We use a lot of Castaic bricks here in San Diego County. Not sure of the pricing though:
http://www.castaicbrick.com/products_thinbrk.htm

Dave

 

You won't be getting thin BRICK for a buck-fiddy a SqFt, maybe some crappy concrete imitations. Anything that looks like a brick is going to be closer to 5 bucks, and real thin brick can go double that.

 

We've used alot of Robinson thin brick through the years, but they're about $7-8 per sq. foot. Not sure I'd want to put my name on $1.50 material.............

 

agreed 1.50 a sqft way to low. Im sure half the boxes would be broken corners smashed! thin brick is super expensive material wise vs conventional brick but its also much faster and easier to se in a given situation.

 

I have always cut the bricks myself for the few thin brick jobs I have done. They were all small jobs (probably all around 250 sq ft.).
The last job I did was with Glen Gery Danish jumbos which cost $0.72 per brick. Each brick gives 2 thin brick, so it comes out to around $1.89/sq ft or $0.36 per thin brick. Add around $0.50/sq ft for labor of cutting and you have $2.39/sq ft.

 

Your math is wrong, and I hope you don't sell jobs on that basis.

 

.50 a sqft for labor of cutting really? You must have one fast saw!

 

I'd agree.

After cutting thousands of thin brick, the $1.20 PER CUT that one of my supplier's charges doesn't seem so asinine anymore. And you're cutting them for about 1/12 the cost..........................

 

I dont know guys. I kinda threw those numbers together to give you a ball park but they are pritty damn close.

Full size brick cost $0.72 each. Each thin brick is half the cost which is $0.36.
There are approximatly 5.5 brick per sq ft.
My guy can very easily cut 2 sides off every brick in one pallet in a day (430 brick per pallet). That equals 860 thin brick ( 156 sq ft) at a labor of $120 per 8 hour day.

$0.36 x 5.5 = $1.98 material / sq ft

$120 labor / 156 sq ft. = $0.77 labor/sq ft

Total = $1.98 + $0.77 = $2.75 / sq ft
Actual thin brick at my local yard cost $7.37/sq ft.
Tscarborough: If my math is off, which it might be, please let me know where. Also, I always price my jobs at the going rate of the thin brick. Not at my cost.

 

I dont know guys. I kinda threw those numbers together to give you a ball park but they are pritty damn close.

Full size brick cost $0.72 each. Each thin brick is half the cost which is $0.36.
There are approximatly 5.5 brick per sq ft.
My guy can very easily cut 2 sides off every brick in one pallet in a day (430 brick per pallet). That equals 860 thin brick ( 156 sq ft) at a labor of $120 per 8 hour day.

$0.36 x 5.5 = $1.98 material / sq ft

$120 labor / 156 sq ft. = $0.77 labor/sq ft

Total = $1.98 + $0.77 = $2.75 / sq ft
Actual thin brick at my local yard cost $7.37/sq ft.
Tscarborough: If my math is off, which it might be, please let me know where. Also, I always price my jobs at the going rate of the thin brick. Not at my cost.

Please don't take offense to this, as that's certainly not my intention, but I see quite a few issues with the way you're figuring this. The biggest problem IMO is that your figuring this using the best possible case scenario, not the average or mean.

- I take it the guy cutting gets paid $15 an hour. Probably low for a guy that will cut for 8 hours a day w/o quitting, but that's no the issue. If you figure in approx. 50%+ that it costs to have the employee, he's making less than $10 an hour. If you work any kind of OT, he's down below min. wage.

- You're not figuring any overhead, especially the saw and expensive diamond blade that you're burning up. Much less the truck that hauls the saw there, the shop it's stored in, etc.....

- 840 brick a day seams, from my personal experience, a bit aggressive. I'm sure it can be done, but not with hard Kings.

- Your math doesn't account for cutting any corners, which take at least 4 times longer than a flat, and you can only get one per brick. Not sure about you, but I've done thin brick jobs that only used corners, but never one that only used flats & no corners. A more typical job would likely have 15-20% corners, adding alot more cutting time.

- Most importantly, you're not figuring in any profit in the cutting. I understand that you said you estimate the manu. cost in the bid rather than you're actual, but I just don't want someone reading this to get the wrong idea.

