How Many Bricks for 4,000 Square Feet?
Brick to buy
28,800 brick
4,000 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 length500 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 buy28,800 brick
| Net wall area | 4,000 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Brick per sq ft | 6.86 |
| Brick before waste | 27,429 |
| Courses | 37at 2.625 in per course |
| Mortar in the joints | 221.2 cu ft |
| Mortar to buy | 442.3 cu ftjoint volume doubled, see the assumptions |
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 73837 brick per bag |
| Wall ties | 1,499 |
| Weep holes | 182 |
The material list this produces
| Brick | 28,800 |
|---|---|
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 738 |
| Wall ties | 1,499 |
| Weep vents | 182 |
| Flashing, ft | 500 |
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 | 28,800 brick | 6.86 | 738 |
| Standard | 27,511 brick | 6.55 | 730 |
| Queen | 24,192 brick | 5.76 | 493 |
| Engineer | 23,718 brick | 5.65 | 641 |
| King | 20,160 brick | 4.8 | 483 |
| Utility | 12,600 brick | 3 | 492 |
What else matters here
Twenty eight thousand eight hundred brick is an order placed against a production run rather than picked off a yard, and the lead time on it is a schedule item in its own right.
A quantity this size is rarely in stock in one color at one branch. It is made, or it is gathered from several branches, and either way the answer to how soon is measured in weeks. Order it when the elevations are fixed rather than when the framing is done, and get the lead time in writing, because a brick house with no brick on site is a house with a crew standing in it.
The other thing to settle at this size is the overage before the order rather than after. A reorder is not just another delivery, it is another batch, and on 4,000 square feet a batch change lands somewhere visible. Order the waste allowance you actually want in one go, and treat the leftover as the repair stock for the building, kept dry and somewhere it will not be tidied away.
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 4,000 square feet?
28,800 modular brick, which is 27,429 for the wall plus five percent waste.
How long does a large brick order take?
Weeks rather than days. A quantity like this is usually made to order or gathered across branches, so fix the elevations early, place the order early and get the lead time in writing.
Why not just reorder brick if I run short?
Because a reorder is a different batch and the color will not match. On a wall this size that change is visible, so order the full allowance at once and keep the surplus as repair stock.
The brick calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.