Calculating bricks and blocks bricks - blocks One aspect of brickwork which often causes confusion is estimating how many bricks or blocks will be required for a planned wall - you don't want to run out before you finish but you also don't want a pallet load of material left unused when you have finished. Making these estimates is fairly straight forward using just a few figures. First the number of bricks/blocks for the total wall is calculated, then the additional number of bricks for any piers. These are added together and then a 10% allowance should be added for wastage and breakages - the figures below do not include this allowance. Calculating the number of bricks Standard, UK, metric bricks are roughly 215 x 102.5 x 65mm, the mortar joints used are normally about 10mm both horizontally and vertically. Half brick wall A half brick wide wall requires 60 bricks per square metre . So the first stage is just to measure the height and length (includi...