How Much to Charge for a Bricklaying Job in 2026

What a bricklaying quote needs to include

"Brickwork, £4,500" leaves too much open on a trade where the brick, the bond and what's under the ground all move the price. Cover these ten things and there's nothing left to argue about once the last course is laid:

1. 1Business details and confirmation you carry public liability insurance — standard for any trade building next to someone's home or boundary.
2. 2Customer name and site address, with access noted — scaffolding needs, spoil removal route, parking for a delivery lorry.
3. 3The work specified by wall or element, not a vague "brickwork" line — "cavity extension shell, 32m²; new boundary wall, 8m; repoint chimney stack" leaves nothing to argue about later.
4. 4Brick type, size, colour and supplier named, with a sample agreed where it matters — matching an existing house front is a common dispute if this is left vague.
5. 5Bond pattern and mortar mix (e.g. 1:1:6, or a lime mortar for period property matching).
6. 6Foundation depth and spec for any new wall.
7. 7Whether the work is on, or close to, a boundary — and if so, whether the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies and who's responsible for serving notice (see below).
8. 8Cavity insulation, wall ties and DPC spec for extension shells.
9. 9Scaffolding hire and duration, and muck-away/spoil disposal, as their own priced lines.
10. 10Guarantee period on workmanship and payment terms, including staged payments for a bigger job.

Not every bricklaying job is the same job

Most brickwork prices fairly on brick, bond and labour hours. One category doesn't — anything on or near a boundary — and it deserves its own line of thinking, not just a higher number.

Price by task, not a flat rate

As a working guide for 2026: a bricklayer's day rate runs £220–£320, with a labourer adding roughly £120–£160 a day where one's needed. Labour for laying 1,000 standard facing bricks typically runs £550–£900, rising past £1,500 for handmade or premium brick. On a per-m² basis, labour-only for a wall runs £90–£150/m², or £180–£350/m² supply-and-fit including brick, block, mortar and ties — a cavity extension shell tends to sit around £180–£300/m² of that range. A single-skin garden wall runs £120–£180 per metre; a proper double-skin wall with its own foundations is £250–£400 per metre. Repointing existing brickwork runs £40–£80/m². Quoting any of these off one flat day rate either underprices a fiddly repoint job or overprices a straightforward garden wall — price each task on its own merits and the total will actually reflect the work.

The Party Wall Act rule most bricklaying quotes never mention

The Party Wall etc. Act 1996 covers three situations, and it's worth knowing all three because bricklayers hit each one: work on an existing shared party wall or structure (Section 2), a new party fence wall built astride a boundary — a masonry garden wall counts, a timber fence doesn't — and excavation within 3 to 6 metres of a neighbouring building, depending on depth relative to their foundations (Section 6). Notice periods differ by category: at least two months before starting work on an existing party wall or structure, and at least one month before a new wall at the boundary or a qualifying excavation. The duty to serve that notice sits with the building owner — your client — not with you. But if work starts without it, gov.uk's own explanatory booklet is direct: "an adjoining owner can seek to stop the work through a court injunction or seek other legal redress," and the building owner stays liable for any damage caused regardless. This isn't theoretical: in one reported case, a homeowner who built a roof extension without serving notice, and never agreed a surveyor or Award afterwards, was ordered by the court to remove the extension entirely, alongside an injunction against further unauthorised work and indemnity costs awarded against him for what the judge called "poor conduct" in defending the claim. A bricklayer isn't a party to that dispute — but a bricklayer standing on a site that gets injuncted mid-build is the one with materials on order, a scaffold up, and no further payment coming until it's resolved.

"It's all on my land" doesn't always get you out of it

The detail that catches out more bricklayers than any other: the excavation trigger applies even to a wall built entirely on your client's own land. Dig a strip foundation for a new boundary wall, or an extension footing, within 3 metres of a neighbour's building and deeper than their foundations — or within 6 metres and it would cut a line drawn at 45 degrees down from the bottom of their foundation — and Section 6 can require a notice, regardless of whose land the finished wall sits on. "It's my client's land" answers a different question from "does the Act apply" — depth and proximity of the dig decide that, not ownership of the finished wall. If a Party Wall Award ends up being needed, surveyor fees are a real additional cost on top of the build: commonly £900–£2,700 for a single surveyor agreed by both sides, or £1,800–£5,400 if each side appoints separately — paid by the building owner, but worth knowing about before the first spade goes in, because it affects the timeline your quote's valid-until date needs to allow for.

