Brick Coverage Chart: Bricks and Mortar per Square Foot

How many bricks does a 100 sq ft wall need?

675 bricks — 743 to order, and 19 bags of mortar. A 100 sq ft wall of modular brick at 6.75 bricks per sq ft is 675 bricks before waste, and 10% waste takes the order to 743. The mortar is 19 × 80-lb bags, because one bag lays 36 bricks and 675 ÷ 36 is 18.75, rounded up. That is the whole calculation: area times the rate is the bricks, the bricks times one plus the waste is the order, and the bricks divided by 36 is the mortar. The table above gives the bricks, the waste and the mortar for every wall from 10 to 500 sq ft, so the same arithmetic works for any wall.

Brick coverage by wall area — modular brick, 10% waste

Rates are the Brick Industry Association Technical Note 10 figures for a 3/8-inch mortar joint: modular 6.75, standard 6.55, queen 5.50 and Norman 4.50 bricks per sq ft. Two independent summaries agree on them: calcshed.com gives modular 675 per 100 sq ft, standard 6.55, queen 5.50 and Norman 4.50, and freebiefy.com gives the same — modular 6.75 per sq ft, standard 655 per 100 sq ft, Norman 450 per 100 sq ft — both citing BIA Technical Note 10. Cross-checked against hunker.com's BIA table, which gives standard non-modular 6.55, and the site's own brick-size-chart, where an 80 sq ft wall needs 540 modular bricks — 6.75 per sq ft. Mortar is 36 standard bricks per 80-lb bag of mortar mix: inchcalculator.com and findpros.com both give 28 bags per 1,000 bricks, and the bag labels agree — Sakrete Type N and Type S list 35 bricks per 80-lb bag, QUIKRETE Mason Mix up to 37. The table is for modular brick at 10% waste; the calculator above works out any brick type and waste allowance.

Three things to check before you trust the number

The rate is per square foot of WALL, not per brick. A modular brick is 7-5/8 in long, so with a 3/8 in mortar joint each brick covers 8 in by 2-2/3 in of wall face — 6.75 bricks to the square foot. A standard brick is 8 in long, so it covers more face and the rate falls to 6.55; a queen brick is 9-5/8 in long and the rate falls to 5.50; a Norman is 11-5/8 in and the rate is 4.50. The same 100 sq ft wall needs 655 standard bricks instead of 675 modular, and 550 queen. Count the wall area and pick the brick type — the calculator does exactly that, and the table is for modular brick only.

Order the waste figure, not the exact figure. Bricks break, and every corner and opening means cuts: 10% waste on 675 bricks is 68 extra, taking the order to 743, and 15% takes it to 777. The mortar, though, is counted on the installed bricks — 19 bags for 675 — because the broken and cut bricks are never laid, so their mortar is never used. A wall with many corners or arches wants 15% waste; a plain straight wall is fine at 10%. And order all the bricks from the same batch: clay colour varies between kiln runs, and a second order can be visibly different.

The mortar rule is per bag, not per wall. One 80-lb bag lays 36 standard bricks, so 1,000 bricks need 28 bags — 27 bags hold only 972 bricks, 28 short, and 29 hold 1,044. One bag covers 5.33 sq ft of modular wall, and one pallet of 500 bricks covers 74 sq ft. The theoretical joint volume is much less — about 15 bags per 1,000 bricks if nothing were ever spilled — but mortar is lost to squeeze-out and board scrapings, which is why the bag labels, not the joint volume, set the order. Use the bag label when it is printed on the bag you actually buy.

Worked example

On the defaults: a 100 sq ft wall, modular brick, 10% waste.

1. The bricks: 100 × 6.75 is 675 bricks.
2. The waste: 675 × 1.10 is 742.5, rounded up to 743 bricks.
3. The mortar: 675 ÷ 36 is 18.75, rounded up to 19 bags.
4. The coverage: 36 ÷ 6.75 is 5.33 sq ft per bag.

And the other way: 1,000 bricks cover 148 sq ft of modular wall, 1,000 bricks need 28 × 80-lb bags of mortar, and one pallet of 500 bricks covers 74 sq ft.

Every branch, checked

• 10 sq ft wall instead of 100: 10 sq ft wall instead of 100: 10 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 68 bricks (75 with 10% waste) — 2 × 80-lb mortar bags.
• 25 sq ft wall instead of 100: 25 sq ft wall instead of 100: 25 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 169 bricks (186 with 10% waste) — 5 × 80-lb mortar bags.
• 200 sq ft wall instead of 100: 200 sq ft wall instead of 100: 200 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 1350 bricks (1485 with 10% waste) — 38 × 80-lb mortar bags.
• 500 sq ft wall instead of 100: 500 sq ft wall instead of 100: 500 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 3375 bricks (3713 with 10% waste) — 94 × 80-lb mortar bags.
• Standard brick instead of modular: Standard brick instead of modular: 100 sq ft of Standard (8 in): 655 bricks (721 with 10% waste) — 19 × 80-lb mortar bags.
• 0% waste instead of 10%: 0% waste instead of 10%: 100 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 675 bricks (675 with 0% waste) — 19 × 80-lb mortar bags.
• 15% waste instead of 10%: 15% waste instead of 10%: 100 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 675 bricks (777 with 15% waste) — 19 × 80-lb mortar bags.
• Queen brick instead of modular: Queen brick instead of modular: 100 sq ft of Queen (9-5/8 in): 550 bricks (605 with 10% waste) — 16 × 80-lb mortar bags.

