Brick Calculator

Find your wall's net area (length x height, minus any doors or windows), then multiply by 6.75 bricks per sq ft, and add waste. For a 20 x 8 ft wall (160 sq ft) with one 3 x 6.667 ft door cut out, the net area is 140 sq ft, which needs 1,040 bricks including the default 10% waste allowance. The calculator above does this for any wall size and any number of openings.

A standard modular brick (the most common size in the US) needs 6.75 bricks per sq ft of wall face, laid with a standard 3/8 in mortar joint. That figure isn't rounded for convenience -- it comes directly from the brick's nominal (with-joint) face size of 2-2/3 x 8 in: 144 sq in per sq ft, divided by (2-2/3 x 8), equals exactly 6.75. One sq ft of wall with no waste added needs 7 bricks.

Mortar is bought by the 80 lb bag, and one bag mixes enough Type S mortar to lay about 35 modular bricks. For the 1,040-brick example above, that's 30 bags. This uses the more conservative of two published figures -- see the note below on why brands disagree.

A standard modular brick's specified (actual, no mortar) size is 3-5/8 in deep x 2-1/4 in tall x 7-5/8 in long. Add a standard 3/8 in mortar joint on the top and end, and its nominal size -- the space it and its joint actually occupy in the wall -- becomes 4 in x 2-2/3 in x 8 in. This calculator's bricks-per-sq-ft figure is derived from that nominal size.

This calculator defaults to 10% waste, the same default this site's other material calculators (like the concrete calculator) use for cut waste and breakage on a straightforward job. A wall with lots of corners, a complex bond pattern, or a less experienced crew should use a higher figure -- 15% or more isn't unusual. Without any waste, the 20 x 8 ft example above (minus its door) needs 945 bricks; with the default 10% it's 1,040.

Enter your wall's overall length and height first, then add a row for each door or window: its own length and height (and a count, if you have several identical ones). The calculator subtracts every opening's area from the gross wall area before counting bricks, so you're never charged brick or mortar for space that isn't there -- the net area can never go below zero, even if your openings happen to add up to more than the wall.

Both -- enter your wall (minus openings) and you get bricks needed and mortar bags in the same result, plus an optional material cost if you enter a price per brick and per mortar bag. There's nothing to add up separately.

Two things vary by source: bricks per sq ft (the Brick Industry Association's Technical Note 10 states 6.75, which this calculator uses, while brick manufacturer Glen-Gery publishes 6.86 for the same nominal size) and bricks per mortar bag (Sakrete's Type S mortar mix covers 35 bricks per 80 lb bag, which this calculator uses as the more conservative figure, while Quikrete's Mortar Mix No. 1102 data sheet states 37). Neither disagreement is large, and both of this calculator's defaults lean toward buying slightly more rather than running short.

A freestanding brick wall or a brick veneer that carries any real load needs a concrete footing below the frost line -- this calculator only covers the brick and mortar above grade. If you're pouring a footing, the concrete calculator works out the cubic yards and bags you'll need, and the cubic yard calculator converts any footing volume between cubic feet, yards and meters.

No. Enter your wall dimensions directly -- there is no signup, no email and no address lookup. Your measurements are saved only in your own browser (so they are there next time you open this page on the same device); nothing is sent to our servers.