Pricing · 9 min read

Scaffolding overheads and your true cost per gang day

Ask most scaffolding business owners what a gang costs them per day and they'll quote wages. That's the smallest part of the true figure. By the time you've loaded in employer's National Insurance, holiday pay, vehicles, yard rent, insurance, training and kit depreciation, the real cost per gang day is often 60–90% higher than the wage slip alone.

Get this number wrong and every quote built on it is wrong too, you can be fully booked and still losing money. Here's how to build it properly.

What "cost per gang day" actually means

A gang day is the fully-loaded cost of putting a typical gang, say two scaffolders, on site for one working day, including every cost of running the business that sits behind them, not just their wages for that day. It's the number you divide your overhead by before it ever reaches a quote.

It's different from a day rate you might charge a client or pay a subcontractor, that's a market price. Cost per gang day is what it costs you internally to field that gang, whatever you charge for the work.

The components

• Gross wages. Basic pay plus any bonus or productivity element.
• Employer's National Insurance. Currently around 15% above the secondary threshold; budget roughly 12–13% of gross pay as a working average once thresholds are allowed for.
• Holiday pay and statutory costs. 5.6 weeks' statutory holiday equates to around 10.8% loaded onto worked weeks; add pension auto-enrolment contributions on top.
• Vehicles. Finance or depreciation, fuel, insurance, servicing and MOT for the wagon that gang uses.
• Yard and storage. Rent, rates, utilities and security for wherever tube, fittings and boards are kept and loaded.
• Insurance. Employer's liability, public liability and contract works apportioned per gang; see our scaffolding insurance guide.
• Training and CISRS renewals. Card renewals, CPD, first aid and toolbox talks spread across the working year.
• Kit depreciation. Tube, fittings, boards and harnesses wear out and get lost; a sinking fund for replacement stock.
• Admin and office overhead. A share of office staff, software, accountancy and phones.

Worked example: a two-man gang

Figures below are indicative 2026 ranges for a small UK scaffolding firm running two gangs; adjust to your own payroll and yard costs. Based on 46 working weeks a year (after holiday and downtime) and a 5-day week, that's 230 gang days per year.

Wages alone came to £278.26 per gang day. The fully-loaded figure is £431.98 to 55% higher. Any rate card built on the wage number alone is quietly giving away £150+ a day, every day the gang works.

Loading it into your rates

Once you have a cost per gang day, work out how many gang days a typical job needs and make sure your quoted price clears that cost plus margin, not just materials and a headline labour rate. If a job needs 1.5 gang days of erect and dismantle labour, your real labour cost is £431.98 × 1.5 = £647.97 before a single tube or fitting is counted.

Compare that to your per-metre pricing and your overall margin targets to check the two line up. If your per-metre rate implies less labour cost than your gang-day figure supports, either the rate or the assumed productivity is wrong.

Recalculate at least once a year

Wages, NI thresholds, fuel and insurance all move every year, usually upwards. Rebuild this table at the start of each financial year, and again whenever you take on a vehicle, move yard, or add headcount. A cost-per-gang-day figure from two years ago is quietly eating your margin on every job you quote today.

Common questions

Should apprentices be costed the same as a qualified scaffolder?

No, cost each gang composition separately. An apprentice's wage, NI and pension cost is lower, but they also produce less, so factor in a productivity discount as well as a wage discount when pricing gangs that include trainees.

Does this replace a day rate I charge clients?

No. Cost per gang day is your internal cost floor. Your chargeable day rate or per-metre rate needs to sit comfortably above it once margin, risk and market rate are added, see our guide to UK day rates for typical charge-out ranges.

How many working days a year should I assume?

230–235 is a realistic UK working-day figure once weekends, statutory holiday, sickness and weather downtime are stripped out of a 52-week year. Using a higher number understates your true cost per day.