Very interesting looking forward to another video im a roofer... From south UK 😅 i think you should setup your bricklaying class 💯

Disposable incomes are at their lowest since lost rationing 1950s. It's not just bricklayers, everyone is poorer. I'm a bricklayer and wages have been suppressed for decades. Globalisation, mass immigration, the banking crisis and successive terrible governments who've all spent way too much on nothing of more followed by blogging £500 billion on Covid have left us unhappier, poorer with worse prospects than our parents. God help our kids

Hi mate watched your channel for a while was a joiner for 10 years left went into college got a job in finance now and make a lot more than I ever would as a joiner I will always respect all trades but I don’t think it’s the best choice for young ones these days with tech/youtube and so much more online opportunities

My father always worked 1 and 1 and split half each whatever they earned. He passed away in 1998 at 53, but still the best that I have ever seen. I worked with brickies 2 and 1 mostly back in the eighties and it was the hardest job I have ever done.

Mate down in Wales were earning 15-20 an hour would love to earn 25-27 an hour with 3 breaks…we work 8-9.5 a day with 1 45 min break a day

Let’s get real have you seen how much a 1st apprentice gets absolutely shocking how can people afford to pay somebody that can’t do nout 🤯

Andy, In 1975 as a face-work Bricklayer, I was on £17 per day or £85 per week. or £100 per week for six and a half days.... 😁😁👍🧱🔨

Panel beaters and painter have been working 8-5 for years with two breaks 15 in the morning and 30 mins for lunch yous guys have it easy get a grip

I think your day rates are decent either way. Winter time all trades moan. I’m the son of a chippy and he grafted all my childhood. These days you’re all fucked. Too many wannabe grades doing awful jobs getting £60k+ a year. Sorry but 90% of you ain’t worth it. Saying that you’re a gent and remind me of my old man. Good luck! 👊🏻

Well done for speaking out ,real tradesmen seem to be voiceless at the mo !

We domt get paid for cleaning cavitys in Australia

Mugs game, and im one of them

Bloody brilliant video. Spot on.

So right andy always a bricky or joiner as site manager knew what they were doing ,got kids now straight out of uni never picked up a tool all in control of different aspects of the build ,fucking joke going around dishing out yellow cards haha almost glad I'm 57 been off site for 7 years now never going back cscs card in the bin

did a tops training course for plastering. 1980. 6 m0nths like you said covered just about everything vast majority of which ive never used but a very good way of learning a trade . if you got a job at the end of it you were entitled to 60% tradesmans wage then full money after 6 months if you could prove yourself. some of the lads went on to be very successful because they bent their backs and got stuck in

£100 in 1976 is £902 today , not everything is worked out in drink .

Also when you said 700 a thou on timber frames, I thought yes please. We’re on 630 and it’s a struggle. We don’t have a break start at 8 finish at 3.30. 250 a day. Labourers on 120 were a 2n1 gang. Not the fastest but we do a tidy job. 37 Yorkshire. 👍🏻

Bricklaying through this recession is very tough, im hitting the redline most days, making the best job ive ever made n doing more work for less money, and the buying power of that money goes down every year, its sad the black dog is with me on the scaffold somedays, but its all i know, so im just having to get started earlier these days 🤣🤯 merry christmas andy great vid 💪

Let them run out of bricklayers and get the prices up that way. 🙏🏻

They want to put up the pension age? That’s OK if you push a pen around for a job but try working in all weathers and doing manual work when you get over 60.

As a layman, I found this interesting. The property market is going to be v different in the future as the era of low interest rates is over, though the politicians will pull out all the stops to keep house prices rising.

Im a decorator and ive come to the conclusion that all trades are dead at the moment, people just dont have the money unless they are rich ,so yer ,work for the rich to survive

A few of things worth mentioning. Firstly health and safety is only there because of suing. If there was no suing, there would be no health and safety. Insane h&s policies are there to protect people from getting sued, not to protect people from dying. Companies, employers ect have to put these ridiculous policies in place or some one grazes a knee and sues. Unfortunately the reason us brickies will never get our worth pay wise is because you need zero qualifications. The public perception is that we are thick. If everything else fails at school send them to the building game to be a bricky. That is why we will never earn that much money.

I’m confused the brickies I know are on £300 a day and say they can’t get anybody to join em, no applicants, no brick layers.

Well said 👏

I’m a bricky of 11 years, the pay is just not worth it anymore, we took a 15% pay cut start of the year, now getting paid £7k to build a house they’ll sell for £325k. It’s an absolute joke, but I have 3 kids so got to stick it out for now, extremely depressing.

100%. I’m glad I’m nearly out of it and personally I think premade Brickwork cladding timber cladding et cetera will be the future. It’s not something I would get into now it’s sad it’s day. I’ve done well out of it but many live week for a week.

