Free brick calculator: enter wall size, openings, and waste to get wall area, bricks needed, bricks to order, and mortar bags.
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Enter the wall length and height in feet, the total area of doors and windows in square feet, and a waste allowance for cuts and breakage. The calculator deducts openings first, because ordering on gross area is the most common cause of over-ordering, then applies 6.75 standard bricks per square foot for a single-skin wall with 3/8 inch joints, adds waste, and estimates mortar bags at 7 bags per 1,000 bricks.
Wall area is length times height in square feet. Net area is wall area minus doors and windows, because bricks are not laid across an opening. Bricks needed is net area times bricks per square foot, which depends on brick size and joint width: a standard brick with a 3/8 inch joint works out to about 6.75 bricks per square foot for a single-skin wall. A 20 foot by 8 foot wall is 160 square feet, so it needs 1,080 bricks before waste, and 1,188 bricks with the default 10 percent waste. Mortar bags use the installed count, not the waste-included count, at about 7 bags per 1,000 bricks, which gives 8 bags for that wall.
Measure the wall length and height in feet, and add up every door and window area in square feet to enter as openings. Keep the waste allowance at 5 percent for a plain straight wall and 10 percent for a wall with many openings, corners, or cuts. Read bricks needed as the installed count, bricks to order as the count to buy, and mortar bags as the bagged mortar estimate. Keep spare bricks from the same batch for future repairs, because matching colour later is difficult.
Brick counts change with size: a standard brick needs about 6.75 per square foot, a modular brick about 6.86, a king brick about 5.76, a queen brick about 7.08, and a utility brick about 3.56, all with 3/8 inch joints. In metric terms, a standard UK brick wall needs about 60 bricks per square metre for a single skin and 120 for a double skin, while a modular Indian brick wall needs about 50 per square metre for a half-brick wall and 100 for a full-brick wall. If your brick size differs a lot from standard, measure a sample course and adjust the rate before ordering.
Take a 20 foot by 8 foot wall with one door of 21 square feet and two windows totalling 24 square feet. Gross area is 160 square feet and openings total 45, so net area is 115 square feet. At 6.75 bricks per square foot that is 777 bricks installed, and with 5 percent waste the order is 816 bricks. Mortar bags are 777 divided by 1,000 times 7, rounded up to 6 bags. Skipping the opening deduction would have ordered about 300 extra bricks on this one wall.
A single-skin wall is one brick thick and uses the rate above. A double-skin wall is two leaves thick, so it needs roughly double the bricks and double the mortar, and it is the stronger choice for a free-standing garden wall over about 1 metre high. Each course of standard bricks with a 10 mm bed joint is 75 mm high, so there are about 13.3 courses per metre of height, and a 1.8 metre garden wall is 24 courses. Piers every 2 to 3 metres help a tall single-skin wall stand up to wind.
A 4:1 or 5:1 sand to cement mix is typical for general brickwork above ground, with a stronger 3:1 mix below the damp-proof course and for retaining walls. Mortar should be slightly weaker than the brick, so any cracking happens in the joint, which is easy to repoint, rather than through the brick. The standard joint is 10 mm for bed and perpend joints, and joints thicker than 12 to 15 mm weaken the wall. Running bond, with each course offset by half a brick, is the most common pattern; stack bond is decorative only, while Flemish and English bonds are traditional and strong.
Ordering on gross area without deducting openings, ordering the exact theoretical count with no waste, and letting joint thickness drift so coursing height wanders are the three big mistakes. Laying dry clay bricks in hot weather without wetting them pulls moisture from the mortar too fast, and laying below 40 degrees Fahrenheit risks weak curing, so protect fresh work in cold weather. Mortar reaches initial set in 24 to 48 hours and full strength in about 28 days, so do not disturb fresh brickwork for at least a day.
Multiply wall length by height in square feet, subtract doors and windows, then multiply by 6.75 bricks per square foot for a standard single-skin wall, and add 5 to 10 percent waste.
About 6.75 standard bricks per square foot with 3/8 inch joints for a single-skin wall. Modular bricks need about 6.86, king bricks about 5.76, and utility bricks about 3.56.
About 60 standard UK bricks per square metre for a single skin and 120 for a double skin, or about 50 modular bricks per square metre for a half-brick wall and 100 for a full-brick wall.
About 7 bags of bagged mortar per 1,000 standard bricks with 3/8 inch joints, or about 33 bags of 80 lb Type S mortar by some trade counts. Thicker joints increase mortar use by about 30 percent.
Use a 4:1 or 5:1 sand to cement mix for general above-ground brickwork, 3:1 below the damp-proof course and for retaining walls, and lime mortar for soft or older bricks. Type N is standard above grade, Type S is stronger for below grade work.
Plan 5 percent for a simple straight wall, 10 percent for walls with doors, windows, and corners, and 15 to 20 percent for complex shapes, arches, or diagonal patterns.
A standard pallet holds about 500 to 510 bricks, or about 400 king-size bricks, weighing roughly 2,200 to 2,500 pounds. Most suppliers sell by the pallet or half-pallet for large orders.
The standard joint is 10 mm for bed and perpend joints. Joints of 6 to 8 mm suit neat face brickwork, while joints over 12 to 15 mm weaken the wall and are best avoided except for irregular handmade bricks.