Bricklaying Cost UK 2026: Day Rates, Price Per 1,000 Bricks & Wall Costs

A qualified bricklayer charges £200-300 per day across most of the UK in 2026, with a typical average around £250-280. In London and the South-East day rates often run £300-380, while parts of the North and Scotland can be £180-220. Most bricklayers work with a labourer who adds roughly £130-180 a day, so a two-person gang costs about £350-480 daily. Many bricklayers prefer to price by the 1,000 bricks laid or per square metre rather than a day rate for anything bigger than a one-day job.

Labour to lay 1,000 standard bricks costs roughly £400-700 in 2026 for straightforward facing brickwork, rising to £700-1,000+ for intricate work, arches, or curved walls. A skilled bricklayer lays around 400-600 bricks a day, so 1,000 bricks is about two days of laying. Add the bricks themselves (£400-900 per 1,000 for facing brick) plus sand, cement, and wall ties, and the all-in supply-and-lay figure is commonly £900-1,700 per 1,000 bricks. London and the South-East add 20-30 percent to the labour element.

A brick garden wall costs roughly £120-180 per linear metre for a single-skin wall up to about 1 metre high, and £250-400 per metre for a double-skin wall with proper foundations and coping. A typical 10-metre by 1-metre boundary wall therefore costs around £1,400-2,400 single skin, or £2,800-4,500 double skin including footings. Brick piers, returns, coping stones, and difficult access push the figure up. London and the South-East add 20-30 percent.

Labour to lay a square metre of single-skin brickwork (about 60 bricks) costs £90-150/m² in 2026, before materials. Including facing bricks, mortar, and wall ties, a finished single-skin wall is typically £120-200/m², and a double-skin or cavity wall £180-300/m². Complex work such as curved walls, decorative bonds, or feature brickwork sits at the top of the range or beyond. London and the South-East add 20-30 percent.

A skilled bricklayer lays around 400-600 facing bricks in a normal working day, with 500 a common benchmark in good weather with no access problems. Output drops to 300-400 a day on fiddly work such as piers, arches, curves, decorative bonds, or where scaffolding and tricky access slow the gang down. Plain blockwork is much faster because the units are larger. Weather, brick type, and whether a labourer is keeping the bricklayer supplied all affect the daily figure.

Repointing costs £35-65 per square metre in 2026 with standard cement-based mortar, and £55-90 per square metre with lime mortar for period or solid-wall properties. The national average sits around £50-55/m², rising to £60-75/m² in London. A full repoint of an average semi-detached house is typically £2,500-5,000, and a detached house £4,500-8,000, with scaffolding adding £800-1,800. Heritage and listed work in lime is at the top of the range.

Brickwork for an extension shell costs £180-300 per square metre of cavity wall in 2026, including the inner blockwork leaf, outer brick leaf, insulation, wall ties, and damp-proof course. A typical single-storey rear extension of 4m by 3m needs roughly 35-55 square metres of external walling, so brickwork alone is commonly £7,000-15,000. That is the wall element only - it excludes foundations, the roof, openings, windows, and internal finishes, which the wider extension budget covers.

In 2026, standard common bricks cost £300-600 per 1,000, machine-made facing bricks £400-900 per 1,000, and engineering bricks (used below ground and where strength or low water absorption matter) £650-1,200 per 1,000. Reclaimed bricks, prized for matching period properties, run £1,000-3,000+ per 1,000, and genuine handmade bricks from makers such as Michelmersh can reach £950-3,900 per 1,000. The brick choice can change the material cost of a project several times over.

A single brick pier or gate pillar costs roughly £150-450 each in 2026 depending on height, width, and whether it has a feature cap or coping. A standard one-and-a-half-brick gate pier about 1.2-1.4m high is commonly £200-350 supplied and built, while a tall, wide entrance pillar with a moulded cap and a brick or stone coping can be £450-800+. Piers are slow, fiddly work that lowers daily brick output, which is why they cost more per brick than a plain run of wall.

Yes. Concrete blockwork is cheaper and faster than facing brickwork because the units are much larger - about 10 blocks cover a square metre versus 60 bricks - so a bricklayer builds far more wall per day. Blockwork typically costs £60-120 per square metre supplied and laid in 2026, against £120-200/m² for single-skin facing brick. That is why most extension and house walls use a cheap inner block leaf with a facing-brick outer leaf, getting the strength and insulation of block with the appearance of brick.

A single-skin (half-brick) wall is one brick thick - about 102mm - and is used for low garden and boundary walls up to roughly a metre high, or as the outer leaf of a cavity wall. A double-skin (one-brick) wall is about 215mm thick, far stronger and more stable, and is needed for taller free-standing walls, retaining walls, and load-bearing structures. Double-skin walls use twice the brick, need brick piers or returns for stability above certain heights, and cost roughly 50-90 percent more per metre than single skin.

Yes - any permanent brick wall needs a proper concrete strip foundation to stop it cracking, leaning, or collapsing. For a typical garden wall the footing is a trench 300-600mm wide and 150-300mm deep filled with concrete, costing roughly £40-80 per linear metre including excavation and concrete, and more in poor or clay soils. Taller walls and walls near trees or on sloping ground need deeper foundations. Skipping or under-sizing foundations is the most common reason garden walls fail, so it is never the place to cut corners.