How to price the work

UK bricklaying pricing varies by brick, region and access, but these are a fair starting point for 2026:

• Day rate £220–£320 for a bricklayer, plus roughly £120–£160/day for a labourer where one's needed.
• Laying 1,000 standard facing bricks: £550–£900 labour, rising past £1,500 for handmade or premium brick.
• Wall, labour only: £90–£150/m². Supply-and-fit including brick, block, mortar and ties: £180–£350/m².
• Cavity extension shell (brick outer leaf + insulated block inner leaf): roughly £180–£300/m².
• Garden wall, single skin: £120–£180/metre. Double skin with its own foundations: £250–£400/metre.
• Repointing existing brickwork: £40–£80/m², more for lime mortar colour-matching on a period property.
• Party Wall surveyor fees, if an Award is needed: £900–£2,700 for a single agreed surveyor, £1,800–£5,400 for two — paid by the building owner, but worth flagging as a timeline factor.

A worked example

A single-storey extension shell built up to the boundary line with the neighbouring semi, plus a new garden wall along the same boundary and a chimney repoint while the scaffold's up — priced and itemised the way described above:

£10,728 for a 32m² cavity extension shell built to the boundary line, a new 8m single-skin garden wall along the same boundary, and a lime-mortar repoint of the existing chimney stack while access is already in place. The quote carries a note confirming the customer has served the required Party Wall notice for the extension shell (a party structure situation, two months' notice) and the boundary wall (a new wall at the boundary, one month's notice) before the start date in the quote — so if either notice hasn't gone in yet, that's a conversation before the first brick is laid, not a stop-work order three weeks into the job. 30% deposit to order brick and block, balance on completion.

Five details that get bricklaying quotes accepted faster

• Flag the Party Wall Act early, even though it isn't your legal duty. A line like "this wall sits on/near the boundary — please confirm a Party Wall notice has been served before we start" costs nothing to add and shows a customer you understand the job isn't just bricks and mortar, which most competing quotes never mention at all.
• Separate the brick, the block, the mortar and the labour into their own lines. It shows the customer exactly why a facing-brick extension shell costs more than a blockwork-only wall, and heads off "the other quote was cheaper" arguments before they start.
• Name the brick by supplier and reference, not just "red brick". "Ibstock red multi" versus "a red brick" reads the same on an invoice pad but means very different things once the pallet's been delivered and mixed with the existing wall — naming it does the same trust-building work that naming a paint brand does for a decorator.
• Price the foundation and excavation depth as its own line. It's invisible once the wall's up, but it's the difference between a wall that's still standing in 30 years and one that's cracked in five — and on a boundary job it's also what decides whether Section 6 of the Party Wall Act applies at all.
• State the guarantee and who's responsible for what. "10 years on workmanship; customer to confirm any Party Wall Award is in place before start date" reads as genuinely professional, and protects you from being blamed for a delay that was never within your control.

The fastest way to do all of this

A single garden wall well within a plot is easy enough to price from memory. A job mixing an extension shell to the boundary, a new boundary wall and a chimney repoint — where two different notice periods and a possible surveyor's Award all sit in the background — is exactly where a rushed verbal number either misses the Party Wall detail entirely or buries it inside a number the customer can't verify.

This is what QuoteRocket is for. Describe the job in plain English — "32m² cavity extension shell to the boundary, 8m new garden wall, repoint the chimney stack" — and it turns that into a branded, itemised PDF quote in under a minute, with brick, block, labour and any boundary notes kept as their own clearly labelled lines every time. Your customer accepts it with one tap on their phone, and an accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click, so a job with three different elements in it doesn't also take three different pieces of paper to get paid for.

Whichever way you produce the quote, the principles hold: price each task on its own merits rather than a flat rate, and if any wall is on or near a boundary, confirm on the quote that the Party Wall notice has been served — because on this one category of job, that line protects your schedule as much as it protects your client.

Frequently asked questions

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