Hiya guys! A lot of knowledgeable people here in the comments with a wealth more business experience than myself. Great to hear all the feed back! Some people have highlighted loads more "business expenses" i didn't even consider. A few examples are; Tools wearing out Van MOT + maintaining the van Phone (Didn't take this into account when breaking down the costs) But these are all very vaild costs that as self-employed workers we should try to consider. After looking at these costs and a few others, it would probably double the original cost mentioned in the video. Again, appreciate the knowledge shared on here in the comments, not only for myself, but other viewers who read the comments and people who watch the video. The main reason i started YT was to create a community where information was shared between us all. Very aware there's so much to learn regarding thr business side of being a construction worker. We're taught to be builder's, joiner's, or whatever trade. Not often taught about business. We're construction workers at the end of the day😂 Hope you guys are well. ITB weekly to commence soon... ish

As a builder for over fifty years I enjoyed repairing chimney stacks, especially in summer, sometimes you could just lift the first half a dozen courses off that’s virtually laid on dust , we found the best way to deal with damaged stacks was to take it down to solid bricks and mortar and rebuild them. They will last a very long time and not need repointing 😊

The big test for me when watching videos is would I be happy to have the person working at my house. The answer in your case is most certainly YES. Great workmanship and a delight to have around. Take care , good to see you back.

Enjoyed the video. Why would I not enjoy a nice young fellow helping is old Grandma. Peace, goodwill and all the best for your future.

Izzy - Loving your stuff mate, but never forget that lost days to weather are an overhead too, probably your biggest after the van running costs, unless you have another income stream when you can't be on the tools. A word to the wise from a roofer 42 years in the game, don't fight shy of putting your labour charge up across the board to part accommodate lost time to the elements. Sensible people, who want a good job done, will pay sensible money. Keep grafting!!

Very nice job. You've got your priorities spot on.

Not seen you on here for ages mate ,good to see you back on .

This young man is an excellent tradesman and considering his age, knows exactly what he's doing to make a first class job of anything he attempts. Very knowledgeable and his attention to detail is a first class example to other trades people. I wish he would travel out Retford to build me some brick gate pillars on my grade 2 building....

Miss your regular content mate but I understand how things are. Just as long as you pop in nar and again for a cuppa.

Lovely to see you looking after your gran, pain in the neck old chimneys, best taken down in my humble opinion. 👍

Exceptionally good value for a quality repair. Good to see a new video Izzy, keep em coming

Good to see you back buddy and helping out your nanna. Hope you had a good break.

Quality work as always, Izzy, along with the cost breakdown. Welcome back, keep the vlogs going, when you can. All the best! 👍 😊

I’m just starting out doing jobs around my area, bricklaying and land maintenance work etc. Been at it 3 years and have brought a truck! More vids like this would be amazing to see over the business side of things. I’d like to see you back in action on your own jobs as the graft you do is impressive 👍🏼

Lovely job Isaac

Great job, Izzy.😁👌❤️❤️

Izzy. Good to see you back. Don’t forget to add the cost of a replacement van, tools and clothing in your calculations.

you presentation style is really good, thanks for showing your skills.

Good video as per usual mate, an education.

Hope to see more of you on youtube Isaac, miss your weekly series.

Alright mate,glad to see your still kicking around. Looking forward to more vids. Cant be as easy to film working for a company.

Great video, Izzy. As a "ball park figure" I was taught that the running costs of a small business were X3 the workman's wage. ie, if a man earns £20/hr then the running costs were roughly a further £60/hr. (This was based on a small company with added personel in the background, secretery, etc).

Top job it's all bout family nice to see you back izzy

Great job

Great job Izzy

good to see you, been a while. I too hate pricing thats why I just work for other contractors, doing the work then having to price jobs is too much hassle.

good to have you back Izzy, sorry you don't work for yourself but hope you enjoy working for others. all the best

Nice to see u back

Hi Izzy. Mix i recommend for Flaunching chimney top. 1 cem, 1 lime 2soft builders sand. 1 Sharp sand.1 Grano chippings. They all combine to make a long lasting topping. I also do a bit of a bullnose on the front sloping upwards. To stop the sharp wdge breaking up at edges. Take care mate

Would you recommend any coating on the bricks/top e.g. Thompsons water seal or in the mix itself?

Good to see ya brother! Looks well👍

Nice job izzy and a very reasonable price

Good break down, although you should consider dividing your monthly expenses by how many days you are available to work in a month. I.e by 20 or 24 if you work Saturdays. 28 if Sundays too.

Hi Izzy, love your video, for the top of chimney a tar would help, here in New York we use Henry Fiber Asphalt Roof Coat.

Izzy mate good to see a vid again.how was the big holiday.you pritty much on the Money I charge .but we do pay double that on scaffolding.they charge us twice the price in Yorkshire probably 600 for that scaf👍

Thanks Izzy for sharing how much you would charge to do a job - Can you do this for future video's too? -Thank you

What's your mortar and flaunch mix ratios? Would you consider some form of weather/storm seal on the whole stack?

