Today, I wanted to figure out how many bricks I needed for a little wall I’m building in my backyard. I didn’t want to end up with too few or, even worse, way too many. So, I decided to make a simple bricks calculator.
First, I measured the area where the wall was going to be. I got out my trusty tape measure and jotted down the length and height in feet. Pretty straightforward, just like measuring for a new carpet or something.
Next, I needed to know the size of the bricks I was going to use. I had a few lying around from another project, so I measured one of those. Again, I used feet for everything to keep it simple.
Then came the slightly tricky part – figuring out the mortar joints. See, you don’t just stack bricks on top of each other; you need that layer of mortar in between. I decided to go with a standard 3/8 inch joint, which is about 0.03125 feet when converted.
I add this space to the Bricks Lenght and Bricks Height.
Now for the calculation! I did this:
- Calculate the area of a single brick plus the mortar: Add the mortar joint thickness to both the brick’s length and height,then multiple them.
- Calculate the wall’s total area: I multiplied the wall’s length by its height.
- Finally, divide the wall’s area by the single brick’s area (including mortar): That number is how many bricks I should order.
I whipped up a quick calculation in my note, put in the numbers, and boom! I had a pretty good estimate of the number of bricks I needed. No fancy software, just some basic math.
It’s not rocket science, but it saved me from guessing and potentially making a costly mistake. Now, I can order my bricks with confidence, knowing I’ll have just about the right amount for my little backyard project.
