With more and more people doing their own home renovations and DIY projects they may not be used to calculating some of the measurements for jobs or the quantities of products needed.
Fortunately for most clay bricks the calculations are quite simple to make as there are not many different standard sizes.
It is always best to check what the standard size in your country is though, just in case they have a different standard.
Since Littlehampton Brick is an Australian Brick Manufacturer, we will be using Australian standard brick sizes to make the calculations.
How to calculate how many bricks you need for a project
The easiest way to do this is to:
- First calculate the square metres of surface area you need to cover. For example: A wall that is 2 metres high and 5 metres long would be 10 square metres (2m X 5m = 10m2)
- Then divide the square metres by how many bricks are required per square metre
- For standard bricks, there are 50 per square metre (more details below)
- Then you have your total number of bricks needed for the job!
What is a ‘standard size brick’?
In Australia (and some other countries) the standard brick size is 230mm Long X 76mm High X 110mm wide.
For the area coverage calculation you only really need the 230mm X 76mm measurements, since that is the only dimensions which will impact the coverage.
Including mortar, there are precisely 48.5 bricks of this size per square metre, but most professionals calculate at 50 per square metre to allow for breakages, cuts, accidental damage or wastage.
What is the thickness of Mortar in a Brick Wall?
Mortar between bricks for a clay brick wall should be close to 10mm (1cm) thick. This is to allow proper adhesion between the rows (courses) of bricks and also create stability in the structure.
There are also strict building codes associated with this in most countries and states, so if a mortar is too thin or too thick, it may not be acceptable. Generally the allowance is about 1-2mm either side of the target 10mm mortar size.
How many bricks are there per Square metre?
Including a 10mm mortar and 3% extra for ‘wastage’ there should be:
- 50 per square metre of ‘Standard size’ bricks (230mm X 76mm)
- 55 per square metre of 70mm bricks (230mm X 70mm)
- 62 per square metre of 62mm bricks (230mm X 62mm)
- 72 per square metre of 50mm bricks (230mm X 50mm)
