How Many Bricks for 650 Square Feet?
Brick to buy
4,680 brick
650 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 length81.25 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 buy4,680 brick
| Net wall area | 650 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Brick per sq ft | 6.86 |
| Brick before waste | 4,458 |
| Courses | 37at 2.625 in per course |
| Mortar in the joints | 35.9 cu ft |
| Mortar to buy | 71.9 cu ftjoint volume doubled, see the assumptions |
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 12037 brick per bag |
| Wall ties | 244 |
| Weep holes | 30 |
The material list this produces
| Brick | 4,680 |
|---|---|
| Mortar mix, 80 lb bags | 120 |
| Wall ties | 244 |
| Weep vents | 30 |
| Flashing, ft | 82 |
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 | 4,680 brick | 6.86 | 120 |
| Standard | 4,471 brick | 6.55 | 119 |
| Queen | 3,932 brick | 5.76 | 81 |
| Engineer | 3,855 brick | 5.65 | 105 |
| King | 3,276 brick | 4.8 | 79 |
| Utility | 2,048 brick | 3 | 80 |
What else matters here
Six hundred and fifty square feet of veneer wants 30 weep vents, and a weep vent is the cheapest item on the whole list and the one most likely to be left out.
Thirty across this wall is one roughly every 33 inches along the bottom course, left open as a head joint without mortar or fitted with a plastic or rope vent. A brick veneer is not waterproof and was never meant to be. Rain goes through the brick and through the joints, runs down the back face, and lands on the flashing at the bottom. If there is nowhere for it to leave, it sits there against the sheathing.
Which is why the weeps and the flashing are one detail rather than two. Weeps above a flashing drain the wall. Weeps with no flashing under them drain nothing, because the water is already inside the building by the time it reaches that height, and flashing with no weeps above it turns the bottom of the cavity into a trough.
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 650 square feet?
4,680 modular brick, which is 4,458 for the wall plus five percent waste.
How many weep holes does a brick wall need?
For 650 square feet the calculator gives 30, which is about one every 33 inches along the bottom course.
Do weep holes actually do anything?
Yes, as long as there is flashing under them. Brick veneer lets water through and the cavity behind it drains onto the flashing, and the weeps are the only way out. Weeps without flashing drain nothing.
The brick calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.