Brick Calculator
Enter the wall, subtract the openings, pick a brick size, and get a purchase count built on the Brick Industry Association's published coverage — the ⅜ in mortar joint is already in the figures, waste is applied before the round-up, and the only price used is yours.
Wall and brick size
Example: a 20 × 8 ft wall with 40 sq ft of openings in modular brick at 5% waste → 851 bricks.
This tool counts units only — wall thickness, reinforcement, lintels, footings, and anything structural or code-related belongs with a licensed engineer or your building department.
Wall, coverage, waste — in that order
The worked wall: 20 × 8 ft = 160 sq ft − 40 sq ft of openings = 120 sq ft. Modular brick covers 675 units per 100 sq ft (BIA Technical Note 10, Table 4 — a figure that already includes the ⅜ in joint, because a modular brick's nominal 8 × 2⅔ in face is the brick plus its joint), so the net wall needs 810 bricks. BIA's minimum 5% breakage allowance lifts that to 850.5, rounded up to 851 bricks. Computed at build time by the same engine wired to the form.
Where the coverage numbers come from
Every per-size figure in the dropdown is the Brick Industry Association's published estimate for a single-wythe wall in running or stack bond with a ⅜ in joint — not a site invention. For the true modular sizes the table is definitional (144 ÷ nominal face area), and for non-modular sizes (standard, queen, king) it is BIA's published count for the specified dimensions. What is deliberately not built in: ½ in joints, header-course bond patterns, and double-wythe walls, all of which change the count — BIA's Technical Note 10 covers those corrections.
Masonry neighbors
Building with 8 × 16 block instead? The concrete block calculator runs the same wall-area method on the nominal CMU face. Paving rather than stacking — a patio or path — is the paver calculator's job, and if the project includes setting posts or a footing, size the pour with the concrete bag calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How many bricks are in a square foot of wall?
For the common modular brick with a ⅜ inch mortar joint, 6.75 — the Brick Industry Association publishes 675 bricks per 100 square feet, which is exactly what the nominal 8 × 2⅔ inch face works out to, because nominal dimensions already include the joint. Other sizes run from 3 per square foot (utility) to 6.55 (standard); this tool uses the BIA table figure for whichever size you pick.
Does the count include the mortar joints?
Yes. The per-size coverage figures come from BIA Technical Note 10, whose counts assume a ⅜ inch joint in running or stack bond — the joint is part of each brick’s share of the wall, so you never add it separately. If your project specifies ½ inch joints or a header-course bond pattern, the count changes; the BIA note publishes correction factors for those cases.
Why does the mortar line only appear for standard brick?
Because the one bag yield we can cite — QUIKRETE Mortar Mix No. 1102, whose data sheet says an 80 lb bag "will lay up to 37 standard bricks" — is stated by the manufacturer for standard brick specifically. Mortar per brick varies with the unit’s bed area, so stretching that figure to queen or utility brick would be a guess, and this site does not guess. For other sizes, work from your supplier’s guidance or the BIA mortar tables.
How much waste should I add?
BIA’s own estimating guidance is that "at least 5 percent is added to the net brick quantities" for breakage and cutting — that floor is the tool’s default, and corners, arches, and soldier courses warrant more. The percentage is applied to the brick count before rounding up, so it is counted exactly once.
Does this tool size structural walls?
No. It counts units for a wall area you already have — veneer, garden walls, repairs. Whether a wall needs to be single or double wythe, reinforced, or engineered at all is a structural and code question for a licensed professional, not a quantity tool.
Wall dimensions never leave your browser. Coverage sources and the estimating pipeline are documented on the methodology page.