Brick Calculator
Bricks and mortar bags for a wall or veneer by face area.
5% for plain runs, 10% with corners, openings, or patterns.
You need
616 bricks
Waste included. Order in one batch so the color run matches.
- Mortar (80 lb bags)
- 17 bags
- Wall face area
- 80 sq ft
Estimates only. Verify quantities before ordering.
How this is calculated
Bricks = wall face area x 7 per sq ft (modular brick with 3/8 in joints), plus waste, rounded up. Mortar assumes an 80 lb bag of mortar mix lays about 37 bricks.
Enter the wall's length and height, and this calculator counts the bricks and the mortar to lay them. It assumes standard modular brick (7 5/8 x 2 1/4 inch face) laid in a running bond with 3/8 inch mortar joints, which works out to about 7 bricks per square foot of wall face.
The waste factor covers breakage in shipping, cut bricks at corners and openings, and the culls you reject for chips or color. 5% is enough for a long uninterrupted wall; 10% is safer for anything with corners, openings, or a pattern. Brick colors vary between production runs, so order the full quantity at once, and keep a handful of spares for future repairs.
Bricks for common projects
Rows assume modular brick at 7 per sq ft with 10% waste and one 80 lb mortar bag per 37 bricks.
| Project | Bricks | Mortar |
|---|---|---|
| Mailbox pillar (2 x 5 ft faces, ~40 sq ft) | 308 bricks | 9 bags |
| Garden wall, 10 x 2 ft | 154 bricks | 5 bags |
| Garden wall, 20 x 4 ft | 616 bricks | 17 bags |
| Veneer wall, 30 x 8 ft | 1,848 bricks | 50 bags |
| Veneer wall, 40 x 9 ft | 2,772 bricks | 75 bags |
Brick sizes and why the count changes
Modular brick is the standard in most of the country and the basis for the usual figure of about seven bricks per square foot, including the mortar joint. Its nominal size, meaning the brick plus one joint, is 8 by 2 and two thirds inches on the face. Because that nominal dimension already includes the mortar, working from nominal sizes is what makes wall math come out evenly.
Larger formats cover more wall for less labor. Queen and king size bricks are taller or longer than modular and drop the count to roughly five or six per square foot, which also means fewer joints to tool. Utility and oversized units go further still. The trade-off is appearance and availability: modular reads as conventional brickwork, and the larger formats can look out of scale on a small feature wall.
Check the actual dimensions of the brick you intend to buy rather than assuming modular. Manufacturers vary, reclaimed brick varies more, and a half inch difference in face height compounds across a wall into a course count that does not land where you wanted it at a window head or a wall cap.
Mortar types and how much to buy
Mortar is specified by type, and the letters are not grades of quality. Type N is the general-purpose mix for most above-grade exterior walls and is what a typical veneer or garden wall wants. Type S is stronger and suits below-grade work, retaining walls, and anywhere subject to soil pressure. Type M is stronger again and mostly reserved for foundations and paving. Type O is soft and used for repointing historic soft brick.
Stronger is not better. Mortar is meant to be weaker than the brick around it so that movement cracks the joint rather than the masonry, and a joint is repointable while a cracked brick is not. Using a high-strength mix on soft or old brick is a common and expensive mistake, because the brick faces spall off instead.
For quantity, a rough working figure is around eight to nine cubic feet of mortar per thousand modular bricks with a standard three eighths inch joint, which comes out near one 80 lb bag of premixed mortar for every 30 to 35 bricks. Waste is high with mortar, since anything left in the tub past its working time is gone, so mix in batches you can place in about an hour and buy a bag or two beyond the calculation.
Veneer or structural, and what sits behind it
Nearly all residential brick is veneer: a single wythe attached to a framed wall that carries the actual load. It needs a supporting ledge at the base, corrugated ties fastened to the framing roughly every 16 inches vertically and 24 horizontally, and a clear air gap of about an inch behind it. That cavity is deliberate and must stay open.
Water passes through brick and mortar, which is normal and expected, so the details that get it back out matter more than the brick itself. Flashing at the base of the wall and above openings, plus weep holes in the bottom course at roughly 24 inch intervals, give that water a path out. Weeps blocked with mortar droppings during the build are a leading cause of damp interior walls, and they are effectively impossible to fix afterward.
Common questions
How many bricks per square foot?
Standard modular brick with 3/8 inch mortar joints covers a nominal 8 x 2 2/3 inches of wall, which works out to just under 7 bricks per square foot. Larger formats change the count: queen brick runs about 5.8 per square foot and king brick about 4.8, so check the format before converting.
How much mortar do I need per brick?
An 80 lb bag of premixed mortar lays roughly 35 to 40 modular bricks with standard joints, so budget one bag per 37 bricks. Mixing from separate masonry cement and sand stretches further per dollar but is only worth it on larger jobs.
Does this work for a brick veneer on a house?
Yes: measure each wall's length times height, subtract large openings like garage doors and picture windows, and add the areas together. Veneer also needs wall ties (about one per 2.67 square feet per code), weep holes at the base course, and a lintel over each opening, which are separate line items.
What is the difference between face brick and common brick?
Face brick is made to tighter tolerances with consistent color for exposed walls; common (building) brick varies more and usually hides inside structures or gets painted. For a visible wall or veneer, order face brick and confirm the color from a physical sample, not a website photo.