Brick Calculator

The short answer

A standard modular brick wall needs roughly 7 bricks per square foot for a single wythe, including mortar joints. A 100 square foot wall therefore needs about 700 bricks, and ordering 5 to 10% extra for cuts and breakage puts it near 770. Mortar runs at roughly one cubic yard per thousand bricks, so the same wall needs about a third of a yard.

What it depends on

Brick size drives the count. Standard modular, queen, king and utility bricks all cover different areas per piece, and imported or reclaimed brick varies further. A double wythe doubles the bricks but not the area, and openings are deducted — though not fully, since a window still needs trimming brick around it. Joint thickness changes the coverage too.

Where this stops being useful

This is a quantity estimate and says nothing about structural capacity, foundation, reinforcement, mortar type or weatherproofing, all of which are engineering and code questions. Brick walls are load-bearing or veneer, and the distinction changes the design entirely. A qualified contractor or structural engineer should specify anything structural. General information and planning only, not engineering, structural or code advice.

Brick quantities depend on the size of the brick and the thickness of the joint, and the joint is where most estimates go wrong. A half-inch mortar joint adds a surprising amount of material across a whole wall — the bricks occupy noticeably less than the finished wall area. Modular bricks coordinate with standard openings; non-modular sizes need cutting at every opening, which increases waste significantly. Check which type you are working with before using any quantity table.

Brick is the most regular material on a building site and the one where modular coordination matters most. Checking the brick size against the opening sizes before delivery prevents the cut-heavy layout that turns a straightforward wall into a slow one.

Calculate the number of bricks from the wall area and the actual coverage per brick including the joint, then add waste. Modular and non-modular bricks have different coverage per unit, and mixing the two in one wall is not possible without cut bricks. Mortar is a separate order and is calculated from the number of bricks rather than the wall area. If the wall has openings, deduct their area before calculating, using roughly twenty-one square feet per door and forty per window as a starting allowance.

A brick wall is a repeating grid, and the number of bricks it takes depends on the size of the unit plus the mortar joint between it and its neighbours. The joint counts because it adds to the effective footprint of every brick: a standard modular brick is about eight inches long and two and a quarter high, but with a three-eighths joint it occupies a cell of roughly eight inches by two and five-eighths, and that larger cell is what divides into the wall area. The practical rule that follows is that a square foot of single-skin brickwork holds around seven bricks for standard units, with wider or narrower joints shifting that figure slightly. Small bricks and large joints push the count up; oversize units push it down. Changing the joint width by an eighth of an inch can move the total by a few per cent, which matters on a large wall but is noise on a garden border. Waste and layout come next. Corners, openings and the top course all consume cut bricks, and cut bricks still have to be bought. Five per cent is a reasonable allowance for a straightforward rectangular wall with a few openings; add more for curves, decorative bonds or lots of piers. Because bricks are normally ordered in packs of a few hundred, the final quantity is usually rounded to a convenient pack size. This calculator computes bricks per square foot from your brick dimensions and joint, applies a waste allowance and rounds to a sensible order quantity. It assumes a single skin of wall; a double-skin cavity wall needs roughly twice as many facing bricks, plus blocks or an inner leaf. Confirm the bond and the unit size with your supplier, since brick dimensions vary by region.

This calculator returns estimates for planning and general information only. It is not engineering, architectural, structural, electrical or code advice, and it cannot replace a qualified professional who has seen the site. Material quantities depend on the actual dimensions, the product you buy and local building codes, so confirm the figures before ordering materials or starting work, and always follow local regulations.