Okay, so I wanted to figure out how many bricks I needed for this wall I’m building. I’m no expert, just a regular guy trying to get some stuff done around the house. I started poking around for a “brick wall calculator,” and let me tell you, it’s a bit of a rabbit hole.
First, I grabbed a measuring tape. You know, the usual kind. I measured the length of the wall and then the height. Easy peasy, right? Just write those numbers down – that’s what I did.
My Little Project
Then came the brick size. These things come in all shapes and sizes, it turns out! I had these standard-sized bricks, so I measured one of those. Got the length and the height of a single brick.
Next up, I looked at mortar. I learned it the hard way the first wall that, you have to account for the space between the bricks! Usually, there is about 3/8 of an inch, but I wanted to be sure,so I checked a bricklaying book, it is !
Now for the “calculator” part. Honestly, I just used the calculator on my phone. Here’s what I did:
- I calculated the area of the whole wall (length times height).
- Then, I calculated the area of a single brick, including that extra bit for the mortar. So, I added the mortar width (3/8 inch) to the brick’s length and height before I multiplied them.
- Finally, I divided the wall area by the single-brick-plus-mortar area. Boom! That gave me a rough number of bricks I needed.
I remembered someone told me about wastage,I should add a few extra bricks – say 5% or 10% – to account for any I might break or mess up. So, I did a final, tiny calculation to add that extra bit on.
It’s not rocket science, really. Just some basic measurements and a few simple calculations. I ended up with a number that made sense, and now I can finally go and get the right amount of bricks. I’m pretty proud of myself for figuring this out, I am ready to do it!
