How many bricks do I need?
Enter the wall length and height, choose your brick size and mortar joint, and set a waste allowance — you'll get the number of bricks to buy, worked out from about 48 bricks per square metre for a single-skin wall, instantly, in metres.
Includes a 10% waste allowance for cuts and breakage. Brickwork usually needs about 5–10%; bump it up for lots of openings, returns or a feature bond.
Bricks = wall area ÷ the area one brick takes up (its face plus the mortar joint), rounded up, plus a waste allowance. A single skin is one brick thick; a solid one-brick wall needs twice as many. These are planning figures, not code values — set the joint and brick size to match your own bricks and bond.
Common questions
- How many bricks do I need?
- Work out the wall area (length × height), then divide by the area one brick takes up in the wall — its face plus a mortar joint — and round up, adding a waste allowance. For a standard US modular brick that comes to about 6.86 bricks per square foot (roughly 7); for a UK 215 mm brick it is about 60 per square metre, and for an Australian 230 mm brick about 48 per square metre, all for a single-skin wall. The calculator above does it for you in feet or metres.
- How many bricks are there per square foot?
- For a standard modular brick (7⅝ × 2¼ in face) laid with a ⅜ in mortar joint, each brick occupies an 8 × 2⅝ in space — 21 square inches — so a square foot of single-skin wall takes 144 ÷ 21 ≈ 6.86 bricks, which is why the trade rounds it to about 7 per square foot. A one-brick-thick (double-skin) wall needs twice that.
- How many bricks are there per square metre?
- It depends on the brick. A UK standard brick (215 × 65 mm face) with a 10 mm joint occupies 225 × 75 mm, so a square metre of single-skin wall is 1 ÷ 0.016875 ≈ 60 bricks. An Australian or New Zealand standard brick (230 × 76 mm face) is a little larger, giving about 48–50 per square metre. Double the figure for a one-brick-thick wall.
- How many bricks do I need for a wall?
- Measure the wall as length × height to get the area, pick your brick size, and multiply by the bricks-per-area figure above, then add 5–10% for waste. For example, a 10 × 8 ft single-skin wall (80 ft²) needs about 549 bricks before waste, or around 600 with a 10% allowance. In metric, a 5 × 2.4 m wall (12 m²) is about 712 UK-size bricks, or roughly 582 of the larger Australian size.
- How much extra should I add for waste and breakage?
- About 5–10% is normal for brickwork — it covers the bricks you cut at openings, corners and returns, plus the occasional broken or off-colour brick. Lean toward 10% if the wall has lots of openings, a feature bond, or if you are new to laying. It is also wise to keep a few spare bricks from the same batch for future repairs, because the colour can vary between deliveries.
- Does the brick calculator include the mortar?
- The mortar joint is built into the brick count — the calculator divides the wall by the brick plus its joint, which is exactly why the per-area figures are lower than the bare brick face would suggest. It does not estimate bags of mortar mix, because that depends on the joint thickness and the mix you choose; as a rough guide, plan on roughly one bag of general-purpose mortar per 100–125 bricks and confirm against the bag's stated coverage.
Want the full walk-through? Read the brick guide → Laying a slab or footing first? Try the concrete calculator →
Reference & education only. Not professional, engineering, or code-compliance advice. Estimates are based on published model codes; local amendments and your Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) govern. Always verify against the current adopted code and a licensed professional before doing work.
Last reviewed 2026-06.