Brick calculator
Enter the wall area and pick the brick or block — you get the piece count plus the cement bags and sand the mortar consumes. Counts come from the unit’s nominal size (actual size + mortar joint), mortar from the volume the units don’t fill — the same arithmetic a quantity surveyor uses, not a flat rule of thumb.
The standard brick; nominal size with joints is a clean 200 × 100 × 100 mm.
From a wall to a whole house
Counting walls off a drawing is the tedious part. Generate a floor plan for your plot and Plot2Plan measures every external and internal wall off the validated plan — bricks, mortar, plaster and paint for the whole house in one card, with each figure linking back here to adjust.
Common questions
How many bricks are needed for 1 m³ of wall?
About 500 modular bricks (190 × 90 × 90 mm) fill 1 m³ of brickwork, because each brick occupies a nominal 200 × 100 × 100 mm once its 10 mm mortar joints are counted. Larger country bricks (230 × 110 × 70 mm) come to roughly 460–480 per m³, and a 400 × 200 × 200 mm solid block wall needs only about 108 blocks per m³.
How many bricks for a 10 × 10 ft wall?
A 10 × 10 ft wall is about 9.3 m². At 230 mm (9 inch) thickness that is 2.14 m³ of brickwork — roughly 1,070 modular bricks before wastage, or about 1,120 with 5% wastage. The same wall built 115 mm (4½ inch) thick needs about half that.
How much cement and sand does brickwork mortar need?
Mortar fills whatever the bricks do not — around 23% of the wall volume for modular bricks with 10 mm joints. In the everyday 1:6 mix, 1 m³ of brickwork takes roughly 1.4 bags of cement and 0.3 m³ of sand. A richer 1:4 mix, used for load-bearing or external work, takes more cement for the same wall.
Which is better — bricks, concrete blocks or AAC blocks?
Clay bricks are the default and every mason knows them; solid concrete blocks lay much faster for 200 mm walls; AAC blocks are light, straight and better insulating, and they use a 3 mm thin-bed adhesive instead of sand mortar — so the cement-and-sand figures do not apply to AAC, the calculator shows adhesive in kg instead. Prices and availability vary by city; get a rate for all three before deciding.
What wastage should I allow for bricks?
5% covers breakage in transport and cutting at ends and openings with good handling. Allow 8–10% for brittle country bricks or work with many cut pieces (curved walls, lots of openings).