How to Quote a Brick Wall (Australia)

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⚠️ These are starting numbers, not market rates. Put your own in.

Your quoteLine total

I'm registered for GST Deposit %

Subtotal$0.00

GST (10%)$0.00

Total$0.00

Deposit (20%)$0.00

Balance on completion$0.00

What the job actually is

Check the footing: level, to line, cured, and wide enough for the wall you have been asked to build.
Set out the wall and run profiles and string lines from one end.
Work out where the last brick lands before you lay the first — a wall ending on a half is a wall you look at forever.
Set up the board, the mixer and a water source.
Mix mortar to the class the job calls for and keep it consistent all the way up.
Lay the first course dead level. Everything above it inherits whatever this course does.
Build the ends up, then fill between them to the line.
Build in ties, DPC, weep holes and any lintel as you go, not afterwards.
Rake or iron the joints while the mortar is at the right stage — not later.
Clean down, acid wash if the brick needs it, and take the rubbish away.

Materials

Bricks or blocks plus wastage — the brick and block calculator works out the count for the wall area and brick size, with waste built in.
Sand, cement and lime at the mix class the job calls for — the mortar calculator gives the quantities.
Concrete, if you are also doing the footing — the concrete calculator converts the trench into bags or a ready-mix order.
Wall ties, DPC and weep holes, counted rather than assumed.
Lintels over any opening, to whatever the design specifies.
Mortar colour or oxide, if the customer has chosen one.
Acid, brushes and hoses for the clean-down, plus protection for paths, windows and plants.

Order the bricks with a wastage allowance and from one batch if you can. Brick colour varies between batches enough to see in daylight, and going back for two hundred more from a different run leaves a patch in the wall that the customer will notice every single day.

What the price assumes

The footing is by others, is level and to line, and has cured.
The bricks are the size and type named in the quote, and are delivered before the start date.
The pack lands on the working side of the block, within barrow distance.
Water and power are available on site.
The wall is the height quoted and does not need scaffold beyond hop-ups.
The ground is stable and the wall is not retaining anything.
No engineering, no lintels beyond what the quote lists, and no approval outstanding.

Extras that come up

Pouring the footing yourself, if the customer has not arranged it.
A footing that is out — not level, not to line, or too narrow, which means packing every course or starting again.
The pack landing on the wrong side, which is an hour of barrowing nobody priced.
A change of brick after the quote, which moves the count, the labour and often the joint.
Scaffold, once the wall goes past about a metre and a half.
Piers, returns, capping or a feature course, which are all slower per brick than a straight run.
Cleaning down a difficult brick that needs more than a normal wash.
Demolishing the old wall and getting rid of it.

💡 Put the clean-down on the quote as its own priced line, every time. It is a real day on a wall of any size, it is invisible to a customer who assumes the acid wash is part of laying bricks, and it is the single most commonly forgotten item in the trade. A named line makes it a decision rather than a discovery.

Things nobody charges for, and should

The set-out. Profiles, lines and working out where the last brick lands is time before a single brick is laid.
Mixing. Somebody is making mortar all day, and on a solo job that somebody is you.
Barrowing, if the pack is anywhere but beside the wall.
Protecting the paths, windows and garden from mortar splash and acid.
Tip fees on broken brick, packaging and any demolition.
The second visit if the clean-down happens after the mortar has properly gone off.

⚠️ Retaining walls, load-bearing walls, piers and articulation joints are engineering, and this page does not do it. A wall that holds back ground or carries a load is somebody's designed structure, not a rate per thousand — and whether a garden wall needs approval depends on its height and on your council. Quote the work you have been given a design for, price the design as somebody's cost, and never infer either from a calculator.

A worked example

A 24 m² single-skin garden wall in standard 230×110×76 bricks, roughly 1,300 bricks, straight runs with two returns, on a footing poured by others. Ground-level work with hop-ups, raked joints, brick supplied by the customer. Bricklayer registered for GST.

Line	Qty	Rate	Total
Set out, profiles and string lines	1 job	$480.00	$480.00
Lay bricks — single skin, straight runs and returns	1300 ea	$2.35	$3,055.00
Mortar — sand, cement, lime and mixing	1 job	$640.00	$640.00
Wall ties, DPC and weep holes	24 m²	$14.00	$336.00
Hop-ups and site setup	1 job	$260.00	$260.00
Rake and iron joints	24 m²	$18.00	$432.00
Clean down, acid wash and site tidy	1 job	$720.00	$720.00
Subtotal			$5,923.00
GST (10%)			$592.30
Total inc GST			$6,515.30
Deposit (20%)			$1,303.06
Balance on completion			$5,212.24

These are starting numbers, not market rates. Put your own in. Every figure above comes from the line items in the builder at the top of this page.

Start this quote in Yamate — the lines, not the prices →

The app fills in the same line descriptions and leaves every amount blank for you. Your prices, not ours.

Yamate keeps your rates and your standard lines, so the next one of these is a few taps rather than a blank page — then turns the accepted quote into the invoice without retyping it.

FAQ

How many bricks do I need for a wall?

It depends on the wall area, the brick size and whether it is single skin or cavity, plus a wastage allowance. The brick and block calculator works out the count with waste, and the mortar calculator gives the sand, cement and lime to go with it.

Should bricklaying be quoted per brick or per square metre?

Either, as long as the quote names which it is and the brick size it assumes. Per thousand travels better across brick sizes; per square metre is easier for a customer to compare. What causes arguments is a rate with neither stated.

Who pours the footing?

Whoever the quote says. Building on a footing you did not pour and did not check is how somebody else's bad day becomes your wall — so either price the footing or state in writing what it has to be before you start.

Does a garden wall need council approval?

It depends on the height and on where you are, and the rules are set by your state and council. Ask before you price it, and treat the approval as somebody's cost rather than absorbing it.

Work out the materials first

Bricks & blocks Mortar Concrete volume & bags

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General information for Australian tradies, not building, engineering, legal or financial advice. The rates on this page are starting points rather than market prices, and every figure is an estimate based on what you type in. Structural design, approval, licensing and deposit rules are set by each state and council — check yours before relying on this page.

How to quote a brick garden wall