AI tendering for bricklayers

Price a brickwork tender by measuring the net wall area from the elevations, less openings, converting it to bricks at about 60 per m² of half-brick wall, and pricing laying per 1,000 bricks. Price blockwork per m², and add lintels, ties and insulation. Then decide labour-only or supply and fit, and qualify scaffold, hoisting and frost.

What makes brickwork tenders hard to price?

The count is easy to get wrong and the output is easy to overestimate. A brickwork package arrives as elevations, sections and a spec naming the brick, the bond and the mortar, and the main contractor compares one figure: your rate per 1,000.

The problems on most brickwork tenders:

• Openings and returns. Gross area overstates the bricks; returns, reveals and piers add labour.
• Specials and features. Soldier courses, corbels, arches and special shapes priced at the same rate as plain walling.
• Labour-only or supply and fit. Different risks, often decided by the main contractor.
• Attendances. Who loads out, hoists and provides mixers, silos and waste removal.
• Scaffolding. Almost always by others, but the lifts and handover dates decide your output.
• Weather. Rain and frost stop bricklaying, and winter programmes rarely allow for it.

He was describing RAMS and construction phase plans. Public sector and main contractor tenders ask for them with every bid, so a small brickwork firm can spend as long on paperwork as on the count. See can AI write RAMS for what's safe to hand over.

How do you count and price brickwork from the elevations?

Measure each elevation, take off the openings, and multiply the net area by bricks per m². Price the laying on what's laid, and add waste only to the order.

The 60 comes from the brick plus a 10 mm joint: 225 × 75 mm per brick face, which is 59.3 bricks per m². For 440 × 215 mm blocks, the same sum gives 450 × 225 mm, about 9.9 blocks per m².

Notice the waste sits in the order quantity, not the laying price. Pricing laying on 10,836 bricks would add £387 you can't justify on a schedule, and main contractors check.

Labour-only or supply and fit?

Labour-only when the main contractor buys well and you want to carry output risk only; supply and fit when you can buy as well as they can and want the margin on materials. On many housing packages the main contractor decides.

Under CIS, the contractor deducts from your labour but not from materials you paid for directly, so on supply and fit, show the two separately. See supply-and-fit vs labour-only for the full comparison.

What should a brickwork tender qualify?

Attendances, hoisting, mortar and scaffold, then weather. Those decide your output.

Tender: project name, brickwork and blockwork package
Our price: £amount excluding VAT, dated date

1. Priced from elevations drawing numbers and revisions and specification reference. Brick: brick name, bond: bond, joint: joint profile.
2. Labour-only: bricks, blocks, mortar, ties, lintels and DPC supplied and loaded out by the main contractor. Supply and fit: materials priced as listed, valid for [number] days.
3. Mortar supplied by others from silo / mixed by us, cement and sand by others.
4. Scaffolding by others, adapted and handed over lift by lift to suit continuous working.
5. Hoisting and distribution of materials to working areas by the main contractor.
6. Specials, soldier courses, arches and feature brickwork priced as listed. Others at our schedule rates.
7. Price assumes continuous working in number visits. Return visits at £rate per visit.
8. No bricklaying when the air temperature is below 3°C and falling. Days lost to frost or heavy rain are not at our cost; programme to be extended accordingly.
9. Protection of new work with covers included. Heating and enclosures in severe frost excluded.
10. Waste removal, skips and cleaning of scaffold by others.
11. VAT and CIS applied as HMRC rules require.

The frost line comes from published standards. NHBC's standards say brickwork and blockwork shouldn't be built when the air temperature is below 3°C and falling, that work can resume at 1°C and rising when it's expected to go above 3°C, and that frozen or frost-damaged materials shouldn't be used.

What can AI do on a brickwork tender, and what can't it?

AI is good at measuring elevations and counting; it can't tell you how fast your gang lays a Flemish bond in February.

What it does well:

• Net areas from scaled elevations, with openings deducted, elevation by elevation.
• Brick and block counts with waste for the order.
• Spec reading: bond, joint, brick name, specials and movement joints.
• Drafting qualifications and a first RAMS draft from your standard documents.

What still needs you:

• Output. Your rate per 1,000 depends on the bond, the brick, the height and the weather.
• Features. Arches, corbels and specials need your judgement on time.
• Site and programme. Scaffold handovers and material deliveries.
• Sign-off on the count, the price and the qualifications.

Test an AI count against one you've done by hand before relying on it. How to test an AI take-off gives worked brickwork answers to check against.

Which brickwork tenders should you bid?

Ones with complete elevations, a clear attendances schedule and a programme that allows for winter. Use the 10-minute tender read and walk away from packages where the elevations are marked "indicative", scaffold handover isn't programmed, or the main contractor wants supply and fit at a brick price you can't get.

Common questions