Brick Calculator — How Many Bricks Do I Need?
Work out how many bricks you need for a wall, plus the mortar to lay them. Enter wall dimensions, choose your brick size and joint width, and get brick count and mortar quantity with waste included — for US modular, UK standard and metric bricks.
Free to try — no sign-up
Plan the whole job — not just this calculation
Save results to a project: budget and shopping list build themselves, and the whole plan exports as a PDF. Draw your floor plan and room sizes pre-fill the calculators.
How the brick count is calculated
- 1Wall area = length × height, minus door and window openings
- 2Bricks per m²: standard UK brick (215×65 mm) at 10 mm joints ≈ 59/m²; US modular in running bond ≈ 7 per sq ft (73/m²)
- 3Total bricks: area × bricks per m², plus 5–10% waste for cuts and breakage
- 4Mortar: approximately 0.022 m³ per m² of single-skin stretcher-bond wall
- 5Double the brick count for a solid one-brick (double-skin) wall
- 6Round bricks up to the nearest 100; order mortar sand by the tonne
Worked example
Garden wall: 20 ft long × 4 ft high (80 sq ft = 7.43 m²), single skin, US modular brick in running bond.
7.43 m² × 73 bricks/m² × 1.05 waste = 570 bricks — order 600. Mortar: 7.43 × 0.022 = 0.16 m³ ≈ 350 kg of dry mix.
Frequently asked questions
How many bricks do I need per square foot?
US modular brick in running bond with 3/8 in joints: approximately 7 bricks per sq ft of wall face (73/m²). UK standard brick with 10 mm joints: 59/m². Always confirm with the supplier's coverage figure.
How much mortar do I need for 1000 bricks?
Approximately 0.35–0.40 m³ of mixed mortar per 1000 standard bricks with 10 mm joints — roughly 70 kg of cement and 280 kg of sand at a 1:4 mix.
How many bricks are in a typical house?
A single-storey house uses roughly 8,000–12,000 bricks for the outer skin; a two-storey 14,000–20,000. It depends entirely on wall area — measure and use the calculator rather than rules of thumb.
Should I use bricks or concrete blocks?
Blocks (CMU) lay much faster and cost less per m² — standard for structural and rendered walls. Bricks are chosen for the exposed finish. Many walls combine a block inner skin with a brick outer face.
How much waste should I allow for bricks?
5% for simple stretcher-bond walls, 10% for walls with many cuts, piers or decorative bonds. Bricks also break in handling — spares from the same batch are worth having since colours vary between batches.