Brick calculator
This multiplies your wall area by the rate you set and rounds up. It says nothing about how the wall should be bonded, tied, supported or reinforced — that is for your plans or an engineer. Check the count and the brick against the real wall before ordering a pallet.
Enter the wall's length and height and the number of bricks your brick lays at per unit of area, and the tool totals the wall, multiplies by the rate, adds a waste margin and rounds up to whole bricks.
Worked example
A wall 20 ft long by 8 ft high is 160 ft². At 7 bricks per ft² that is 160 × 7 = 1,120 bricks before waste. Add 10% for breakage and cut closers and you would buy 1,232. Drop the rate to match a larger brick and the count falls in step, live, as you edit the field.
The formula
bricks = (wall area × rate) × (1 + waste), rounded up
Wall area is length × height; the rate is however many bricks cover a unit of that area with your joint. Multiplying gives the raw count, the waste factor tops it up for the losses no wall avoids, and rounding up turns it into whole bricks to order.
What this tool assumes
Nothing about the brick itself — you supply the rate, so a modular, a metric or a veneer brick all count correctly. The wall area and the waste are yours too. There is no brick-size table behind the number.
Questions
- How many bricks do I need per square foot?
- For a modular brick laid in a running bond with a standard joint, about seven per square foot of wall face — a little under fifty per square metre. Both are editable here because brick sizes and joint widths differ. Enter your wall area and the rate for your brick and the count, with waste, lands as you type.
- Why is the bricks-per-area rate a field?
- Because it is the number that carries the whole result, and it changes with the brick and the joint. A queen-size or a thin veneer brick covers more wall per unit, a modular fewer. Rather than bake a size in, the tool lets you set the rate your brick actually lays at, so the count is right for what you are buying.
- Should I allow for breakage and cuts?
- Yes. Bricks arrive chipped, corners get knocked off on site, and a bonded wall needs cut closers at the ends and around openings. Five to ten percent is normal; lean toward the higher end on a wall full of returns and openings where you cut more. The waste field handles it and rounds the buy up.
- Does this tell me the mortar as well?
- No — bricks only. Mortar depends on the joint size and the brick count and is worth its own calculation, so take the count from here across to the mortar tool. Keeping the two separate means each number stays honest to its own assumptions.
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