epsilonGreedy Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 While reading the House Builder's Bible I encountered a description of a mysterious economic process in the supply of bricks. Apparently some shady characters drive around logging new build plots and register an exclusive commission claim with upstream brick merchants and manufacturers. The book goes on to explain these intermediate brick factors pocket 20% of the value of any future order for a plot no matter who submits the order. What possible value-add do these brick factors contribute to free market capitalism? Think I might build in Sicily and fund the Mafia instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 You’re only seeing the ones driving round - most crawl the planning portals looking for conditions where the bricks are specified as a certain brand and brick ..! it means your ability to negotiate is lessened, but tbh most of the merchants these days are on naff all margin on bricks, the blocks make the money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epsilonGreedy Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 7 hours ago, PeterW said: it means your ability to negotiate is lessened, but tbh most of the merchants these days are on naff all margin on bricks, the blocks make the money Even so I do not understand why those higher up the building materials foodchain tolerate these middlemen. What value added service do they provide to either the selfbuilder or manufacture of bricks who is prepared to quote for the delivery of 10,000 bricks to a selfbuild plot? I believe the free market is rational which implies I am missing something about the function of Brick Factors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 45 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said: I believe the free market is rational That was one of the mistakes that led to the financial crash of 2007/8. Consumers are anything but rational when it comes to discretionary spendings, and self build is all about that sort of spending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 1 hour ago, epsilonGreedy said: ....manufacture of bricks who is prepared to quote for the delivery of 10,000 bricks to a selfbuild plot... Good luck finding one of those...! 10,000 metric bricks is a wagon load, or roughly 20 packs give or take a few. That’s enough for around 195 square metres of brickwork or a house 8m square with standard gables. Your average developer site is taking 1 a day of those at full speed so an order from a self builder is probably a bigger hassle than it’s worth - big sites can offload that in minutes with a Telehandler, no hiab needed. The other factor is space - don’t under estimate the space 20 packs takes and they need to be in the right place. Moving bricks by hand takes time and load out is hard work - having a merchant with call off and having 3 or 4 packs at a time is a godsend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 15 hours ago, PeterW said: You’re only seeing the ones driving round - most crawl the planning portals looking for conditions where the bricks are specified as a certain brand and brick ..! it means your ability to negotiate is lessened, but tbh most of the merchants these days are on naff all margin on bricks, the blocks make the money That's interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted February 13, 2018 Share Posted February 13, 2018 (edited) 8 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said: Even so I do not understand why those higher up the building materials foodchain tolerate these middlemen. What value added service do they provide to either the selfbuilder or manufacture of bricks who is prepared to quote for the delivery of 10,000 bricks to a selfbuild plot? I believe the free market is rational which implies I am missing something about the function of Brick Factors. I think you need a mate with a Hiab and collect from the factory to even have a chance at that. Some scope for saving as transport costs are high for bricks - one number I saw said 25%, but they are not a large % cost in a house. Brick factors may perhaps have a role in smoothing demand / prices and ordering ahead as the economics of Brick kilns requires constant operation(?), thereby redistributing risk? Something like the positive role played by commodity traders / speculators? They also have a role as distribution and matching specialists aiui. How well attested is that 20% margin? Is there a futures market in bricks? Ferdinand Edited February 13, 2018 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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