Brick Calculator

Brick is sold by the piece or in pallets, and mortar mix comes in bags, so the calculator reports both. It starts from the wall's area, because a modular brick wall takes 6.75 bricks per square foot before waste. Doors and windows come off the area only when you enter them under More options, and the mortar follows from the brick count.

How to use this calculator

1. Measure the wall's length along its base and its height from the base to the top, in feet. For a wall with a sloped or gable top, measure a rectangle that covers the whole wall, and count the empty corners above the slope as openings.
2. Open More options and enter the area of each door and window in square feet. Measure each one as its width times its height, then add them together.
3. Keep the extra for brick at 5 percent for a plain wall. Raise it for a pattern with many cut bricks, or for a wall with many corners and openings.
4. The mortar extra defaults to 15 percent. The published range is 15 to 25 percent, so raise it toward the top if you expect more mortar to be lost on site.
5. Check the bag label before you order, since makers list different yields for standard bricks.

Worked examples

Bricks to buy for common wall sizes at a lower and a higher extra for waste

Each cell: Bricks. Inputs not in the table use the calculator's starting values.

How the brick count is built

The calculator takes the wall's length times its height, subtracts any openings, and multiplies the result by the bricks per square foot. That gives the bricks in the wall. It then adds the extra for waste and rounds up, so the bricks to buy come out as a whole number.

The mortar starts from the same brick count, before waste. The bag count adds the mortar extra to that count and divides it by the number of bricks one bag lays. The calculator uses the lower end of the published range, which gives the larger bag count.

Joints, bond and brick size

The count is for a single layer of modular brick, one brick thick, or a brick veneer over another wall. Other brick sizes change the count. So do bond patterns that use headers, which are bricks turned to show their ends, and double walls. The calculator does not adjust for any of these, so ask your supplier for a count on those walls.

Thicker joints use more mortar per brick, so the bag count applies to standard joints only. A block wall needs its own count, because a block covers a different area and its bag yield is different, so use the concrete block calculator for that job.

The results are estimates. A structural wall or a retaining wall is outside what this calculator can judge, so ask an engineer or your building department before you order.

Mistakes to avoid

• Buying only the wall area in bricks. Corners, cut ends and breakage use up bricks, so keep the extra for waste.
• Reading the bag count as a final figure. It already includes the mortar extra, so raise that extra if you expect more loss on site.
• Leaving openings at zero when the wall has a door or window. That overstates the wall area, so the count runs high.
• Using a different brick size from the one you measured. The count assumes a modular brick, so check the size with the seller before you order.

Bricks for a patio or floor

Bricks laid flat show their wide face, so plan on about 4.5 bricks per square foot per square foot of patio, then add 5 percent for waste. A sand-set patio sits on a compacted 0.75 to 1 inches sand bed over a compacted base, so skip the mortar bag count. Mortar-set patios are a different method.

Common questions