The reverses, worked backwards

• Wall area 1,000 bricks cover: 148 sq ft — at 148 sq ft the figures are 148 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 999 bricks (1099 with 10% waste) — 28 × 80-lb mortar bags.; at the lower neighbor the figures are 147 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 993 bricks (1093 with 10% waste) — 28 × 80-lb mortar bags.; at the upper neighbor the figures are 149 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 1006 bricks (1107 with 10% waste) — 28 × 80-lb mortar bags. — verdict: STEP.
• 80-lb mortar bags for 1,000 bricks: 28 bags — at 28 bags the figures are 1000 bricks need 28 × 80-lb bags (holding 1008 bricks) — with 8 bricks to spare.; at the lower neighbor the figures are 1000 bricks need 27 × 80-lb bags (holding 972 bricks) — 28 bricks short of the 1000 needed.; at the upper neighbor the figures are 1000 bricks need 29 × 80-lb bags (holding 1044 bricks) — with 44 bricks to spare. — verdict: STEP.
• Wall area one pallet (500 bricks) covers: 74 sq ft — at 74 sq ft the figures are 74 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 500 bricks (550 with 10% waste) — 14 × 80-lb mortar bags.; at the lower neighbor the figures are 73 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 493 bricks (543 with 10% waste) — 14 × 80-lb mortar bags.; at the upper neighbor the figures are 75 sq ft of Modular (7-5/8 in): 507 bricks (558 with 10% waste) — 15 × 80-lb mortar bags. — verdict: STEP.

What the defaults assume

The defaults are a 100 sq ft single-wythe wall — one brick thick — of modular brick (7-5/8 × 2-1/4 × 3-5/8 in) laid with 3/8-inch mortar joints, with a 10% waste allowance. The rates are the Brick Industry Association Technical Note 10 figures, agreed by two independent summaries; the mortar is the bag-label yield of 36 standard bricks per 80-lb bag, agreed by two independent tables. The model assumes the wall area is net — windows and doors already taken off — and a single-wythe wall: a double-wythe wall, two bricks thick, needs twice the face bricks. A pallet is taken as 500 bricks, the common pallet size, though suppliers vary. The model does not count the sand and cement for site-mixed mortar, the brick ties, or the lintels over openings — all real materials that sit outside the brick and mortar count. The brick counts always round up, because a wall that needs 742.5 bricks needs 743, not 742.

These notes repeat in every explainer section because this page is built to be read start to finish: the rate is per square foot of wall, not per brick; order the waste figure, not the exact figure; and the mortar rule is per bag, not per wall.

Output · formula · meaning

Who uses this

• A DIYer building a garden wall — a 25 sq ft wall needs 169 bricks, 186 to order, and 5 bags of mortar: the shopping list, before the store trip.
• A mason pricing a job — a 500 sq ft wall needs 3375 bricks, 3713 with waste, and 94 bags: the order quantity, with the per-brick-type rates for the quote.
• A homeowner budgeting a veneer — one pallet covers 74 sq ft, so a 100 sq ft wall is two pallets short of one: the budget, from the area alone.
• A student learning coverage rates — one worked example from area to bricks to waste to mortar, the 6-row table, and the reverses that solve for the area, the bags and the pallet.

Accuracy & limitations

Figures are the model's own totals on the numbers you type, computed from unrounded values: the bricks are the area times the rate per sq ft, rounded up; the waste figure is the bricks times one plus the waste allowance, rounded up; and the mortar bags are the installed bricks divided by 36, rounded up. The displayed figures are rounded to 2dp where they are not whole. The rates (modular 6.75, standard 6.55, queen 5.50, Norman 4.50) are the Brick Industry Association Technical Note 10 figures for a 3/8-inch joint, agreed by two independent summaries and cross-checked against a third table and the site's own brick-size-chart; other brick sizes and joint widths change the rate, so check the manufacturer's figure for the brick you actually buy. The mortar yield of 36 bricks per 80-lb bag is the bag-label rule; Sakrete lists 35 and QUIKRETE up to 37, so treat the bag count as an estimate and buy one extra bag for a big job. The model assumes a single-wythe wall with the openings already taken off and does not count ties, lintels, or site-mixed mortar materials. This page is a calculation tool, not a trade guide: follow the mortar manufacturer's directions for mixing and curing.

Cite this calculator

A 100 sq ft wall of modular brick needs 675 bricks (743 with 10% waste) and 19 × 80-lb bags of mortar. Rates: Brick Industry Association Technical Note 10 — modular 6.75 bricks per sq ft; mortar 36 bricks per 80-lb bag. Source: Bright Side Kit, brightoolbox.com.

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