Cash flow loans for bricklayers

Brick walls go up one course at a time, but the invoices for them arrive in big, awkward lumps. The pay is real and the demand is steady whenever housing starts are moving, yet plenty of bricklaying businesses spend part of every month watching a healthy order book sit next to a thin bank balance.

Why does a bricklaying business feel cash-poor between claims?

Because most of the cost is front-loaded and most of the pay is stage-based. A typical brick job needs a scaffold, a brick delivery, a pallet of sand, bags of cement or premix, and a labourer on the mixer from day one. The money for the bricks may be owed to the supplier before the third course is laid.

Bricklaying also has a few quirks that make timing harder:

• Brick lead times. Popular ranges can be weeks away from the kiln, so orders are placed early and sometimes paid early.
• Delivery drops. Pallets are dropped on site, and a rained-out week means paying labourers and hire while the stack sits.
• Piece-rate versus day-rate. Many bricklayers are paid per thousand bricks laid, which is lumpy by nature. A fast week and a slow week can look completely different on the same statement.
• Dependence on the slab and frame. You cannot start until the stage before you is signed off, and you might finish well before the builder has been paid by the client.

How do bricklayers get paid?

There is no single model. These are the common ones.

Arrangement	How the money flows	Where the gap appears
Rate per thousand bricks, paid fortnightly	Count on completion of a section, claim after	Labour and hire costs run ahead of the count
Stage payment from a builder	Claim at lintel height, then at completion	Long stretch between the two claims
Fixed-price contract with a homeowner	Deposit then milestone payments	Deposit often falls short of the brick bill
Subcontract to a larger brick contractor	Paid after the contractor is paid	You are two steps from the money

If you employ crew or engage other bricklayers as contractors, the wage side is its own pressure. Our page on subcontractor wages looks at how tradies carry that between claims, and the Fair Work Ombudsman has a clear guide on independent contractors if you are unsure about the arrangement you are in.

What costs does a bricklayer’s cash flow loan cover?

Typical uses:

1. Brick, sand, cement and wall ties ordered ahead of a start date.
2. Labourers and apprentices, including super and workers compensation.
3. Scaffold hire, mixers, wheelbarrows, saws and cut-off gear for the job.
4. Dust control, since cutting masonry produces silica dust and the recommended controls, such as wet cutting and dust-extracting tools, have to be paid for.
5. Insurance and licence renewals that fall due at awkward times.

If you want to buy scaffold outright rather than hire it again and again, see scaffolding finance.

What does a worked example look like?

This is an illustration only, with round numbers.

A bricklaying business takes a double-brick home extension. Bricks and mortar materials come to $14k, hire scaffold and mixer are $2.5k and two labourers cost $4k across three weeks. Total outlay is about $20.5k. The builder will pay at completion of the brickwork stage, which is expected five weeks after the first delivery.

The owner’s account holds $8k, so the gap is about $12.5k. A short-term cash flow facility matched to the five-week timeline lets the job start on time, wages are paid on the day they are due, and the loan is repaid when the stage claim lands. Without it, the owner might delay the brick order, which pushes the programme, or underpay labourers, which is a bad habit to start.

Can weather and delays wreck a brickie’s cash flow?

Wet weather stops brickwork and mortar work, and a week of rain means a week of wages and hire with no output. You can plan for it, and our wet weather cash flow page looks at how tradies build a buffer or arrange standby finance. If you are already in a gap, ask what is possible in about a minute rather than waiting for the sun to come back.

What will a lender look at?

For unsecured cash flow finance, the focus is on trading history, not on a spotless record. Have ready:

• Recent business bank statements, showing where the deposits come from.
• Your ABN, and ACN if you trade through a company.
• A sense of your forward work, even if it is only the next two or three jobs.
• Any ATO arrangement, mentioned plainly.

Mapping your gap on the cash flow gap planner before you apply helps you ask for the right amount, not too much and not too little.

What about piece rates, tickets and site rules?

Most brick crews are paid per thousand laid, which rewards speed but leaves the foreman guessing about weekly income. On larger sites you will also need current inductions and a white card for every person on the wall, and sub-contracting labour arrangements should be clear in writing. None of that is glamorous, but a lender who sees organised paperwork reads it as a business that will still be there in a year. Staging, pallet handling and the occasional crane lift for a tall wall are extra lines on the bill, so build them into the amount you ask for rather than coming back for a top-up.

How do you see if you qualify?

Finding out is deliberately painless. The enquiry takes around a minute, and your credit file is left alone at that stage. We do not scatter your details across a pile of lenders, so there will be no flood of calls. A person, not an algorithm, reviews your situation and rings you.

Answer the form straight: real turnover, how long you have been trading, how many crew you carry and any tax debt. That is how we match the right option first time.

Worth knowing before you start: there is no credit check when you first enquire, which means you can test the water on a Monday and still pour a coffee on Tuesday.

See if your bricklaying business qualifies