Order too few bricks and the job stalls; order too many and money sits in the yard. This guide shows you how to calculate brick and mortar quantity for a wall with a method you can repeat for any project. You will get the core formula, a worked example, and the small corrections that keep the estimate honest.

The core idea

Brick estimating is really an area problem. You work out the face area of the wall, then divide by the face area of one brick including its share of mortar joint. The mortar joint matters: a brick does not occupy just its own size on the wall, it occupies its size plus roughly half a joint on each edge.

Step one: wall area

Measure length times height in the same units to get the wall face area. Subtract openings such as doors and windows. Do not skip this on a wall with big openings, or you will badly over-order.

Step two: brick face area with joint

Take the brick’s exposed face dimensions and add the joint thickness (commonly 10 mm) to both the length and the height before multiplying. A standard face of 215 by 65 mm with a 10 mm joint behaves like 225 by 75 mm on the wall.

The single-skin rule of thumb

For a common standard brick with a 10 mm joint, a single-leaf (half-brick thick) wall works out to roughly 60 bricks per square metre of wall face. This is a widely used figure in metric bricklaying. Two important cautions:

• It assumes one specific brick size. If your brick is a different size, recalculate from the actual dimensions rather than trusting the 60 figure.
• It is for a single leaf. A double-leaf (one-brick thick) solid wall needs about double the count.

Add a waste allowance

Bricks are lost to cutting, breakage, and returns. Add a waste margin on top of the calculated count. A common practical range is 5 to 10 percent: use the lower end for a simple straight wall and the higher end for walls with many cuts, piers, arches, or curves.

Worked example

A solid single-leaf boundary wall, 10 m long and 1.8 m high, with no openings, using 215 by 65 mm bricks and 10 mm joints.

Wall face area	10 x 1.8 = 18 m2
Bricks per m2 (single leaf)	about 60
Base brick count	18 x 60 = 1,080
Waste at 7.5%	about 81
Order quantity	about 1,161, round up to 1,180

Rounding up to whole packs or a sensible number avoids a small reorder that costs a delivery fee.

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Estimating the mortar

Mortar is harder to pin down because joint thickness and how full the joints are both vary. A workable planning approach is to allow a set volume of mixed mortar per hundred bricks and adjust from experience. Thicker joints, frogged bricks laid frog-up, and full perpends all raise consumption. As a starting point, budget roughly one bag of cement-based mortar mix per 25 to 35 standard bricks for a 10 mm joint, then refine against your first day’s actual use. Always confirm against the mortar manufacturer’s coverage figures.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Ignoring the mortar joint. Using the bare brick size over-counts bricks. Fix: always add the joint before dividing.
• Forgetting wall thickness. Estimating a one-brick-thick wall as if it were half-brick halves your order. Fix: confirm the wall is single or double leaf first.
• No waste allowance. Zero waste never happens. Fix: add 5 to 10 percent.
• Not subtracting openings, or subtracting too much. Fix: deduct the actual opening area, but remember you still need bricks around and above openings.
• Trusting a rule of thumb for the wrong brick size. Fix: recalculate from real dimensions when the brick differs.

Action steps

• Confirm the exact brick size and the specified joint thickness.
• Decide single or double leaf.
• Measure the wall and subtract openings to get face area.
• Calculate bricks per square metre from the real brick size plus joint.
• Multiply by area, add 5 to 10 percent waste, round up.
• Estimate mortar from the maker’s coverage and refine after day one.

Conclusion and next step

A good brick estimate is just area divided by a joint-corrected brick face, plus a sensible waste margin. Your next step: measure your wall, check the actual brick and joint dimensions on the delivery ticket, and run the numbers before you order rather than after the first pallet runs short.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the figure 60 bricks per square metre so common?

It comes from a standard 215 by 65 mm brick face with a 10 mm joint on a single-leaf wall. Change the brick size and the number changes, so treat 60 as specific to that brick, not universal.

How much waste should I really add?

Five percent is reasonable for a plain straight wall with few cuts. Move toward ten percent for walls with piers, arches, curves, or lots of window and door reveals, where cutting waste climbs.

Do I count bricks differently for a one-brick-thick wall?

Yes. A one-brick (double-leaf) solid wall uses about twice the bricks per square metre of a half-brick wall, because there are two thicknesses of brick across the wall.

How do I estimate mortar more accurately?

Start from the mortar product’s stated coverage per bag, apply it to your brick count and joint size, then measure what you actually use on the first day and scale the rest of the job to that real rate.

References

• Brick Development Association (BDA) technical guidance on brickwork dimensions and coordinating sizes.
• Brick Industry Association (BIA) technical notes on estimating brick and mortar quantities.