Very interesting thanks

Nice video. I was wondering if you go back after a few days/week to pointer the chimney? In the netherland if im not mistaken after building a wall they do the pointering after a few days/weeks.

Divide your monthly costs by 20 not 30 Izzy. 4 weeks X 5 working days. Keep the videos coming mate.

£636, absolute bargain. Wouldn’t even get a scaffold put up for that where I’m from. Or LBC heathers for less than £2 per brick 🤣

Great work mate

Good video buddy. Nice of you to do that for your nan. Nowt wrong with your robust head of hair btw. I was fully bald by 24! 😮

Hello Izzy, hreat video as always. Im got to rebuild a stack quite soon local to macc, its very similar to that but thd cost is 950 +vat. All prices were similar i got. Day rate has to be at least 300 to 350 otherwise when you've taken off the costs you've mentioned you're working for not a lot. But thats only if you're good with a great reputation, which you have. Just my opinion. Atb Izzy 👍

You should definitely mark up your overheads if you want to ensure profitability. Even if it’s just a small amount. Your labour doesn’t need marking up, but I’d definitely ensure that your overheads have some ‘fat’ on them at least.

Happy dayz Izzy Working in the material costs perfectly Free labour gives you a wider range of quality.

Mice one Izzy. Looking after your Nan. LBC's cost a feckin fortune and they're all like bananas! In South West we have an alternative manufacturer doing a LBC Heather lookalike, they are good bricks and blend well. Guess you had LBC imperial sized bricks (based on age of chimney) and the new are LBC metric, minor size difference but does make a difference as you found out! Other costs you might need to include are your mobile phone costs as its a tool!

Nice Job, those sand faced flettons should never have been used in the first place . Especially in an exposed area like a chimney.

I wondered where you had gone never seem to get your videos anymore, but I suppose you don’t put up videos that often if you are working for a company, good luck in whatever you decide to do.

would it be worth using Masonry Protection Cream help with weather protection?

I love rebuilding chimneys but to many silly customers think you can do it off a ladder and dont wanna pay for scaffolding lol

I had my entire weathered chimney rebuilt in Yorkshire (looked exactly the same as this one) but out of engineering bricks 2 yrs back. Cost me £1800. Looks stunning now.

I didnt know your worked for a company now Izzy, wondered why the videos had dropped. Cant say I blame you tbh, its less agro.

£636 for a piece of cake gotta love yer gran !!!!!!!!!!

Big thumbs up !

The hard cement helps retain moisture in the bed joint. The softer bed joint disintegrates as it can’t breathe. LBC heathers or dapples are awful

How many weeks Holiday do you want per year? You need to charge more.

Nice to see you back Izzy

Brilliant

Forgot the cost of the van and its maintenance, the cost of the tools, Consumable costs like office, ppe etc..., time taken to quote, fetch materials, there's loads to consider. Including warranty returns etc..

This is amazing

Loooooong vacation or too busy to post videos Izzy? Good to have you back, and yes: You are nice with your grandma and that is what we are supposed to

Doesnt that 2024 you put just hold water and eventually allow the process to fail quicker?

£636 to have a 3rd of a chimney taken down and rebuilt. It is crazy how much things cost. I know people will say it costs what it costs but it is crazy and it will only go up. This is the trouble with the system. Prices go up but not down and then people dont have money to apend on their home so their home deteriorates and the cycle gets worse.

Great money in scafffolding!

I would have put a Flue Liner in for the gas fire whilst I was up there. Old Chimneys are leaky for gas fumes. Good job and charge a grand next time to cover your guarantee, just in case.

come down to london mate, you'd rake it in

Is the was on the top lime mortar as well?

The worst part of job is asking for the money the 2nd best part is getting the money the best is doing the work

You work 30 days a week? Divide it by 20 instead. Also, work out depreciation on the van and tools as they will cost money to replace when they wear out.

No two jobs are alike when it comes to pricing. I would price on how much aggravation the job would cause as a formula in my head. Such as how difficult was the location, did I like the client, how close could I get my truck and equipment to the job, how much wear and tear was this job going to cause to me and my equipment etc. that’s why I’d never discuss hourly rates with customers, I’d just quote a price based on a feeling and formula in my head. And I did quite nicely thanks.

Hi, What mix did you use for the bricks and flaunching?

