How Many Bricks for 1,500 Square Feet?
Brick to buy
10,800 brick
1,500 square feet of wall face in modular brick, 3/8 in joints, five percent waste.
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How that number is worked out
These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.
- Wall length187.5 ft
- Wall height8 ft
- Openings to deduct0 sq ft
- Brick sizeModular, 7 5/8 x 2 1/4
- Mortar joint0.375 in
- Waste allowance5 %
Brick to buy10,800 brick
| Net wall area | 1,500 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Brick per sq ft | 6.86 |
| Brick before waste | 10,286 |
| Courses | 37at 2.625 in per course |
| Mortar in the joints | 82.9 cu ft |
| Mortar to buy | 165.9 cu ftjoint volume doubled, see the assumptions |
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 27737 brick per bag |
| Wall ties | 562 |
| Weep holes | 69 |
The material list this produces
| Brick | 10,800 |
|---|---|
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 277 |
| Wall ties | 562 |
| Weep vents | 69 |
| Flashing, ft | 188 |
Brick size compared
The same wall in every brick size the calculator carries, at this page's area. Modular is the default because it is what most of the country builds with, but a wall specified in king or utility brick needs far fewer units and far less mortar, and the labor drops with the unit count.
| Brick size | Brick to buy | Brick per sq ft | Mortar mix, 80 lb bags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modular | 10,800 brick | 6.86 | 277 |
| Standard | 10,317 brick | 6.55 | 274 |
| Queen | 9,072 brick | 5.76 | 185 |
| Engineer | 8,895 brick | 5.65 | 241 |
| King | 7,560 brick | 4.8 | 181 |
| Utility | 4,725 brick | 3 | 185 |
What else matters here
Fifteen hundred square feet is a whole house in brick, and the detail that decides whether it lasts is at the very bottom, in the first three courses.
Below the first course there is flashing, turned up the sheathing behind the brick and out through the face. Above it the weeps. Behind it a cavity that has to stay open. That assembly is what makes a brick house work, and all three parts of it are built in the first morning and then covered for good. Nobody inspects it afterwards because nobody can.
The usual way it fails is mortar. Droppings fall down the cavity all day and pile up on the flashing, and once that pile bridges from the brick to the sheathing the water has a path across instead of a path out. A board pulled up the cavity as the work rises, or a mortar net laid on the flashing at the start, is twenty minutes of work that decides whether the bottom of that wall is dry in thirty years.
What this calculator assumes
- Sizes are actual face dimensions, not nominal. A modular brick is 7 5/8 by 2 1/4, and it is the 3/8 joint around it that makes up the nominal 8 by 2 2/3 the coursing is laid out from.
- This is a single wythe, which is what a veneer is. A solid two wythe wall is twice the brick and twice the mortar.
- Mortar is the volume of the bed and head joints across the bed depth of the brick, doubled. The doubling is not a fudge, it lands the bag count on the figure printed on the bag: an 80 pound bag of mortar mix yields about 0.6 cubic feet and lays roughly 37 modular brick.
- Wall ties are one per 2.67 square feet, which is 16 inches horizontally by 24 vertically, the spacing in TMS 402 for anchored veneer.
- Weep holes are one every 33 inches along the base course, which is the usual reading of the 33 inch maximum.
Questions people ask
How many bricks do I need for 1,500 square feet?
10,800 modular brick, which is 10,286 for the wall plus five percent waste.
What goes under the first course of brick?
Flashing, turned up behind the brick and out through the face, with weep holes in the course above it and an open cavity behind. All three are needed and all three are covered up by the end of the first day.
Why does mortar in the cavity matter?
Droppings pile up on the flashing, and once the pile bridges the cavity it carries water to the sheathing instead of out through the weeps. A mortar net or a board dragged up as the work rises prevents it.
The brick calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.