How to get a quote for a garden wall

A garden wall is one of the most common jobs a bricklayer gets asked to price, and one of the most commonly priced wrong. Not because bricklayers can’t count, but because the customer didn’t know what to tell them. Here’s what to have ready, what should be in the quote, and how to tell a good one from a bad one.

Measure it before you ask

Three numbers make the difference between a guess and a price: length, height and thickness.

• Length in metres, end to end, including any returns round a corner.
• Height from the ground you’ll see it against, not from the top of the footing.
• Thickness. A single-skin wall is one brick wide (about 100mm). A 9-inch wall is two bricks wide and much stronger. Anything over about a metre high, or anything holding back soil, wants to be 9-inch or built with piers.

If you don’t know which you want, say so. A good bricklayer will tell you what the height needs.

Say what’s there now

Is there an old wall to take down? A fence? A hedge with roots? Is the ground level or sloping? Where does the soil and rubble go? Taking down an old wall and carting it away can be a day’s work on its own, and it changes the price. A quote that doesn’t mention it hasn’t allowed for it.

Decide the details that change the price

• Brick. Matching the house costs more than a standard facing brick, and reclaimed bricks cost more again. If you want a match, photograph the house wall close up.
• Piers. Brick pillars along the length or at the ends. They add strength and they add bricks.
• Coping or caps. The top of the wall. A brick-on-edge finish, a concrete coping, a pier cap. Each is a different cost.
• Foundations. Every wall needs a concrete footing below ground. If there’s an existing footing it might be reusable, but nobody can tell you that from a photo. This is what a site visit is for.

Photos that actually help

Take a wide shot of the whole run from both ends, one of the ground along its length, one of the access route from the road, and a close-up of the house brick if you want a match. Put something in the shot for scale. A wheelie bin does the job.

What a good quote for a garden wall includes

A proper quote will tell you, in writing:

• The length, height and thickness it’s priced for
• The brick or block, and roughly how many
• Whether there are piers, and how many
• The coping or cap finish
• Whether the footing is included, and how deep
• Taking down and removing anything that’s there now
• Waste removal
• Roughly how long it’ll take
• Whether the price includes VAT

If two quotes are far apart, check this list first. A price without a footing, piers or waste removal isn’t cheaper. It’s incomplete.

Starting price and final price

When you post a garden wall on Hard Hat Way, bricklayers quote from your photos and description. That’s a starting price. It’s an honest figure based on what they can see. Once you choose one, they come out for a site visit, check the ground, the footing and the access, and give you a final price. If the description and photos were good, the two numbers should be close. If something turns up that nobody could have seen, they’ll tell you what and why before anything starts.

What to be wary of

A price given over the phone with no measurements. A quote that doesn’t mention foundations. A wall over a metre high with no piers and no mention of thickness. Any of those means the job hasn’t been thought through, and that usually shows up in the finished wall.

Ready to get it priced? Post the job free with your measurements and photos, and quotes come to you.