Brick laying training course - worth it?

[sunflower]

My husband and I will be starting our self build next year. With prices increasing everywhere, it’s looking increasingly like we’re doing to have to do a significant part of it ourselves. We’re fairly experienced having refurbished our small farm, although appreciate a house is next level! 
 

He wonders if he should take a brick laying course… It will cost about £600 and take him away from work for a week, he works for himself so that’s probably another £1k or so lost. 
 

I wondered if anyone else has done a similar course and if you’d recommend it? 
 

Any advice on training courses in general, very much welcomed 

[SteamyTea]

Welcome 

 

This is a tricky one. Not much use if you are building a timber frame place, clad in timber.

What you really need to do is find the area that would give you the best cost benefit.

I doubt it is laying bricks and blocks.

One thing that often gets mentioned in here is coordinating the trades. So maybe a plumbing course is better to give you more flexibility. And you can shop around for good prices on kit.

A few have done their own roofs, seems that is not so hard.

Carpentry is a huge part of the build, so look at that.

 

I have tried plastering 3 times, I am totally useless at it. But others may be alright. 

All wet processes are a pain, design them out.

 

Probably save more money not using an architect, they will spend all you have, and then some. 

[Iceverge]

Laying bricks/blocks isn't rocket science. However even with practice I couldn't do in a day what an experienced bricky could do in a hour. 

 

It's almost definitely not a place you'd save money. 

 

Time used procuring items at knock down prices is far better spent. A good few members have saved handsome four figure sums by pouncing on large ticket items on eBay like heatpumps etc. 

 

Plumbing with Hep2o is straightforward as is MVHR install with radial ducting. 

 

Painting, tanking bathrooms, fitting insulation, plasterboarding are all DIYable but far more important is keeping a good eye on coordination, budget and quality. Nobody cares as much as you do. 

 

 

[Russell griffiths]

Only for doing footings, or rough blockwork that will either be plastered or rendered. 

You can learn to put them up level and straight. 

But you will not be good enough to do any brickwork that is on show, if you do want it on show you will be so mind numbingly slow it’s not worth it. 

But to set out your footings, get up to damp, install first floor it could be handy. 

[Canski]

So the initial outlay would be £1600.  Or the equivalent of about 80 m2 of blockwork. Then you will spend 5 times as long as your bricklayer who you are paying £200 + a day to do any of the work. Surely you are better off going to work and paying your Bricky what you earn ? There are  a lot of things that can go wrong with brickwork and they can be expensive mistakes that have a knock on effect through your build. Especially in foundation work. 

[joe90]

I paid for the shell to go up (brick and block) and found plenty to do around them, did nearly everything else but the brickies were worth every penny.

[saveasteading]

Lots of good advice above.

 

Knowledge is your main friend. If you can project manage#, do ninja buying*, and read up about each trade just in time, then you will save more than by diy.

On our project, my son-in-law has become a superb PM with the judgement to gain the respect of the trades, but be no pushover. Gradually finding better contractors along the way.

In the process he has discovered a liking and skill in masonry, and groundworks has become a family and friend, diy process, with huge cost benefits.  But it depends on your own abilities.

 

We have also the benefit of design professionals in the family, so the design is lean and practical. Without that, it is important to find designers you can trust, and who are prepared to discuss with you, even be challenged.

 

You want good bricklaying and plastering? Leave it to the people who do that one thing every day.

 

*skilful procurement isn't just about shopping around and discounts. Far more important is  to minimise waste. A QS or a builder using your money is likely to overorder by 10%. That will cost you 5% of the project cost.

Materials can be scheduled and managed to limit offcuts and waste. excavations dug just big enough and no more, and so on.

A skip costing £300 is filled with stuff you have paid £2,000 for.

#  overhead, management  and profit for a main contractor is about 30%, then each of their subcontractors about another 20%. Some of these can't be reduced, but some can.

 

Not to dabble with:

Bricklaying

joinery

plastering

final screed

electrics

plumbing

roofing

 

maybe worth a try with a very big IFFFFF:

groundworks

wall cladding

decoration

kitchen

floor cover ???

 

[dnb]

The issue I am finding with doing work myself is that it's slow. I have to work in a "proper job" 5 days a week and it can be all consuming at times. So often I don't really like the idea of leaving work to get a few hours on site before bed time. But I'm committed to finishing some jobs before my chippy is back from some other jobs, so I just have to do it in order to keep to some form of timescale. The amount of time to devote to the build is something to carefully consider. Mine has become like a second full time job. (I'm reading Buildhub in the wee small hours while I should be pricing up and placing the orders for next week's required materials...)

 

Definite no to the bricklaying course. I would spend it on tools myself (I'd be lost without my Paslode, chop saw and impact driver on my build). I would like to believe I'm a fairly practical sort even though I fly a desk most of the time.

 

Then again, would you take advice from someone who's first thought on getting the site was "Good, I can buy a digger now!"? 😉

Edited August 30, 2022 by dnb
Deleted a paragraph by mistake

[joe90]

On 30/08/2022 at 01:11, dnb said:

Then again, would you take advice from someone who's first thought on getting the site was "Good, I can buy a digger now!"?

Why not? I did 😎 best toy ever, had great fun and did loads myself 👍

[spottycat]

Sunflower,

 

I did my own brickwork on a large two storey extension - which I was concerned about doing as I had very little experience and needed to lay almost 6000 bricks. My experience was that, assuming you are a reasonable DIYer that can use a spirit level and tape measure, it proved not to be that difficult. I can not over stress how useful 'Builder's Profiles' were and would definitely say they are worth the money. Because I was prepared to take the time to be neat everyone tells me my brickwork is better than any builders have done near by. I also made sure the cavity didn't fill with loose mortar or rain which would later cause bridging. Of course, there are good builders but many don't care about such details. 

Edited October 9, 2022 by PeterW
Links removed - Mod

[Declan52]

8 hours ago, spottycat said:

Sunflower,

 

I did my own brickwork on a large two storey extension - which I was concerned about doing as I had very little experience and needed to lay almost 6000 bricks. My experience was that, assuming you are a reasonable DIYer that can use a spirit level and tape measure, it proved not to be that difficult. I can not over stress how useful 'Builder's Profiles' were and would definitely say they are worth the money. Because I was prepared to take the time to be neat everyone tells me my brickwork is better than any builders have done near by. I also made sure the cavity didn't fill with loose mortar or rain which would later cause bridging. Of course, there are good builders but many don't care about such details. 

Hope your brickwork is better than your scaffolding cause what your working on is a long way from being classed as a safe working platform.