How Many Bricks for 60 Square Feet?
Brick to buy
432 brick
60 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 length7.5 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 buy432 brick
| Net wall area | 60 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Brick per sq ft | 6.86 |
| Brick before waste | 412 |
| Courses | 37at 2.625 in per course |
| Mortar in the joints | 3.3 cu ft |
| Mortar to buy | 6.6 cu ftjoint volume doubled, see the assumptions |
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 1234 brick per bag |
| Wall ties | 23 |
| Weep holes | 3 |
The material list this produces
| Brick | 432 |
|---|---|
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 12 |
| Wall ties | 23 |
| Weep vents | 3 |
| Flashing, ft | 8 |
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 | 432 brick | 6.86 | 12 |
| Standard | 413 brick | 6.55 | 11 |
| Queen | 363 brick | 5.76 | 8 |
| Engineer | 356 brick | 5.65 | 10 |
| King | 303 brick | 4.8 | 8 |
| Utility | 189 brick | 3 | 8 |
What else matters here
Sixty square feet is about the size of a mailbox column, a small planter, or one pier of a porch, and on jobs that size the waste allowance matters more than it looks.
Five percent of a big wall is cut brick you were always going to make. Five percent of sixty square feet is twenty brick, and on a column or a planter almost every brick at every corner is a bat or a header, so the real cutting loss runs higher than on a plain run. If the work is all corners, order ten percent and you will still be carrying the spares home.
The other small job trap is color. A feature this size is looked at from two feet away rather than from the street, so blend the pallet as you lay it, pulling from three or four different straps rather than working one strap out before opening the next. Brick varies by batch, and on sixty square feet a batch change lands as a visible band.
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 60 square feet?
432 modular brick, which is 412 for the wall plus five percent waste.
Should I order more than five percent waste on a small job?
Usually yes. On a column or a planter nearly every corner brick is cut, so the real loss is higher than on a plain wall. Ten percent is the safer order on anything that is mostly corners.
Why does brick color change between straps?
It is fired in batches and the batches differ. Pull from three or four straps at once and mix as you lay, or the change shows up as a band across the work.
The brick calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.