How to calculate a brick for construction?

Calculation of bricks for construction. All the secrets are revealed!

How to make a calculation of bricks for building a house? Let’s explain now. Read it! We all understand that in order to build a house, it is necessary to make all the calculations beforehand. This is done in order to eliminate the overspending of materials.

If people of the older generation remember the good old days when the construction of the PMK was carried out, they can tell how materials were squandered then. But we are building for ourselves, so we will try to save (within reasonable limits – so that this does not affect the quality).

Here we will show how it is necessary to make calculations for one of the main materials of construction.

Necessary explanations. It is advisable to make a preliminary calculation of bricks in such a way that it is possible to purchase bricks from one batch at once. This is done so that there is no need to buy more bricks later.

Bricks from another batch may even differ slightly in color, which will negatively affect the aesthetic appearance of the house. In fact, for this you need to know at least approximately the amount of material for construction.

Examples of calculating the number of bricks for the construction of house walls

Before starting calculations, we need to decide how thick our walls will be. Standard bricks can be placed in half a brick, while the wall thickness will be 120 mm, in one brick – 250 mm, one and a half – 380 mm, in two – 510 mm, and in two and a half – 640 mm.

For the construction of a house in our climate (meaning not the southern hemisphere), the thickness of two and two and a half bricks will be optimal. If you have decided on the thickness of the wall, you can begin to determine the main parameters of our structure.

To do this, we need to know the perimeter length and height. By elementary multiplication of these two data, we get the total area of the wall along the perimeter.

After that, we have to subtract from this number the total area of all door and window openings. By simply subtracting from the total area of the wall obtained earlier, we obtain the required area of the brick wall. You also need to determine the size of the brick itself.

There are single, one-and-a-half and double bricks.

Parameters of a single brick: length – 250 mm, width – 120 mm, height 65 mm.

One–and-a-half 250 x 120 x 88 mm, double — 250 x 120 x 138 mm.

If you want to speed up and facilitate the construction somewhat, you can purchase a one-and-a-half or double brick, but this may affect the aesthetics of the wall.

I think a single brick wall looks more beautiful. However, this is a matter of taste. And only after that it is possible to determine the calculation of the required amount of material.

To simplify the calculation, we will give the number of bricks required for laying one square meter of the wall in two and two and a half, taking into account the number of mortar joints. The seam height is 10 mm.

Type of masonry	Dimensions of bricks	Quantity including mortar joints, pcs.
in 2 brick	single	204
	sesquialteral	156
	double	104
in 2.5 brick	single	255
	sesquialteral	195
	double	130

Taking the calculations from the table, and multiplying them by the previously calculated area of the brick wall, we get the amount of material needed for our construction. However, it must be borne in mind, and the amount of defective material, therefore, it will be optimal to purchase in excess of the required amount of stock, equal to about 7% of the total number of bricks.

How to calculate a brick for facing a house?

It happens that you need to calculate the number of bricks not for construction, but simply to finish the house. How are the calculations carried out in this case? Everything is simpler here.

The consumption will be the same as in the usual masonry, but based on the calculation of half a brick.

To calculate the required amount of material when facing a house, we need only two parameters – the size of the brick and the size of the embroidery. If the brick has the parameters 250 x 65 mm, and the standard size of the stitching is 10 mm, then after making a simple calculation we get that 52 bricks are needed for 1 sq.m of the wall.

What parameters do we need?

The surface area that we want to face and the size of the brick. The height of the mortar seam remains the same – 10 mm. We accept consumption for 1 sq.m. Therefore, we calculate the area of the facing surface and multiply by the number of bricks from the table. We get the number of bricks for cladding. If you want to use some exotic configurations in the form of arches and others when facing, you will need an additional number of bricks.

To do this, you can make a margin of 10-15% of the total number of bricks in the calculations. This is necessary in order to make up for the losses that are formed when cutting bricks due to curly masonry. These are the calculations you need to do to calculate the brick. Successful calculations!

See also: Calculation of adobe bricks