Brick Calculator
ConstructionCalculate how many bricks you need to build a wall based on wall size, brick dimensions, mortar joint thickness, and wastage percentage for accurate ordering.
Number of Bricks Needed
1,153
Wall Area
160
What is a Brick?
A Brick Calculator estimates how many standard bricks you need to build a wall of a given length and height, accounting for the mortar joints between bricks and a wastage allowance for cuts and breakage. Ordering the wrong quantity of brick is a common and costly mistake — too few means a delayed project waiting on a second delivery, and too many ties up budget in unused material.
This tool applies your wall dimensions, brick size, mortar joint thickness, and wastage percentage to calculate a precise brick order quantity. If your project also involves a concrete foundation or footing, the Concrete Calculator can help you plan that part of the build, and the Square Footage Calculator is useful for measuring irregular wall sections.
How to use this Brick calculator
- Enter your Wall Length in feet.
- Enter your Wall Height in feet.
- Enter the Brick Length in inches — 8 inches is the US standard modular brick default.
- Enter the Brick Height in inches — 2.25 inches is the standard default.
- Enter the Mortar Joint thickness in inches — 3/8 inch (0.375) is standard.
- Set your Wastage percentage to account for cuts, breakage, and corners — 10% is a reasonable default for most walls.
- Review the Number of Bricks Needed result, shown as the primary output, and check the Wall Area figure for a quick cross-check against supplier coverage rates.
Formula & Methodology
The calculator uses the following steps: Wall Area (sq ft) = Wall Length × Wall Height Brick Footprint (sq ft) = ((Brick Length + Mortar Joint) × (Brick Height + Mortar Joint)) ÷ 144 Number of Bricks = ceil((Wall Area ÷ Brick Footprint) × (1 + Wastage %)) Worked example: For a 20-foot by 8-foot wall, using 8-inch by 2.25-inch bricks with a 3/8-inch mortar joint and 10% wastage: Wall Area = 20 × 8 = 160 sq ft Brick Footprint = ((8 + 0.375) × (2.25 + 0.375)) ÷ 144 = (8.375 × 2.625) ÷ 144 ≈ 0.1527 sq ft Number of Bricks = ceil((160 ÷ 0.1527) × 1.10) = ceil(1,152.8) = 1,153 bricks This gives you a final order quantity of 1,153 bricks — enough to cover the full wall area with a 10% buffer for cuts and breakage.
Frequently Asked Questions
The calculator multiplies your wall length and height to get the total wall area, then divides that by the footprint of a single brick — including its mortar joint — to find how many bricks fit in that area. It then adds your specified wastage percentage to account for cuts, breakage, and offcuts, and rounds up to the nearest whole brick. This gives you a realistic number to use when ordering material.
The most common modular brick size in the US is 8 inches long by 2.25 inches high (with the actual brick body typically closer to 7.625 x 2.25 inches, with the remainder made up by the mortar joint). This calculator defaults to those dimensions but lets you adjust Brick Length and Brick Height for other brick types, such as Norman, Roman, or oversized brick.
First calculate wall area as Length × Height in square feet. Then calculate the brick footprint (including mortar joint) in square feet, and divide wall area by brick footprint to get a base brick count. Finally, multiply by (1 + wastage percentage) and round up to get your final order quantity.
A wastage allowance of 5 to 10 percent is standard for most brick projects, covering broken bricks, cuts around corners and openings, and general handling loss. Complex wall layouts with lots of corners, arches, or openings may need a higher allowance of 10 to 15 percent. This calculator lets you adjust the Wastage input to match your specific project's complexity.
The standard mortar joint thickness in US residential and commercial construction is 3/8 inch (0.375 inches), which this calculator uses as its default. Some specialty brick styles or design preferences call for thinner or thicker joints, ranging anywhere from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch. Adjusting the Mortar Joint input changes both the brick footprint and, in turn, the total brick count.
No, this calculator estimates bricks for a solid wall area based on the length and height you enter. If your wall has door or window openings, you should subtract their combined area from your Wall Length × Wall Height total before running the numbers, or simply reduce your effective wall dimensions to account for the openings. Alternatively, increase your wastage percentage slightly to compensate for smaller, uncalculated openings.
For a 20-foot by 8-foot wall using standard 8-inch by 2.25-inch bricks with a 3/8-inch mortar joint and 10% wastage, the calculator returns approximately 1,153 bricks. You can verify this yourself by entering those values into the calculator above. Your specific result will vary based on your exact wall dimensions and brick size.
Brick veneer is a single layer of brick attached to a wood or steel-framed wall for appearance, while full brick (or solid masonry) construction uses structural brick walls, sometimes multiple wythes thick, to bear the building's load. This calculator estimates brick quantity for a single-layer wall face in either case — for multi-wythe walls, you would need to multiply the result by the number of brick layers.
This calculator is designed for vertical wall applications where wall length and height define the area. For a horizontal surface like a patio or walkway, you'd want to use a general area-based brick estimate with the paving surface's length and width instead of height, since paving bricks are typically laid flat rather than in mortar-jointed courses.
Larger bricks cover more wall area per unit, which reduces the total brick count needed, while smaller or thinner bricks require more pieces to fill the same wall area. This is why it's important to enter your specific brick's actual length and height rather than assuming a standard size, since even a small difference in dimensions can shift your final order by dozens or hundreds of bricks on a large wall.
Many contractors recommend ordering a small additional buffer — often an extra box or pallet — beyond the calculated amount to have matching bricks on hand for future repairs or touch-ups. Brick color and texture can vary between production batches, so keeping a few spares from the same batch as your original order helps ensure any future patch work blends in seamlessly.
Also known as