Why 48.4 bricks per square metre
The Australian standard brick is 230 long, 110 wide and 76 high, and the standard bed and perp joint is 10mm. So on the face of the wall, each brick takes up 240 × 86mm — its own size plus one joint each way. That module is 0.02064 m², and a square metre holds 48.4 of them.
Width does not come into it. A 110mm brick and a 90mm brick lay exactly the same number per square metre of single skin. Width only decides how thick the wall is, and whether you are laying one leaf or two.
Joint thickness moves the number more than you expect
| Joint | Face module | Bricks per m² |
|---|---|---|
| 8mm | 238 × 84 | 50.0 |
| 10mm (standard) | 240 × 86 | 48.4 |
| 12mm | 242 × 88 | 47.0 |
| 15mm | 245 × 91 | 44.8 |
Three bricks a square metre does not sound like much until it is a 300 m² house — then it is 900 bricks, which is most of two packs. If you are laying to a set gauge to hit window heads, put your real joint thickness in the field above rather than accepting 10.
Handy gauge figures
- One course of standard brick with a 10mm bed is 86mm high, so a metre of wall is about 11.6 courses
- A course runs 4.17 bricks per lineal metre at the 240mm module
- A 200-series block on a 400 × 200 module is 12.5 per m², and one course is 200mm — five courses to the metre
A worked example — a house wall with openings
A 12m run at 2.7m high, double brick, with one door opening at 2.1 m² and windows totalling 3.6 m²:
- Gross area: 12 × 2.7 = 32.4 m²
- Less openings: 32.4 − 5.7 = 26.7 m² of wall to lay
- Two leaves at 48.4 per m²: 26.7 × 48.4 × 2 = 2,588 bricks
- Plus 5% for cuts and breakages: 2,717 bricks to order
Common walls at a glance
| Wall | Leaves | Order (5% waste) |
|---|---|---|
| Garden wall — 8m × 1.8m | 1 | 733 bricks |
| Planter box — 4m × 600mm | 1 | 123 bricks |
| Garage skin — 6m × 2.7m | 1 | 825 bricks |
| House wall — 12m × 2.7m, 5.7 m² of openings | 2 | 2,717 bricks |
| Block wall — 10m × 2.4m, 200-series | 1 | 315 blocks |
The single-skin mistake
This is the one that costs real money, in both directions. Most Australian houses built since the seventies are brick veneer: one leaf of brick, a cavity, and a timber or steel frame behind it. That is a single skin. Tick two and you have just ordered twice the bricks for a wall that only ever needed one leaf.
Double brick — both leaves brick with a cavity between — is normal in Western Australia and common in pre-war housing elsewhere. If both leaves are brick, pick two.
Piers, garden walls and planter boxes are usually single skin too, but check the height. A freestanding 110mm wall does not stand up to much wind, and once a garden or retaining wall gets past knee height it is a structural question for your engineer and quite possibly a council one. Work out the bricks here; get the design from someone who will put their name on it.
Openings, waste and ordering
Take the full opening area off — the calculator does not pretend a window is half a window. But remember what openings do to your waste: every course either side of an opening ends in a cut, and every cut is most of a brick you cannot use elsewhere. A plain wall runs at 5%. A wall with four windows in it, or curves, or a feature bond with headers, is closer to 10%.
- You buy whole packs. Clay bricks come banded on packs of a few hundred — the exact number varies by maker, so ask, then round your order up to whole packs rather than to a neat-looking number.
- Order the whole job in one hit. Clay colour varies from firing to firing. A second delivery weeks later can be visibly different, and there is no fixing it once it is in the wall.
- Load out of three packs at a time. Even within one order there is variation. Working out of three packs blends it across the whole wall instead of leaving a striped band where one pack ran out.
- Keep the offcut pile honest. Half bats are useful, quarter bats mostly are not. Do not count them as stock when you are checking whether you will make it to the end.
- Leave the customer thirty or forty spares somewhere dry and tell them where. When a car reverses into the letterbox pier in four years, they will thank you.
Blocks are a different animal
A 200-series or besser block has a 390 × 190 face, so with a 10mm joint the module is 400 × 200 and you get 12.5 to the square metre — a quarter of the brick count for the same wall. It goes up fast, and that is the appeal.
What the count does not tell you is the weight. Hollow 200-series blocks are commonly somewhere between 15 and 20kg each depending on the maker, so a hundred of them is around two tonnes on the ground. Get the drop placed where the wall is going, because moving blocks twice is a day nobody quoted for. And if the wall is being core-filled or reinforced, the grout and the bar are a separate order the block count says nothing about.
Bricks counted. Now price the job properly.
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Try Yamate free → Free to try · no card · sign in with a link, no password to rememberBricks & blocks FAQ
How many bricks per square metre in Australia?
48.4 for a standard 230 × 110 × 76mm brick with a 10mm joint, single skin. The brick plus its joint takes up 240 × 86mm on the face of the wall, and a square metre holds 48.4 of those.
How many bricks in a square metre of double brick?
Double the single-skin figure — about 96.9 per square metre, because you are laying two leaves. Only count it as double if both leaves are actually brick; a brick-veneer house is a single skin over a frame.
How many blocks per square metre?
12.5 for a 200-series or besser block with a 390 × 190 face and a 10mm joint. That is a 400 × 200 module, so five courses to the metre of height and 2.5 blocks per lineal metre of course.
How much waste should I allow on bricks?
Five per cent on a plain wall. Push it to around ten if the wall has several openings, curves, raked returns or a feature bond, because every one of those turns bricks into cuts you cannot use elsewhere.
How many bricks in a pack?
It varies by manufacturer — packs of a few hundred are typical. Ask your supplier for their pack quantity before you order, because you buy whole packs and rounding to a tidy number instead can leave you short.
Do I take doors and windows off the brick count?
Yes, take the full opening area off — the calculator above does it. Then bump your waste allowance, because the courses running past each opening end in cuts.
Other calculators you'll want
General information for Australian trades, and an estimate only — not tax, financial or legal advice. It is not engineering, building or design advice either: a calculator works out a quantity from the figures you enter, and anything that needs sign-off still needs your engineer, certifier or building surveyor. This is a materials estimate for ordering and quoting, not a structural design. Wall thickness, footings, reinforcement, control joints, ties and the height at which a freestanding wall needs engineering all depend on the design and your site — confirm them with your engineer, your certifier or council. Brick and block dimensions vary between manufacturers; check the face size and pack quantity with your supplier before you order.