost rated and where we are the ground is very wet.