Cost Guide: Walls and Insulation

When it comes to specifying your external walls – and your ultimate choice of construction system – there’s a wide range of really credible options to choose from.

Each will have core benefits, which generally fluctuate around price, speed of build, performance, eco-friendliness and aesthetics. Getting the mix right for your project often takes lengthy debate and research.

What is brick and block construction?

Often referred to as traditional cavity wall construction, this is the most commonly used method of building houses in the UK and we’ll use it as our benchmark here.

Facing bricks are used on the outside skin and then lightweight blocks for the inside, which have both strength and thermal properties. When insulation is added to the wall, either in the cavity or as an extra layer on the inside (or both), it can provide a good overall performance.

How well it functions depends on the type and thickness of both the lightweight blocks and the insulation.

A typical specification that would comply with the LFP of a brick-and-block external wall could be a 100mm facing brick, a 100mm mineral wool fully filled cavity, and a 100mm internal lightweight block with 15mm lightweight plaster.

How much does brick and block construction cost?

Overall, for an average-sized project built to a standard self build specification, you can expect to pay from around £105 per square metre (m2) of basic cavity walling, including labour.

This figure breaks down into around £25 per m2 for the internal blockwork, £15 per m2 for the insulation and £65 per m2 for the external brickwork. It includes wall ties and DPCs.

For a fully finished brick and block cavity wall, including the internal plastering, decoration and skirting, you’ll be looking at around £150 per m2 for materials and labour.

You’ll then need to add the builder’s profit (say around 20%), which takes our indicative brick and block cavity walling costs to around £180 per m2.

Obviously, the exact price you pay will vary according to the complexity of your project, size, specification, location etc.

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