Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For bricklayers

Bricklayer Hourly Rate Calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a self-employed bricklayer should charge for their time, starting from the income you need, then builds the day rates and per-thousand-bricks prices clients actually pay out of the hours a wall really holds. Clients rarely buy “an hour of bricklaying”; they buy the wall standing straight — the setting out, the gauge kept true, the courses level and the joints struck clean. The bricks, blocks and mortar are materials, billed as their own line; the rate prices your hands and your hours. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $87 an hour, $693 for a full day — and the jobs built from it: a thousand bricks laid on a long straight run at about sixteen hours, $1,385 of labour — with a half day of repairs and repointing at four hours, $346.

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The pricing reality for bricklayers

A wall is bought flat and earned a course at a time. Inside the price sit the setting out, the mixing, the laying, the cutting around openings, the pointing and the wash-down — and the pace is set by the wall itself: a long straight run flies, a pierced, arched or curved wall crawls. A rate copied from the bricklayer across town carries all of that whether it covers it or not. Price the hour first, and per-day and per-thousand prices become presentations of the same honest number.

Materials are a separate honesty. Bricks, blocks, mortar and lintels are bought for the job and billed as their own line — at cost or with a stated mark-up, agreed up front. A bricklayer who buries materials inside an hourly rate cannot tell a profitable garden wall from a loss-making extension until the merchant’s bill arrives. Your rate prices time and craft; the bricks are the client’s, on the client’s line of the invoice.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $54,000 target income, $14,000 a year of expenses — vehicle and fuel leads, with mixer and tool upkeep, a scaffold and access share, liability insurance, workwear and PPE, training and certificates, marketing and admin, and phone and software — a 25% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 60% billable time. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $87 an hour.

Your numbers — bricklayer presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs bricklayers forget to put in the rate

  • The weather and the frost. Bricklaying stops for rain and frozen mortar, and starts late on cold mornings. Lost and shortened days are real costs of the trade; the billable share assumes they happen, so the rate must too.
  • The cutting waste. Every opening, corner and arch is cut from whole bricks, and the offcuts are paid for. On your own jobs that waste sits in the materials line — but the cutting time sits in your hours, and fiddly work must be priced by the hour it takes, not the count it yields.
  • The mixer and the tools. Mixers, levels, lines and trowels are small money until they stop a day’s work. Upkeep and replacement belong in expenses, estimated from last year’s receipts, not discovered mid-wall.
  • The waiting on other trades. Scaffolds not ready, lintels not delivered, inspectors not arrived — standing time is the bricklayer’s quiet tax. Day-rate work should name how standing time is treated before the first course, not after the third idle morning.
  • The pointing and the wash-down. The hours after the last brick — jointing, striking, cleaning down and clearing the lift — are part of the wall’s real hours. Quotes that count only laying make the finishing a gift nobody noticed giving.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the bricklayer presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 60% billable — that is 1,152 billable hours a year: the laying, cutting, pointing and finishing clients can pay for, once setting out, mixing, weather stops, quoting and travel have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $68,000 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 25% estimate, divide by 0.75 to get $90,667 — then add your profit margin to reach $99,733 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $87, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the prices clients actually buy. A full day on the wall is the day rate, $693. On a long straight run a bricklayer lays roughly five hundred bricks a day, so a thousand bricks is about sixteen hours — $1,385 of labour — which is where honest per-thousand prices come from. Fiddly work — openings, arches, repairs, repointing — is priced by the hour or the half day ($346) instead, because the brick count lies about how long it takes. Bricks, blocks and mortar sit on their own invoice line, agreed before the first course is laid.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Bricklayer rate questions

Both are built from the same hour — they are presentations, not different prices. Per-thousand suits long, straight, countable runs where the pace is predictable; per-day suits everything with openings, arches, curves or repairs, where the brick count lies about the hours. What never works is letting the client choose whichever presentation is cheaper for the same wall after you have seen it — price the job from its hours first, then present it in the unit that fits.
The client — as their own line. Bricks, blocks, mortar and lintels are bought for the job and billed at cost, or with a stated mark-up agreed in advance that honestly covers your merchant account, your ordering time and breakage. Buried inside your labour rate, materials make small walls look dear and big walls quietly loss-making. Your rate prices the laying: your hands, your eye and your hours.
For an established solo bricklayer with steady work, yes, as a starting point: setting out, mixing, weather stops, waiting on scaffolds and other trades, quoting and travel take the rest. On subcontract gangs the share runs higher and the rate lower, because someone else carries the finding of the work. Set it to the year you actually work — the calculator is not being unkind, it is showing what your hours must carry.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, upholsterer rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates and radon mitigation specialist rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.