€1,200 for a small wall?!?!

keithsfleet

Hi, there is a fence dividing our neighbour and ours. Recently it has begun to collapse and so our neighbour enquired with her builder about a small wall (6foot high and roughly 25 feet long) the foundations from the fence are meant to be okay for supporting the wall so no huge digging involved.
Assuming the bricks are €1 and it has been calculated that roughly 100 are needed. Which leaves €1,100 for labour???
I know nothing about construction or it's rates but the builder in question could be seeing my neighbour as a sweet ride. She recently had her attic converted with the water tank being replaced and relocated and never even asked him for a quote. She only found out how much it cost when the job was completed.

DOCARCH

I really doubt the foundation for the existing fence are o.k. to support a new wall! Did a structural engineer look at it?

Is the builders price based on building off the existing foundation?

Just to note that there are codes of practice for building boundary walls and usually the boundary wall should be 215mm wide, with piers, especially if it is 6ft high. There could be a lot more blocks in the wall that you estimate.

keithsfleet

I'm just going on bits and pieces I've been told, none of any of it from anyone in the business. As I said, I know next to nothing about construction.
The neighbour said the builder said the foundations should be ok...
So would €1200 be in keeping for a wall that size?
Thanks for the input.

Slig

Ask what he is providing for the €1200, I would also seriously doubt if the foundations for a timber fence would be anywhere near sufficent to support a 6ft high blockwork wall.
If you doubt the price then get another quote, in fact get about 4 or 5 builders to price the job, make sure they are all pricing for the same standard of work and make your decision based on that.

muffler

keithsfleet wrote: »

the foundations from the fence are meant to be okay for supporting the wall so no huge digging involved....................I know nothing about construction

I know it may just be a figure of speech as you have no knowledge of building but a "fence" is not normally erected on a foundation. Perhaps you are referring to an old stone wall with a fence on top. But you would be doing your neighbour a huge favour if you would point out that any wall needs a foundation and if its an existing foundation then it needs to be checked out by a professional before building on it.

You/your neighbour will need to establish what the price includes. Get a written breakdown of the materials, a description of the works and a breakdown of costs also. As pointed out by others 3 or 4 quotes should be sought.

Leaving the issue of the foundation aside you need to establish the thickness of the wall,number of piers, is plastering included, are copings included, is he providing the mixer, sand, cement.

Without the foundation the wall cost does seem a little on the high side though.

keithsfleet

Thank you very much. Extremely helpful! I'll get the yellow pages out on monday.

harry21

Guess-timate of the costs

Blocks(allowing for pillars) - 160 * 0.7 = 112
Mortar = 50
Foundations = 250

Total = 412 for materials

Merch

foundations aren't going to cost that much, I paid a block layer a few hundred for a whole shed, having said that I did the labouring.
Id replace the foundation as its not likely to be suitable
not sure how much depth you'd need but easy enough to find out, get a few quotes

keithsfleet

Thanks for the break down of the the costs, gives me something to talk to the neighbour about. She can easily afford to shell out for the cost of the work to her attic without knowing the initial cost but we certainly can't afford to do that. We're paying half but this is a very big thing to us, things aren't great at the minute.
Theres a bloke in my estate who has his own construction company, often see him in his 4x4. Gonna see if he'd do a quote for my first set of figures.
Thanks again for the help folks.