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Shuttering cost per m, built up properly
Start from the benchmark — published wages, a real gang, the costs on top of wages most people forget — then move anything you disagree with. The whole sum stays on the page.
The working
- 1 × tradesperson at £16.40
- £16.40
- Gang wage, per hour
- £16.40
- + 35% on top of wages
- £22.14
- × 8 hours on the tools
- £177.12 a day
- Edge shuttering to slabsset to line and level, struck after the pour£177.12 ÷ 25 m × 1.20 = £8.50/m
Benchmark
£8.50/m labour
CIJC rates · tradesperson £16.40/hr · gang of 1 · 35% on top · overheads and profit 20%
Materials, scaffold and supervision are not included in this rate.
What’s in this?
- Employer's National Insurance — 15% above £5,000 a year
- Holiday pay — 12.07%
- Pension, auto-enrolment minimum — 3%
- CITB levy — 0.35% of payroll
- Sick pay, training and employer's liability insurance — the remainder
- At 0% this is a CIS subcontractor's labour price — National Insurance, holiday and pension are then theirs to carry, not the job's.
The location range is authored, not measured — our tender data says what was bought where, not what labour costs there.
Price a whole job with this ratePut in the job size and your lump sums — scaffold, plant, skip — and get the job total.
The minimum starts at a day of the gang, priced — £212.54 — because travel, unloading and setting up make a day the honest floor. Type your own, or 0 for none.
Put a job size in and the total appears here.
Shuttering is judged on the day of the pour
Edge shuttering is measured per metre and priced on how long it takes to set to line and level — but it is judged on whether it holds. Wet concrete is heavy and it pushes hard against the form, and a shutter that moves during a pour is a slab edge that is wrong permanently.
That is why pegs, props and bracing are the job rather than the detail. Time spent making the form solid is not overhead on the shuttering; it is the shuttering.
Setting to line and level is the slow part
The benchmark of 25 metres a day assumes straightforward straight edges on reasonable ground. Most of that day is not fixing timber — it is establishing the level, setting the line, checking diagonals and getting the top of the form exactly where the finished concrete has to be, because the shutter *is* the level the slab is poured to.
- Curves and radii. Formed from thinner material kerfed or laminated, and far slower than a straight run.
- Ground conditions. Pegs need something to drive into. Soft or made ground means more pegs, longer pegs, or propping back to something solid.
- Depth. A deeper form takes more pressure and needs more support per metre.
- Steps and upstands. Any change in level is a detail, not a run.
Striking is work too, and it is easy to forget
The form has to come off after the pour: pegs pulled, timber lifted, nails out, material stacked for reuse or taken away. It is a separate visit and it is rarely priced.
If you are pricing a job where you will strike as well as set, the honest move is to allow for it in the output rather than pretend the shuttering ends when the concrete arrives.
What is not in this rate
The timber, pegs, ply and release agent are materials. The concrete, the reinforcement and the pour itself are separate work — priced on the concreting and mesh calculators.
Set the output from the job you have looked at: a rectangular oversite on firm ground is the benchmark, and anything with curves, steps or soft ground is honestly slower.
Questions people ask
How much edge shuttering can be set in a day?
Around 25 metres a day for straightforward straight edges on reasonable ground, set to line and level with pegs and bracing. Curves, steps, deeper forms and soft ground that will not hold a peg all reduce it considerably.
Why is shuttering priced per metre rather than per square metre?
Because it follows the perimeter of the pour rather than covering it. A large slab and a small one may have similar edge lengths relative to their areas, and the work is entirely in the line, the level and the support along that edge.
What happens if shuttering is not braced properly?
It moves under the weight of wet concrete, and the slab edge is then permanently wrong. Concrete exerts real pressure against the form, so pegs, props and bracing are the substance of the job rather than a finishing touch — which is why the output is lower than simply fixing timber would suggest.
Does the shuttering price include striking the formwork?
Not by default. Removing the form after the pour — pulling pegs, lifting timber, denailing and stacking for reuse — is a separate visit and is commonly left out of prices. If you are doing both, allow for it in the output rather than assuming the job ends when the concrete arrives.
Is the timber included in the rate?
No. Timber, pegs, ply and release agent are materials and sit outside the labour rate, as does the concrete itself. Shuttering, reinforcement and the pour are three separate operations with their own calculators.
Where these figures come from
The wages are the national minimums agreed between employers and unions, republished each July. The costs on top of them are the statutory ones every employer actually pays. The outputs — how much a gang gets through in a day — are blended from published estimating guidance, and they are the part worth arguing with, which is why every one is a control you can move.
Other trades
- Bricklaying£35.68/m²
- Blockwork£23.84/m²
- Plastering£8.50/m²
- Rendering£38.34/m²
- Floor screed£2.83/m²
- Concreting£7.92/m²
- Tiling£17.71/m²
- Roofing£32.80/m²
- Block paving£25.56/m²
- Tarmac driveways£15.34/m²
- Resin driveways£16.61/m²
- Painting£14.17/m²
- Stud walls£17.71/m²
- Patios£31.95/m²
- Repointing£26.57/m²
- Plasterboarding£12.39/m²
- Decking£31.88/m²
- Fencing£25.56/m²
- Turfing£3.42/m²
- Coving£7.08/m²
- Loft insulation£4.27/m²
- External wall insulation£38.34/m²
- Soft strip£8.54/m²
- Hand excavation£85.41/m²
- Mesh and rebar£2.56/m²
Pricing a job like these?
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