Brilliant honest stuff.

Started laying bricks soon after school and hod carried, totally agree about learning running to the line as in them days all footings were common or fletons, great way to get the knack of laying,

Wish I could earn 20 pound an hour, never mind 20 pound an hour, give me a break I thought builders couldn’t work after 60! Knackerd! I know the miners couldn’t work till 68 they could hardly walk if they where still alive🤷‍♂️

Hi Andy, I really enjoyed your insight into the world of bricklaying. Loved the story of you repairing the damaged wall on the wrong house. Keep well mate and hope to see you soon.

I’m 54 and your absolutely bang on with everything you say not sure about getting lads walling in 3 months tho bear in mind your typical 16 year old has only ever played Xbox . I’m absolutely sick to the back teeth with the job currently working for linden homes through a big ish Barron Mitchel Irwin it’s a complete shit show my friend

Same for carpenters. I’m making the same now as I was in the early 2000s. Foreign labour was brought in on purpose, to hold the working man down ….. and it worked. I don’t recommended the skilled trades to any young folk now. I only see tramps and foreigners coming in, working for drugs or beer money whilst claiming dole or living in a hostel. Where have all the Poles gone? Most have spotted what’s going on and either went home or another country. Some guys are doing well, the vast majority aren’t when the time, cost and effort are factored in. The few subsides that are doing very well are burning the candle at both ends, committing fraud, or up to something. Most of that money will go up their beak and they’ll lose everything, including their family, or they’ll spend some time in HMP. Either way, sod grafting for crap money in the UK. Either go abroad, or do something else. The UK is bust and it’s going to get bad under the new government.

comments that dont like what you say ,are the ones that will be in trouble when they are your age,if they are luckily enough to get that old without some one having to wipe their arse and put them to bed........

I've been bricklayer all my life started on the hod in 1981 & on the trowel 1989 0n £70 a day,10 years later 1999 a £150, that's £80 a day rise in 10 years, so a bricklayer s money in 2025 should be £350 a day, unfortunately it's only £200 my a bit more,there is no point, it's not a trade that pays, it's just an existence, nobody can afford to be a bricklayer anymore, sadly .

top gezzer ,could listen to you all day,as you speak my language , i am same age in transport hgv driver basically the same problems,crack on while you still can mate...

It's not the Government, it's the people who CONTROL the Government. Inflation is the weapon of choice, educate yourselves about 'Fiat currency' it shouldn't take you long to realise that it's ALL a con, and a very deceptive way of enslaving us all...😢😢😢

I remember cavity laths. Must be old. 😊

Great chat! Nice to hear from your perspective, I have no experience in bricklaying but found the whole chat really interesting. I’m in design engineering for commercial aircraft and we have the same issues with regards to management levels being unfit for the job having no experience working in that area. Quality is the last priority Also a pint of beer to highlight inflation, never seen it before but works! I joined the workforce in 2005 and it’s soul destroying seeing all the benefits being closed off, everyone becoming less and less well off. And it strangles the businesses, less money in your pockets for local economies. Hardest part, what can we do about it.

the building and engineering industry is screwed. Most youngsters don't want hard work now.

bring back cone hotline. ..

Let them have the job thats what i say, back in the day get stuck in Monday till Friday 12 o'clock straight in the battle cruiser, its gone now 😞

I completely agree with you Andy. I started as a carpenter in 1967 after doing a pre apprenticeship course, went self employed at 22 as it was the only way to earn a decent wage. At age 38 I got a job with the NHBC as an inspector, that was a great job for around 15 yrs then it got so data based when computers were introduced it was impossible & everyone wanted to leave. I stuck it out till I could retire because of the pension but I can’t see any future in the house building industry when half the labour force is foreign and will work for half price

It’s not just bricklayers. Everyone I speak to…

Merry Xmas from Perth Western Australia

Sorry to say, but a lot of construction workers have a worse standard of living than those scamming benefits.

I have been bricklaying since 1978, did a Topps course and have worked ever since. Retired at 66 but still doing a bit. Enjoyed your comments Andy it took me back to the old days of site work and the highs and lows of being a Subby on pricework. I also did a bit of teaching at college. They believe you can learn bricklaying from a computer. Spending more time at a desk than on a trowel. I couldn't convince them that you needed to build corners and run the line to develop a half decent bricklayer. So I left. I think a practical course of three months is a great idea. I'm a dinosaur now. I wouldn't go back on site . I couldn't recommend it either. How they will build all these houses I don't know. I hope they find a way. . . JT

Foreign labour not up to British standard. Afraid that is an absolute myth.

Bogus self employment and price work was another nail in the coffin.

It is all about money so you have to ask yourself why are so many building site workers Tommy Robinson fans. Never knew he was a champion of the impoverished construction worker.