The youth of today, grumpy old men and nice women.

Seedsower said:
You can't answer the pricing question without quantities
Click to expand...

I am not sure, I forgot to ask how many he was estimating but I will follow up but I reckon there would have to be somewhere in the region of 7000+ as its a big house, all interior walls upstais and downstairs will be block, good bit of block on the flat for supporting hollowcore etc

FIAT 450 said:
I'd be weary it's a case of I will put a stupid price on it and if I get the job great and if not I won't loose sleep over it kinda thing. How big is the cavity? Is it a 2 story? He pricing scaffolding too? Prices are nuts by the sounds of things. We built in 17 and got blocks for about 70c. I supplied everything cement, sand, water and gave the boys 9k for labour and some cash too for similar size house
Click to expand...
I am a little weary of that also i.e. pricing high and if he gets it all well and good. Cavity is 250mm, yes two story. Scaffolding hasn't been mentioned but provided he blocklays all from one side the only scaffolding he should need would be the gables as the rest would be off bandstands. I'd assume he has a bit of scaffolding for doing the gables but if not I'll likely be buying all the scaffolding for the house anyway (to resell) or if I need a bit just for the block layer I should be able to borrow a bit.
 
Last edited:
Nashty said:
Leave things sit for 6 more months if you can, block layers will be quiet by then I'd guess going by what the house builders are saying unless material prices drop somewhat which looks unlikely in the short term.
Click to expand...
It's not an option really, it will delay things too much (and end up costing money in other things like extending insurance, engineers fee only covers a certain amount of time supervising etc) and it's not that any of the blocklayers would even be available in 6 months its that they might quote me then for what could be many more months. It was just lucky that this blocklayer is available as there is a major delay in a project he was to start so would be able to fit us in (its not made up the other project is localish and there is talk of delays to it).
 
Last edited:
I think tradesmen will be easier got in another few months. Concrete sales have slumped and the price rises will rule a fair few people out of starting.
I could be wrong though.
27k sounds ridiculous for Labour on blocking
 
Seedsower said:
I think tradesmen will be easier got in another few months. Concrete sales have slumped and the price rises will rule a fair few people out of starting.
I could be wrong though.
27k sounds ridiculous for Labour on blocking
Click to expand...
The sick thing is there price through windows and doors so could only be 6.5 k blocks that means it's 4 euro for every block laid crazy... I think they will be very easily got in a few months time ask any concrete supplier, building merchant there quite, the only thing that is keeping the whole thing going is social housing. The lads who only do private houses would be in for a shock when they have to go on site, there is no extras, cash. They will be eager to stay at private houses for a bit and I think will become more realistic in prices
 
I'm not so sure there will be the abundance of lads available that some think, one or two blocklayers I spoke to had a year or more of work lined up.

Also just to clarify the price was 25k not 27k and that was the all "through the books" price also. Not that 25 sounds much better :-)
 
TJW100 said:
I'm not so sure there will be the abundance of lads available that some think, one or two blocklayers I spoke to had a year or more of work lined up.

Also just to clarify the price was 25k not 27k and that was the all "through the books" price also. Not that 25 sounds much better :-)
Click to expand...

People have started to think ,

That is not worth paying that much money for .

I personally think that as the jobs that they are at now finish up , the draught will start to be felt .
I got a job done with a digger last September, cost in the mid teens ,including stone pipes etc .

Would I do it this year ? Not a hope .
 
The rise in prices is putting huge extra cost on a new house,maybe 100k or more which is not practical for most borrowers imv.
An auctioneer friend of mine said a few months ago that houses will have to get smaller.
 
Mike said:
Was talking to a builder last week who said he has gone from being booked for all 22 and 23, to now only having definite work up to this June. So yes, I would be slow to commit that ball of money for blockwork when half that may well do it in a few months.
Click to expand...
The figureI would have had in my own mind for the work would have been 15 to 18k, I think 12.5k would be low nowadays. Considering its probably 4 months work+ for a blocklayer on his own he would only be earning 3k before tax at that which isn't a lot given the hard work etc.

Thanks for all the advice anyway, its very helpful. Have a good bit of thinking to do as need to make a call in the next day or two or he will have other work taken on.
 
TJW100 said:
Sorry to drag up a thread/post from quite a few months ago but since I saw some knowledgeable posts on this topic and I'm struggling for information on how pricing is now. Currently doing a self build house in the midlands and will be ready for blocklaying in about 2 months time. House is 2900 sq ft and I've got a price of 25k to blocklay - I'm told by the block layer that its spec'd quite highly which is adding extra work along with large cavity etc which is pushing up the price. I have asked numerous other block layers but none so far will even look at the plans they are so busy and say come back in 6 months or more so I just want to try get a feel if the price I got is in anyway reasonable in the current climate for a house of this size?

Edit: for context the post I replied to is cost per block for blocklaying.
Click to expand...
Does €25K include the footings/rising walls. The wider cavity will mean more blocks in the foundation.

We are building a 2500 sq ft house currently and paid more than that for the block work. We started straight after the lockdown last year. Couldn't have picked a worse time.
 
cartonj said:
Does €25K include the footings/rising walls. The wider cavity will mean more blocks in the foundation.

We are building a 2500 sq ft house currently and paid more than that for the block work. We started straight after the lockdown last year. Couldn't have picked a worse time.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply. Due to the ground structure on site I was required to have a raft foundation so there are no footing/rising walls. It covers all blocklaying inside and outside (on both floors), fitting of sills, lintels and any steel for larger openings. Also some other bits for airtightness/insulation around windows.

Was your price for block work just labour also? Over 25k sounds a lot as I mentioned above I was very surprised myself at the price I was quoted, its probably at least 30% more than I even would have thought considering increased prices - the fact I am struggling to get alternative quotes makes it difficult. Since my first post I haven't managed to get any more quotes but I did get the price a family friend paid last year and it was around the same for house around 2000 sq ft (not sure if he build a garage too though) so that made me think maybe the price I got really is the going rate.
 
You mentioned on one of the earlier posts that he is widely known as being a good blocklayer, in my view that’s worth 15-20% premium over a slap em up crew. There are cheap lads at every trade, a lot of them wouldn’t come near the quality of a good tradesman.
 
Deerehunter said:
My old lad was giving out about todays youth to my mam last week. He told her 'all young people want now adays is sport, drink, drugs and hole!!'
Click to expand...
a few years ago I used to do a bit of work in Westport, there was a retired gard down there who told me a yarn a few times, that climbing the reek used to be done at night, and it used to result in a lot of immaculate conceptions, this craic was getting out of hand so they had to ban the night time climbing and reek Sunday climbing was during the day, so I’d say things haven’t changed that much
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top