How Many Bricks Do I Need?

Sixty for a single skin wall built with standard UK bricks, and 120 for a double skin. The arithmetic is straightforward: a standard brick is 215 by 65 millimetres on face, and with a 10 millimetre mortar joint each brick occupies 225 by 75 millimetres, or 0.016875 square metres. That works out at 59.3 bricks per square metre, which the trade has rounded to 60 for as long as anyone can remember. Always order a few per cent more for cuts and breakages.

The working rule is one tonne of building sand per 1,000 bricks laid in a single skin, with the cement depending on the mix. At a general purpose 1:5 mix that is about seven 25 kilogram bags of cement per tonne of sand; at a stronger 1:4 it is about nine, and at a softer 1:6 about six. Use 1:6 on older or soft handmade bricks, because a mortar harder than the brick will damage the brick rather than protect it.

Bricklaying in Northern Ireland runs roughly £700 to £1,100 per thousand bricks laid in 2026 for straightforward work, which is below the UK average. Add the bricks themselves at around 50p to £1.10 each for standard facing bricks and the mortar materials, and a supplied-and-laid figure of £1,300 to £2,400 per thousand is typical. Feature brickwork, arches, piers and reclaimed bricks all push the labour figure up considerably.

Five per cent on a plain rectangular wall, seven and a half on anything with openings, returns or piers, and ten on brickwork with lots of cuts, curves or angles. Wastage is not just breakage: it covers the cuts at every reveal and corner, the bricks that come out of the pack chipped, and the handful you will want left over for repairs in five years. Running out mid-wall is far more expensive than over-ordering, because a later batch will rarely match on colour.

Packs, almost always. Most Northern Ireland merchants sell facing bricks in packs of around 400, though pack sizes vary between roughly 350 and 500 depending on the manufacturer, so check before you order. Buying full packs is cheaper per brick, keeps the batch consistent and means the bricks arrive banded and protected. Mixing bricks from two batches on the same elevation is the usual cause of a visible colour band across a wall.