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.
Exemple détaillé
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.
In metric: a wall 6 m long by 2.4 m high is 14.4 m². At 48 bricks per m² that is 14.4 × 48 = 691 bricks before waste; add 10% and you would buy 761.
Sur le chantier
Finding your own rate. The rate field wants bricks per square foot for your brick with your joint, and the way to get it is off the wall, not off a chart. A modular brick lays one to every 8 in of length and three courses to every 8 in of height, so each one occupies 8 × 2⅔ in = 21.33 in² of wall, joints included. 144 ÷ 21.33 = 6.75 per ft². A queen at 9⅝ × 2¾ with a ⅜ in joint occupies 10 × 3⅛ = 31.25 in², so 4.6 per ft². That is where the default 7 comes from and why a bigger brick drops it.
In metric the same sum runs in millimetres over a square metre (1,000,000 mm²). A 230 × 76 mm brick with a 10 mm joint occupies 240 × 86 = 20,640 mm², so 1,000,000 ÷ 20,640 = 48.4 per m² — the metric default. A 215 × 65 mm brick with 10 mm joints occupies 225 × 75 = 16,875 mm²: 59.3 per m².
A veneer with returns. The front elevation is 40 ft × 9 ft = 360 ft² (33.4 m²), and the two side returns are 2 ft deep — 2 × 2 × 9 = 36 ft² more. 396 ft² × 7 = 2,772; with 10% that is 3,049 → 3,050 bricks. Take off the door (21 ft², 147 bricks) and the two windows (2 × 15 ft², 210 bricks) and you are at 2,700 or so — and the returns are the bit an area-only takeoff forgets, because they are not in the elevation.
Ordering by the cube. Brick comes strapped in cubes of a fixed count — ask the yard; 500 is common but not universal. 3,050 bricks is 6.1 cubes, and a yard will sell you 6 cubes and 50 loose or 7 cubes. Seven leaves 450 on the ground for the next job; 6 and a part-cube is the cheaper phone call.
What went wrong?
Quick referencefor brick
- Rate from the brick
- 144 ÷ ((length + joint) × (height + joint)) in inches
- Modular (3 courses to 8 in)
- 8 × 2⅔ in laid = 6.75 per ft²
- Queen, ⅜ in joint
- 10 × 3⅛ in laid ≈ 4.6 per ft²
- Utility, ⅜ in joint
- 12 × 4 in laid = 3 per ft²
- Per 100 ft² at 7 per ft², 10% waste
- 770 bricks
- Métrique
- 1 m² = 10.76 ft² — 7 per ft² is about 75 per m²
- Rate from a metric brick
- 1,000,000 ÷ ((length + joint) × (height + joint)) in mm
- 230 × 76 mm, 10 mm joint
- 240 × 86 mm laid ≈ 48 per m² · 215 × 65 mm: 225 × 75 laid ≈ 59 per m²
Waste & overagewhat to add, and why
- Bricklayers add about 5% for a plain running-bond wall and 10% or more for arches, soldier courses and lots of closers — a cut brick often costs the offcut. Type it in the waste field.
- Bricks come strapped in cubes (commonly a few hundred per cube; your yard knows its count) — order whole cubes and keep the spare for the chimney repair in five years, because matching a fired colour later is a lottery.
- Order every brick for the job from one batch; two deliveries from different kiln runs show as a colour band across the wall.
Mistakes to catchbefore you order
- Using a bricks-per-area figure for a different joint thickness — a ⅜ in joint and a ½ in joint change the count by around 5%, so match the rate to the joint you will lay.
- Counting the whole wall and never deducting the garage door — a big opening is 10–15% of the face and the waste factor is not meant to absorb it.
- Counting a two-wythe wall as one: if there is a back-up wythe of brick, double the count for that portion.
What an inspector looks forthe building inspector, at the veneer and flashing stage
On this part of the job
- Ties: type, spacing and how they are fixed to the structure behind. On a veneer wall this is the item most often failed.
- The cavity — kept clear of mortar droppings, with weeps where the detail shows them and at the spacing the detail shows.
- Flashing at the base of the wall, over openings and at any shelf angle, lapped and turned up the way the detail draws it.
- Support at openings: lintel size and bearing at each end, from the drawing.
- Movement joints where the elevation shows them, full depth and not bridged by mortar.
Have this ready
- The wall section showing ties, cavity, flashing and weeps.
- A sample of the tie you are using.
- Enough of the wall left open at a flashing to be looked at before you close it.
Every figure an inspector measures against comes from the code your jurisdiction has adopted, the stamped drawing, or the manufacturer's printed instructions — so none of them are printed here. Look the number up in your own book, type it into the tool, and the arithmetic is yours.
La formule
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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