Brickwork and mortar

How many bricks or blocks for a wall, and the mortar, cement and sand to lay them. South African brick and block sizes, single or double skin.

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1 Enter the job

Brickwork and mortar

Worked out at itcivils.com/free/calculators/  ·  Free construction calculators for site teams.
Check every quantity against your own specification and your supplier's own figures before ordering.

A worked example

This is the job the page opens with, already worked out. Change any figure above and the answer changes with it.

The job

Wall length
10 m
Wall height
3 m
How many walls
1
Openings to deduct
0 m²
Brick or block
Imperial / stock brick 222 × 106 × 73
Wall thickness
Single skin, one brick wide
Mortar joint
10 mm
Breakages and waste
5 %
Mortar mix
1:5, general walling

The answer

1 636bricks  ·  Imperial / stock brick

Net wall area
30 m²
Bricks per m²
51.93
Bricks, no waste
1 558
Waste at 5%
77.9
Mortar
0.504 m³
Cement, 50 kg bags
3.145 bags
Sand
0.546 m³
Sand, wheelbarrows
8.395

The working

Face size with joints is 232 × 83 mm, so 51.9 per m².
Mortar is the wall volume 3.18 m³ less the bricks in it 2.676 m³.

What it assumes

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On the job

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Why these are free, and what they assume

These come from ten years on site: first in contracting on production and civil works, then in consulting doing construction monitoring for consultants appointed by the City of Cape Town. Working a quantity out twice, because the first answer was on a piece of board that blew away, is a thing that happens to everybody.

Every calculator shows the formula it used and the assumptions it made, because a number with no working behind it is worth nothing on site. Where a figure varies by material or supplier, it is an input you can change rather than something hidden. Check the answers against your own specification and your supplier's own figures before you order. These help you work faster, they do not replace your own judgement.

If they save you time, the paid IT Admin Buster packs cover the admin side: progress report templates, daily diaries, inspection checklists and the wording banks that go with them.