badassbrickie

Husband is having doubts about moving to oz, after his friend who returned to UK for work, told him that brickies are treated like crap, paid crap wages and the sites are crap. Hubby is used to working on price, as we couldnt survive here on day rate. Do brickies work on price in oz, and is so what are the rates approx?? His friend also said that we would both have to work full time to survive in oz. This makes me panic, especially with the 2 children. I was hoping to be able to stay at home for a while until kids settle and then go part time whilst they are at school. We would be looking at buying a house for around $340000, and would be bringing around $60000 with us. please give advise it is reallt stressing me out.

marie197500

Hi i am really interested in this thread but no going back for us now we fly in two days time

Your friend how long was he there and where in aus was he???

When are you emigrating and where are you going to. Sorry for all the questions. Maybe we could let you know more when we get there.


marie

paddytd

Bad ass?
I have brought up 4 kids here in England and unless youve had 4 or more you would never know! Ok fist depends where in oz you are thinking? its all day rate. rate $28_$33 a hour plus 11% supa. witch is money to put away for your pension, or with 4 kids spend now You should get nearly all your tax back, and family allowance out there is more than here cant tell you how much tho. You dont have one builder building big sites out there, single plots so no shanteys. No disrespect to bricklayers in the UK but they do like going home? you do have to work hard in oz but if your a hard worker here, no problem. Gaffers just like here good and bad.

ukecadet

In Melbourne my mate is getting 80cents a brick plus extra for cutting.This is subcontract so no fruit with it.Badass what are subcontract chippies on in UK ?

badassbrickie

Hi Good luck, and hope flight is good for you all. His friend emigrated 25 years ago to oz, I think he lives in sydney, but his work partner used to live in caboolture (queensland). They have come over here for work as they cant afford to live in oz,(hubby thinks it's because they are slow brickies!, but if it is only day rate i6t shoulnt matter. their families/wives are still there and they send money back. we are still waiting for visas, should get a decision dec/jan hopefully, and no idea where we are hoing to go, either victoria or queensland (that narrows it down a bit!)


Hi dont know what chippies are on over here sorry, but for brickies sites seem to be lowering their prices because there are so many brickies out of work, hubby has just jacked a massive job in sheffield as they dropped their prices by 7%, on top of him travelling 50miles each way to get there, got offered a job 15 mins from our house prices are £375 a thousand brick, £13.50 a metre block , £25 a metre trench block, plus extras like lintels, vents etc. he says they are good prices, but i have no idea as he has a wage in his head that he wants to earn, and once he hits it he comes home! so wage is virtually same every week. He nearly fainted when they rang HIM and asked him to do whole job! he had spent weeks driving round everwhere being told no over and over. about time we had some luck, always living under a cloud, with there being no work. every xmas he has been out of work for 5-7 weeks.(fingers crossed this job stays good). the site manager on sheffield job rekons it's the worst job they have had, brickies cant make money on price but company cant afford to pay day work, as there bid for the project was really low. it's a £50million job, so god knows what they quoted!

hubby had spoken to a few people and they rekon things should pick up in about 6 months, hubby is on residential builds for the first time since xmas. suppose no one knows what will happen, just have to ride with it as always.

philnorris

I know this wasnt directed at me but can kind of answer, I used to sub contract here in the UK and used to charge £170 a day close to home for about 10 hours a day. But if your willing to go anywhere south of Leeds I would say the average is about £230 a day for chippies. My Dad has just come out of retirement as an agency has offered him £300 a day.

butch&shell

the missus will have to put a few hours in ,rates about the same for bricks but no extras for lintols , frames, have to put up scaffold inthe brick rate aswell(trestel type)stay away from project builders believe me its amyth brickies make good money nearly two years in and never came anywhere near the money i used to earn in the uk sorry for the negative post but thats the way it is i,m in wa

Beppe

My thoughts:

It’s going to be a s**t couple of years in construction in the UK and a s**t couple of years in construction in Oz. There isn’t much getting away from it.

In Oz, you’ll be fresh off the boat with no recommendations. You will be at the back of the queue for work. (Obviously that isn’t true if you do have contacts and a job waiting). With your UK contacts and knowledge of the UK system, your OH is far more employable in the UK than he is in Oz.

It’s not the time to be burning 1000’s of your hard earned pounds on anything and that includes migration. Batton down the hatches & weather the storm. Wait for the first shoots of recovery to migrate. You’ll have a far more enjoyable and successful experience that way.

If your OH has well paid work here, why throw that away on uncertainty?

badassbrickie

hope you dont mind me asking but can your family survive off that wage in oz, and does lifestyle make the move worth it?

pumpkin blossom

I suppose it depends on what you count as survive and where you plan to be.
Hubbie and I are here (in Adelaide) on a student visa and so can only work 20hours each a week.
I only actually work 15, but hubbie works 20, in a call centre. There are only two of us (and our dog), but we have two cars, and a rental which costs the same as our UK mortgage did ($280pw). We not only pay all our bills, but we also have extra like internet etc and eat out or have take aways at least twice a week. And every couple of weeks I add a bit more to our savings account.

So it is do-able. Especially as your hubbie should be on more an hour than we are doing casual work.

Hubbie's cousin here in Adelaide makes good money bricklaying, but was offered some fairly serious money to go inland SA to the mines and bricklay there. His Dad is a bricklayer in the UK and had just been made redundant.

butch&shell

we survive but its week to week now,t going in the bank for a rainy day and i do quite alot of sat,sundays we have 2 kids 4 and7 so no school fees and shell works about 23 hrs a week at night fillin shelves but we have just built a house and need to do everything so the money comes in one hand and out the other ,best day $ 600 worst$240 ave week $1900 hope this helps

badassbrickie

Hi can i ask is that on price?? and also did you have to get a licence?? or do you not need one if you ork for someone else? thanks

butch&shell

most on a price $240 aday workin for some one (your hubby will have to do this to learn regs and genral building practices) the better money on your own but you need to carry loads gear with you mixers profiles water barrels alsorts not like at home

butch&shell

no licence needed in wa thats part of the problem (to many 6 monthers slapin up houses for project biulders for $850 a1000 all in no extras)

badassbrickie

suppose thats do-able if we tighten our belts. will be bringin $60k with us so we can use that for a while.