Reference
Standard brick dimensions and course heights
Brick is sold by a nominal size that includes the mortar joint and laid at an actual size that does not. Both matter, and mixing them up is the fastest way to order the wrong quantity. Here is each US brick, what it covers, how it stacks, and what goes around it.
Standard brick dimensions in the US
Actual size is the fired brick as it arrives. Nominal size is the actual size plus one 3/8 inch joint, and it is the figure that makes the arithmetic come out in whole inches. Dimensions read width × height × length.
| Brick | Actual (in) | Nominal (in) | Per sq ft | Per m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modular | 3⅝ × 2¼ × 7⅝ | 4 × 2⅔ × 8 | 6.86 | 74 |
| Standard | 3⅝ × 2¼ × 8 | — | 6.55 | 71 |
| Engineer modular | 3⅝ × 2 13/16 × 7⅝ | 4 × 3⅕ × 8 | 5.65 | 61 |
| Queen | 3⅛ × 2¾ × 7⅝ | — | 5.76 | 62 |
| King | 2¾ × 2⅝ × 9⅝ | — | 4.61 | 50 |
| Roman | 3⅝ × 1⅝ × 11⅝ | 4 × 2 × 12 | 6.00 | 65 |
| Norman | 3⅝ × 2¼ × 11⅝ | 4 × 2⅔ × 12 | 4.57 | 49 |
| Utility | 3⅝ × 3⅝ × 11⅝ | 4 × 4 × 12 | 3.00 | 32 |
Counts are for a single wythe laid in running bond with 3/8 inch joints, before waste. Add 5% on a plain wall and 10% where there are many openings, returns or cut closers.
Bricks per square metre, and why the answer is usually 60
Search for bricks per square metre and almost every answer says 60. That figure is correct — for the metric brick used across the UK, Ireland and Australia, which measures 215 × 102.5 × 65 mm and is laid with a 10 mm joint. A 225 × 75 mm nominal face divides into a square metre 59.3 times, so the trade rounds to 60.
US modular brick is a different shape entirely: a nominal 8 × 2⅔ inch face gives 6.86 bricks per square foot, or 74 per square metre. If a supplier quotes 60 per square metre for American brick, they are quoting the wrong brick — the difference is 23%, which on a 400 square foot wall is over 500 bricks.
Course heights with a 3/8 inch joint
Modular brick is designed so three courses come to exactly 8 inches. That is the whole point of the modular system: window heads, sills and floor levels land on course lines without a cut, provided the joints hold at 3/8 inch.
| Courses | Modular height | Lands on |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2⅔ in | One course |
| 3 | 8 in | The modular unit |
| 6 | 16 in | Sill height on many plans |
| 9 | 24 in | Counter height |
| 12 | 32 in | |
| 24 | 64 in | |
| 30 | 80 in | A standard door head |
| 36 | 96 in | An 8 ft wall plate |
Joints are the adjustment. Running the bed joints a sixteenth of an inch fat over 30 courses gains almost two inches of height, which is how a wall that started level arrives at a window head out of square.
How many wall ties per 1,000 brick
Anchored brick veneer in the US needs one tie for every 2.67 square feet of wall, with a maximum spacing of 32 inches horizontally and 25 inches vertically. Ties are specified by wall area, so converting to a per-thousand figure means going through coverage first.
ties = 146 ÷ 2.67 sq ft per tie = 55 ties
per sq ft = 0.375 ties
So a thousand modular bricks takes about 55 ties, or 0.375 ties per square foot of veneer. Order 60 — ties are cheap, and the spacing maximum has to be met at every opening, corner and edge, which is where the extras go. Around windows and doors, code adds ties within 12 inches of the opening at no more than 36 inches apart, and those are on top of the field spacing.
The equivalent UK figure is different again: metric brick at 60 per square metre with ties at 900 × 450 mm gives about 2.5 ties per square metre, or roughly 42 ties per thousand brick.
Mortar per thousand brick
This one is worth deriving rather than looking up, because published figures vary by a factor of two depending on whether they assume full bedding, face-shell bedding or a generous bricklayer.
head joint = 3.625 × 2.25 × 0.375 = 3.1 cu in
per brick = 13.5 cu in
per 1 000 = 13 500 cu in ÷ 1 728 = 7.8 cu ft
Call it 8 cubic feet of mortar per thousand modular brick before waste, and 9 after a 10 to 15% allowance for what falls off the board and stiffens in the tub. An 80 lb bag of premixed mortar yields roughly 0.7 cubic feet, so a thousand brick takes about 12 to 13 bags.
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