 

We cut thin brick on site. I am not familiar with the particular brick you are using, but assuming that it is a 2 faced brick, I figure it like this:

For a normal modular, it is about .70 cents for the brick, plus 2 cuts, $2.00 (buck a cut), so the price is $1.35 per brick-face. This is about in line with a Robinson brick factory cut brick for 250 SqFt including freight, if not a tad cheaper. At 6 per Sqft, that is $8.10 per SqFt material cost.

My guy can cut about 3 cubes a day (1500+/-) without working too hard, and we get about 10% breakage in the process of cutting and cleaning them. Blade and saw costs are significant as well for this type of use.

Every brick is different though, for example when we cut Mexican brick, he can cut a lot more and they are cheaper, but breakage is almost 20% and they eat up blades. Some brick are single faced, and those cost more as well.

We would not bother to go through the effort of cutting brick for free, nor should you.

 

We would not bother to go through the effort of cutting brick for free, nor should you.

When did I ever say I cut brick for free? I said that I still use the going rate price of thin brick in my estimates. I gain extra profit by cutting them in house.

 

If you make money at that price, I say go for it. We did about 20,000 brick last year and not only did we make good money, we saved our customers money too.

 

Sure, the last job was only 250 sq ft. My cost of $2.75/sq ft vs the manufacture cost of $7.37/sq ft made me an additional $1155 just on materials.

 

So you are stating your estimated costs here, not what you sold the brick for?

 

Correct. All the numbers I am showing are what it cost ME. I am in no way passing this on to the home owner. They get charged whatever it costs to purchase the thin brick from the local supply.
I was originally just trying to suggest that it may benifit you to cut your own brick. In my limited experiance, it has always worked out very well in my favor.

 

I still think your assumed costs are low, but as long as you are charging a realistic price then you will do well.

 

Just wondering one point.

Forget about the labor for cutting, the full size brick.

But, where are you getting these bricks with faces on front and back.
IMO, they are very rare.

Granted, I do more stonework than brick, but I've done my share of trying to match brick, and special order shapes to know, that most bricks have only one face.

Just curious, D.

 

Just wondering one point.

Forget about the labor for cutting, the full size brick.

But, where are you getting these bricks with faces on front and back.
IMO, they are very rare.

.

Agree....most of if not all of the brick we have used over the years (Boral) have been single sided.

 

99% of the brick we CUT are used or Mexican which are double sided. Less than half lines of face brick are double sided, though.

Diamond D, thinbrick is a national product with national pricing. The only variance will be freight.

 

You are absolutly right Jomama. I kind of touched on it in a previous reply to your earlyer post but I should have gone into further detail. Any and all overhead gets tacked on to the job estimate. For example, I do not seperate the overhead for the amount of time someone is cutting brick and the amount of time he is mixing mortar. So you are right in saying that it costs a little more then what my calculation showed to cut the bricks, but that extra cost is covered in the end.
I am starting to think I may be digging myself an early grave on this site but I really don't see what I am doing wrong.

 

I am starting to think I may be digging myself an early grave on this site but I really don't see what I am doing wrong.

Your not as nearly as good at digging as you think you are. Trust me we have had a lot of new peeps over the years who could dig much faster than you. There are blowhards and then those who have genuine questions. Your questions were genuine and your responses measured so put away your shovel and stay awhile. Jomama and Tsc are just trying to help you out.

 

thin brick is for tile guys not bricklayers

 

Don't believe everything you read on the internets.

 

About half the calls I get to fix thin brick botched jobs were done by tile guys, the other half by people with no clue at all. Tile guys are not who you want doing thin brick or stone.

 

That's surely going to get Bud in a tizzy................

And yes, I know you don't care............. :laughing:

Every time we use thin brick it's because it's the best option available. If the house is built with a rooftop chimney for a zero clearance fireplace, I'd rather see it get thin brick than a clad siding. I suppose we could just lay full veneer on the shingles and keep changing the phone number when the roof has serious deflection, or we can lay a thin veneer and pretend we're doing this service for a career.

 

To the OP, $7-$8 per sq ft is going to be about right. They are salty little buggers.

 

splits have always been the same price as a brick.
Cutting them yourself, even with a clipper seems futile.

 

thin brick cost

Depending where you are at McNear Brick in San Rafael Ca. does sell seconds thin brick in that price neighborhood. However as to first product none of the other manufacturers in California will be anywhere near that price. This would be the same for concrete thin brick as well.

 

I couldnt be hired to cut pallets of bricks.....life is to short people.