You should always charge for waste aswell as your paying out to get rid of other people's waste from the job so you should price for waste so the customers are paying to get rid of there own waste as you missed this out in your video when you was running down your prices good job mate looks well

Mkm bought out my favourite independent merchant and put the prices up thru the roof

What a fine grandson you are. 💋

Don't forget your holiday pay and bank holidays!! and divide it by 48 weeks not 52. i run my own joinery business and use to think my overheads were v little until i broke it down to the hour, was robbing myself for a few years at the start.

you would divide insurance monthly cost by 20 days; if you only work weekdays as 4 weeks x5 is 20 obviously if you work Saturdays account for that but itll be 24, also adding 30-40% profit on smaller jobs, as the money may be less and the percentage may not always work out worthwhile profit wise if you account for time spent, this is if your paying yourself per hr not day rate - also id look into setting up a ltd company as this will allow better tax relief ie, setup the business in your name and then you can claim dividends rather than taking a wage this greatly lowers your tax payments , this is different in terms of me as i work from a workshop so i have a set rate per hr of work that has already accounted for overheads and profit i also charge 10% handling fee on materials

why havent you matched the existing pointing and used a jointing iron instead of a weather struck joint as per original

If you don't have a drill or angle grinder to take those bricks out you sometimes can use a hand saw which works really well as long as the mortar isn't too hard and the risk of damage is minimal.

Mate come to Australia, most brickies here pick numbers out the air and charge what they like, so much work they can pick and choose their jobs, they do a lousy job, every job needs to be acid washed to clean off the smeared cement. A an example 2 work friends had new houses built, one had all the brickwork condemned and, builder said it was "to code" had to pay for an independent inspector and threaten legal action, cement between bricks varied between 2mm to 10mm. The other paid for upgraded bricks but the job was so bad, complained to the building inspector (they are all employed by the builder!!) and again threatened legal action, the builder ended up rendering the house.

Good man. You sound a bit apologetic, but that’s what things cost today. I’d pay that easily IF ITS A GOOD JOB DONE. Having watched you a bit I’d trust you on my house. Crack on kid.

Other costs for yourself - pension costs, insurance to cover if you can't work, costs of accountant (if you have one), NI stamp etc etc

Mortar to steel, no deal. That cap is going to crack the crown, allowing water in and starting the whole deterioration process all over again. Wrap the top of the pipe just below the crown with Ceramic wool insulation. As for your cost breakdown, the way you did the insurances should have been divided by the days you work in a month, not by the amount of days in the month. Otherwise, at the end of the month, you're going to be short. I put in an allowance for breakage for the roof tiles. If I didn't rebuild the whole chimney, I would at least repoint it from the roofline up. That repointing mortar is too strong for those bricks and they will spall. And aesthetically it will look much better. Sorry for the rant. I have been doing chimney and fireplace restoration exclusively for the last 32 years.

Good instructional video, Izzy, however you should advise your gran to have the gas fire ( if there is one) at the bottom of the flue liner removed, the aperture cleaned out and possibly a smoke test done.

Hi mate, sparky here. Don’t forget to add in a % for not having things like holiday pay, sick pay, paternity leave and employer pension contributions. General public doesn’t understand the big gap between what you charge and what ends up in your pocket

Don't forget when you consider costs you incur, when you get paid then that's taxed, so you should add it onto your price of things you pay out of your own pocket to turn up, to make sure you aren't out of pocket!

Perhaps I missed it in the comments, but unless you want to work until you drop, something towards a “pension”. If you go down the standard pension route at least the tax man chips in.

That job would be about £1250 down in South East including scaffolding…that might include VAT!

You forgot, van road tax , van running costs and maintenance, MOT. costs and associated work, also you should ALWAYS add a percentage to materials ( you sorted them out, you sourced them ) all this takes time and time is money. NEVER DO ANYTHING FOR NOTHING, unless it’s your Gran .

Now we can see why so many chimney stacks are in disrepair £600/700

You don't divide your costs by 30 days, you do it by working days so 20 assuming you work 5 days a week

I would have been tempted not to put the top layers back on. The stack height was probably built to suit solid flue back in the day, gas fire would not need the height. Plus, would the flue need checking with a gas safe engineer to prove no flue leakage ?? It had been disturbed 😳!

sounds about right

If your going to scaffold it then may as well take it down and rebuild to future proof it

How about adding in the cost of replacing your van Izzy?

Noti ganggg 🎉

Sulphate resistant cement required here

Big firm, this job would be thousands not hundreds - because they know 80% will go to costs & taxes. If they run stuff real slick, they might get to keep half of the 20% in the medium term. At a glance, I can see loads that a bigger concern wouldn't get away with - that's not a criticism, it's just how it is. Which is where the costs come in. Firstly, they'd need an engineers report on the damage & an engineers report on the fix. They'd need better access safety & waste disposal blah blah - they need method statements & safety audits on the job. They'd need everything certified, including the scaff. They'd have to warranty the repair, the repair would take 3 or 4 times as long & they have a back-office to run too - plus a salesman to pay for getting the job, and on and on on the costs front - which is why this would be thousands.

While your shopping still on 38 an hour like I said before this time next year you will a millionaire but nice job 👍🏿😜

Surely you only have 21 or 22 working days in the month? Or do you work every weekend? I think you need to make your business running costs higher. Still seems a very reasonable price to me, and you are a top rate bricky, not the usual monkey. Keep up the excellent channel.