Building materials
How many bricks per m²? Garden wall worked example
Why a single-skin wall uses about 60 standard UK bricks per m², with a worked garden-wall example including wastage and rounding.
Where the 60 bricks per m² figure comes from
A standard UK brick is 215 × 102.5 × 65 mm. Add a 10 mm mortar joint and each brick occupies a face of 225 × 75 mm, or 0.016875 m². One square metre divided by that gives 59.26 — rounded up, the familiar trade figure of 60 bricks per m² for a half-brick (single-skin) wall.
A full-brick (double-skin) wall needs twice as many, about 120 per m², because two leaves are laid side by side.
Worked example: a 5 m garden wall
For an illustrative single-skin wall 5 m long and 1.2 m high, the face area is 5 × 1.2 = 6 m². At 60 bricks per m² that is 360 bricks. Adding a 5% allowance for cuts and breakages gives 378, which you would round up to the supplier’s pack or order quantity.
Measure the height to the top of the finished wall, including any coping course, and subtract gates or openings before multiplying.
Don’t forget mortar and foundations
Bricks are only part of the order. The brick-and-block calculator also estimates mortar, and a wall needs a suitable footing — the concrete calculator handles that volume. A free-standing wall’s height and thickness should follow current guidance; this is a quantity estimate, not structural advice. Estimates only. Check the manufacturer’s coverage rates.
