Brick calculator
How many bricks you need for a wall, by brick size, with the mortar to lay them: the masonry industry's own estimating numbers.
Your wall takes
567 modular bricks
- Wall area
- 80 sq ft
- Bricks per sq ft
- 6.75
- Without extra
- 540
- Mortar
- 4.4 cu ft
- 80 lb mortar mix
- 16 bags
- Estimated cost of bricks
Brick counts and mortar volume are BIA's figures for a single-thickness wall in running bond, with no waste. Mortar bags use QUIKRETE's rating of up to 37 standard bricks per 80 lb bag, a best case; bigger bricks such as Norman and utility take more mortar each, so buy extra.
How many bricks do I need?
The Brick Industry Association's "wall-area" method: work out the net wall area, then multiply by the number of bricks and the mortar per square foot for your brick size and joint.
- Net area = length × height − doors, windows and other openings
- Bricks = net area × bricks per square foot (table below) × (1 + extra %), rounded up
- Mortar = net area ÷ 100 × cubic feet of mortar per 100 sq ft
- Mortar bags = bricks ÷ 37, rounded up
Worked example
A garden wall 20 ft long and 4 ft high is 80 sq ft. Modular brick runs 6.75 per square foot, so 80 × 6.75 = 540 bricks; with 5% extra, 567 bricks. The mortar is 80 ÷ 100 × 5.5 = 4.4 cu ft, or about 16 bags of 80 lb mortar mix. In Norman brick the same wall takes 378.
Bricks and mortar per square foot
From Brick Industry Association, Technical Note 10, Dimensioning and Estimating Brick Masonry (2009), Table 4. Modular sizes show the nominal face, height × length including the joint; Queen, King and Standard are non-modular and vary by maker. No waste included.
| Brick | Per sq ft | Per 100 sq ft | Mortar, 3/8 in. | Mortar, 1/2 in. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modular (2-2/3 × 8 in. face) | 6.75 | 675 | 5.5 cu ft | 6.9 cu ft |
| Engineer modular (3-1/5 × 8 in. face) | 5.63 | 563 | 4.8 cu ft | 6.1 cu ft |
| Closure modular (4 × 8 in. face) | 4.50 | 450 | 4.1 cu ft | 5.2 cu ft |
| Roman (2 × 12 in. face) | 6.00 | 600 | 6.4 cu ft | 8.2 cu ft |
| Norman (2-2/3 × 12 in. face) | 4.50 | 450 | 5.1 cu ft | 6.5 cu ft |
| Engineer Norman (3-1/5 × 12 in. face) | 3.75 | 375 | 4.4 cu ft | 5.6 cu ft |
| Utility (4 × 12 in. face) | 3.00 | 300 | 3.7 cu ft | 4.7 cu ft |
| Queen | 5.50 | 550 | 6.7 cu ft | 7.4 cu ft |
| King | 4.55 | 455 | 6.5 cu ft | 7.3 cu ft |
| Standard | 6.55 | 655 | 9.5 cu ft | 11.0 cu ft |
Mortar is per 100 sq ft of wall.
Brick questions
How many bricks are in a square foot?
About 6.75 modular bricks per square foot of wall (675 per 100 sq ft), from the Brick Industry Association. Larger bricks take fewer: 4.50 for Norman and 3.00 for utility. The table above lists every size.
How many bricks do I need for a wall?
Multiply the wall's length by its height, subtract openings, and multiply by the bricks per square foot for your size. A 20 × 4 ft garden wall takes 540 modular bricks, or 567 with 5% extra for breakage and cuts. BIA's figures are for one thickness of brick; a two-thickness (double-wythe) wall takes twice the bricks, plus mortar in the joint between them.
How much mortar do I need for bricks?
For modular brick with 3/8 in. joints, BIA puts it at 5.5 cu ft of mortar per 100 sq ft of wall, before waste. Premixed mortar is easier to count by the bag: QUIKRETE rates an 80 lb bag of Mortar Mix at up to 37 standard bricks. Masons mixing their own use a rough rule of thumb BIA quotes, 8 bags of masonry cement per 1,000 modular bricks, waste included.
What size is a standard brick?
"Standard" means different things from maker to maker. Modular brick, the size BIA's tables start with, has a face of 2-2/3 × 8 in. once you count the mortar joint, so three courses rise 8 in. and each brick runs 8 in. along the wall. Norman brick is the same height but 12 in. long, and utility brick is 4 × 12. The brick itself is smaller by the joint, and actual sizes vary by maker.
How do I estimate a brick wall's cost?
Enter the price of one brick to get the cost of the bricks, extra included. Mortar, sand, ties, flashing and labor are extra and vary by region; get quotes from masons and use these quantities to compare them.