Across the three guides a general builder lands somewhere between £150 and £400 a day for labour only. No single figure survives a second look: Checkatrade prints £300 in its trade table and around £400 on its own builder page, both dated April 2026.
Day rate
£150 to £400 a day
Hourly rate
£25 to £60 an hour
All figures are labour only, before materials. Whether VAT comes on top depends on whether the trade is VAT registered, so ask. The band is the widest span across the guides listed, not an average, and not a price anyone is committed to.
Structure, brickwork, openings and renovation work, plus sequencing the other trades on site.
These are the published figures, copied as they stand rather than averaged into one number. Read down the column and you can see how far apart they sit.
Checkatrade, How much do tradespeople cost in the UK in 2026
Day: £300
Hour: £38
Last updated April 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
Checkatrade, Builder day rate in the UK in 2026
Day: Around £400
Hour: Around £50, and around £40 for a self-employed builder
Same publisher, same April 2026 date: around £400 here against £300 in the table above.
Last updated April 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026
Day: £150 to £400
Hour: £25 to £60
No date on the page, 2026 in the title, checked 13 August 2026.
Superscript, What are tradesperson pay rates for 2026
Day: £200 to £320
Hour: £30 to £50
Published 16 February 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
These are three publishers, not three surveys of what people actually paid. Four ranges are identical in the Checkatrade and MyBuilder trade tables, and Superscript names Checkatrade as one of its own inputs. Where the guides agree, that agreement carries less weight than it looks like it does. The day rates overview sets out which ranges overlap and what each publisher says it used.
This is the one trade where a guide publishes actual regional figures, and they undercut the usual London story. MyBuilder gives average builder day rates of £233 in London, £232 in Edinburgh, £223 in Glasgow, £196 in Manchester, £194 in Birmingham, £188 in Cardiff and £136 in Belfast. London sits about 19% above Manchester, not the 20 to 40% the same page claims a paragraph earlier, and well below the £280 to £300 its own London example quotes.
Source: MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026 (No date on the page, 2026 in the title), checked 13 August 2026.
Source: MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026 (No date on the page, 2026 in the title), checked 13 August 2026. Average builder day rates by city, as published.
How costs move across the country by project type is set out in renovation costs by region.
On a day rate the risk that the job runs long sits with you; on a fixed price it sits with the trade. Ask for a fixed price wherever the scope can be written down, and keep the day rate for work where nobody can say what is behind the wall until it is open.
Builders carry the largest single labour line on most projects, so the difference between a day rate and a fixed price is measured in thousands rather than hundreds. Ask for a fixed price once you have drawings and a specification. Accept a day rate for the opening-up stage, and put a cap on the number of days in writing before anyone starts.
Whichever model you agree, put it in writing before the first morning. The contract checklist lists what a written agreement needs to cover, why quotes differ explains the gaps that make two prices for the same job look nothing alike, and the day rates overview sets out when each model is the honest one.
A day rate is labour and nothing else. Materials, VAT, waste, scaffolding, the other trades on site, the minimum charge on a short visit and a contingency for what nobody priced all sit on top of it, and together they routinely add more than the labour band itself.
Each of those is priced out, with its source, on the day rates overview. The buffer has a page of its own in renovation contingency, and skips are priced in skip hire cost.
A day rate on its own tells you very little, because the number that matters is days multiplied by rate, plus everything above. Price the whole job first, then use the day rate to sense check the labour line inside it.
Most projects need several of these on site, each on their own rate. The day rates overview puts all six side by side.
Rate guides are republished without notice, so every figure here carries the date it was checked. Where a guide contradicts itself, this page shows both numbers rather than picking the flattering one. A written quote from a local trade beats all of it.
Cost guides written about one job print their own trade rates for that job, taken from the guide that priced it, so a figure on a project page here can sit inside the band above or a little outside it. The band on this page is the widest span across three general rate guides; a project page reads the guide that priced that project, which sets its own rates on its own date. Where two pages differ, each says which guide it read and on what date. The rates behind a single job are worked out in DIY savings and in load-bearing wall removal cost.
How this site handles prices and sources is set out in how we price.
There is no single average worth quoting. Across three published guides a general builder falls between £150 and £400 a day for labour only. Checkatrade lists £300 in its trade table and around £400 on its own builder day rate page, both dated April 2026, so one publisher alone gives two different answers.
Per hour, usually. Checkatrade puts a self-employed builder at around £40 an hour against around £50 through a company, because you are not paying for the wider business overhead. That does not always make the total cheaper: a larger firm may include project management, coordination of other trades and cover when someone is off, which can save days on a project with several trades.
No. Each person on site carries their own rate, and the MyBuilder trade table starts a labourer at £112 a day. Before you compare two quotes, ask how many people the rate buys and how many of them will be there each day.
Ask for a fixed price once you have drawings and a specification, because that is the point where a builder can price the work with confidence and the risk of an overrun moves to them. A day rate is the more honest model for the opening-up stage of a renovation, when nobody yet knows what is behind the wall. If you agree one, cap the number of days in writing first.