Free brick calculator. Enter your wall size, brick size and mortar joint to get exact brick counts, mortar bags, courses and wastage allowance.
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This calculator finds how many bricks your wall needs in four steps. First it takes the gross wall area (length × height) and subtracts doors and windows, because you do not buy bricks for holes. Then it computes the face area of one brick including its mortar joint, since the joint eats real space. Dividing the net area by that face area gives the exact brick count for one skin, doubled for a double skin wall, and a wastage allowance is added for cuts and breakage. Finally it converts the order quantity into mortar bags at the standard rate of 7 bags per 1,000 bricks. All common brick sizes work: US modular, UK metric, Indian standard, or your own custom dimensions.
Bricks = net wall area / ((brick length + joint) × (brick height + joint)) × skins × (1 + waste%). Every term matters. Net wall area is length × height minus openings. The brick face area includes the mortar joint, because joints occupy real wall area: a UK brick is 215 × 65 mm but coordinates at 225 × 75 mm with a 10 mm joint, giving 0.016875 m2 per brick, or 59.3 bricks per m2 per skin. Skins is 1 for single, 2 for double. Worked example: a 10 m × 2.5 m garden wall is 25 m2; at 59.3 per m2 that is 1,482 bricks exact, 1,556 to order with 5 percent waste, plus about 11 mortar bags.
US modular brick: 7.625 × 3.625 × 2.25 in, about 6.9 bricks per sq ft single wythe with a 3/8 in joint. UK metric brick: 215 × 102.5 × 65 mm, about 60 per m2 single skin with a 10 mm joint. Indian standard brick: 190 × 90 × 90 mm, about 50 per m2 for a 4.5 in wall and 100 per m2 for a 9 in wall with 10 mm joints. South African stock bricks run about 52 per m2 single skin. Enter any of these, or your own measured brick, in the custom fields above. Always measure the actual brick you are buying, nominal sizes can differ by a few millimeters.
Mortar follows the brick count. Rule of thumb: 7 bags of premixed mortar per 1,000 bricks at standard joints. For site-mixed 1:4 mortar, 1,000 bricks need roughly 2 bags of 50 kg cement and 500 kg of sand. A richer 1:3 mix is for below ground and structural work, a leaner 1:6 for interior partitions. Mortar volume also rises with thicker joints and with bricks that have deep frogs or holes, so add a little margin on the bags, not just the bricks.
A course is one horizontal row of bricks. With a 65 mm brick and 10 mm joint, each course is 75 mm tall, so a 2.5 m wall needs 34 courses, and masons use this to set out levels on site. Wastage percentage guide: 5 percent for straight runs, up to 10 percent with cuts, corners and piers. Order in whole packs (usually 400 to 500 bricks) and try to get all bricks from one batch, because color varies between kiln batches and a top-up delivery can visibly mismatch.
To calculate the cost to build a brick wall, multiply your order quantity by the price per brick in 2026, then add mortar, sand, cement and labor. A standard house brick weighs about 2 to 3.5 kg depending on type, so a thousand bricks is roughly 3 tonnes to move and stack. For volume estimates, a cubic meter of brickwork needs about 500 standard bricks with mortar. Regional rules of thumb: a 9 inch wall (double skin) needs about 100 bricks per square metre, a 4.5 inch wall (single skin) about 50 per square metre, and there are about 13 courses per metre of height with standard bricks and 10 mm joints.
Single skin (single wythe) is one brick thick, fine for garden walls, boundary walls and internal partitions. Double skin (double wythe) is two bricks thick and loadbearing. Cavity walls, the modern house standard, are two skins with an insulated gap, needing the same bricks as a double skin plus ties and insulation. The bond also changes counts: stretcher bond about 60 per m2, Flemish about 79, English about 89 for UK metric bricks. If your wall is not stretcher bond, scale the result accordingly.
It depends on the brick and joint. A UK metric brick (215 × 65 mm) with a 10 mm joint needs about 59 to 60 bricks per square meter for a single skin wall, and double that, about 120, for a double skin wall. A US modular brick works out near 74 per square meter. Enter your exact brick size above for your number.
A US modular brick (7.625 × 2.25 in) with a 3/8 in joint needs about 6.9 bricks per square foot for a single wythe wall. So a 100 sq ft wall needs about 690 bricks before waste. This matches the BIA wall-area method used across the industry.
Yes. Enter their total area in the openings field and the calculator subtracts it from the wall area. Bricks are only needed for solid wall, and skipping this step is the most common reason people over-order.
Add 5 percent for simple straight walls, 7 to 10 percent for walls with lots of cuts, corners, arches or piers. Cheap insurance: a shortfall means a second delivery and possibly a batch color mismatch.
10 mm (about 3/8 in) is the standard bed and perpend joint in most countries. Joints are structural and counted in the calculation: with a 10 mm joint, the UK coordinating brick size is 225 × 75 mm, which is why 59.3 bricks fit per square meter.
A 1:4 or 1:5 cement-to-sand mix (Type N) suits most above-ground brickwork. Richer 1:3 (Type S) is for below ground or high strength, leaner 1:6 (Type O) for interior non-loadbearing work. As a rule of thumb, 1,000 bricks need about 7 bags of premixed mortar, or roughly 2 bags of cement plus 500 kg of sand for a 1:4 site mix.
About 7 bags of premixed mortar per 1,000 bricks at standard 10 mm joints. For site-mixed mortar at 1:4, that is roughly 2 bags of 50 kg cement and 500 kg of sand per 1,000 bricks. Thicker joints and frogs or holes in the bricks push the number up.
It varies by manufacturer, but a common pack holds 400 to 500 bricks, and bulk packs can hold 1,000. Check the pack quantity when you order so you can round your order to whole packs.
The bond changes the count per square meter because headers cover more area per brick. Stretcher bond needs about 60 per m2, Flemish bond about 79, English bond about 89 for UK metric bricks. This calculator uses stretcher bond; for English bond, add about 50 percent.
Single skin (single wythe) is one brick thick, used for garden walls and partitions. Double skin (double wythe) is two bricks thick, a solid structural wall. A cavity wall is two skins with a gap between, the modern standard for houses, needing about the same bricks as a double skin plus wall ties.
Mortar sets in 24 to 48 hours and reaches most of its strength in about 28 days. Keep fresh brickwork damp in hot weather and protect it from frost for at least 48 hours. Do not load the wall heavily in the first week.
Only above about 4 C and rising. Mortar that freezes before setting loses strength permanently. Use frost-proofers, warm the materials, and cover finished work with insulated blankets overnight.