How Many Bricks for 5,000 Square Feet?
Brick to buy
36,000 brick
5,000 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 length625 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 buy36,000 brick
| Net wall area | 5,000 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Brick per sq ft | 6.86 |
| Brick before waste | 34,286 |
| Courses | 37at 2.625 in per course |
| Mortar in the joints | 276.5 cu ft |
| Mortar to buy | 552.9 cu ftjoint volume doubled, see the assumptions |
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 92237 brick per bag |
| Wall ties | 1,873 |
| Weep holes | 228 |
The material list this produces
| Brick | 36,000 |
|---|---|
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 922 |
| Wall ties | 1,873 |
| Weep vents | 228 |
| Flashing, ft | 625 |
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 | 36,000 brick | 6.86 | 922 |
| Standard | 34,389 brick | 6.55 | 913 |
| Queen | 30,240 brick | 5.76 | 616 |
| Engineer | 29,648 brick | 5.65 | 801 |
| King | 25,200 brick | 4.8 | 603 |
| Utility | 15,750 brick | 3 | 615 |
What else matters here
Thirty six thousand brick is commercial scale, and at that point the first thing built is not the wall. It is a sample panel.
A sample panel is a freestanding piece of the real wall, built on site by the crew who will build the building, in the actual brick from the actual delivery, with the actual mortar and the actual joint tooling. It gets approved, and then it stands there for the rest of the job as the thing every dispute is measured against. Color, blend, joint profile and workmanship all stop being opinions once there is a panel.
It is worth doing on a house too, at a smaller size, for the same reason. Brick looks different in a sample board in a showroom, in a photograph, and in forty square feet of real wall in real daylight on the actual site. Nobody has ever regretted finding that out before ordering thirty six thousand of them.
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 5,000 square feet?
36,000 modular brick, which is 34,286 for the wall plus five percent waste.
What is a masonry sample panel?
A freestanding piece of the real wall, built on site in the delivered brick and mortar with the intended joint tooling, approved before the building starts and kept as the standard the work is judged against.
Should I build a sample panel for a house?
A small one is worth it. Brick reads differently in a showroom sample, in a photo and in real daylight on the actual site, and finding that out before the order is the cheapest time to find it out.
The brick calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.