Guides · material quantities only

How many bricks do I need for a 3-bedroom house?

For a typical 3-bedroom house of about 120 m² with 220 mm walls on a flat stand you need about 23 500 stock bricks: about 18 900 for the walls and 4 600 for the foundation walls, with 10% for waste. Your house can be quite different: the length of your walls, your doors and windows, your slope and your brick all change the number.

How the number is worked out

Add up the length of every wall on the floor plan: outside walls and inside walls.
Times the wall height. A standard South African wall goes up 29 courses of 85 mm: 2.465 m to the wall plate.
Take away the doors and windows. Use the sizes in the plan's door and window schedules.
Times the bricks per m². A 220 mm wall (two skins of 220 x 110 x 75 stock bricks, 10 mm joints) takes 102.3 bricks per m²; a 110 mm wall (one skin) takes 51.
Add 10% for waste: broken bricks, cuts and site loss.

Worked example: a 120 m² 3-bedroom house

Step	Example
Wall length	78 m (46 m outside, 32 m inside)
Wall area (78 m x 2.465 m)	192.3 m²
Doors and windows (8 windows, 2 outside and 6 inside doors)	24.6 m²
Brick wall	167.7 m²
Bricks (167.7 m² x 102.3)	17 156
With 10% waste	18 872 bricks for the walls
Foundation walls (up to the slab, flat stand)	4 609 bricks

Those bricks also need about 51 bags of cement and 1.84 loads (6 m³) of building sand for the wall mortar (1:5), 28 rolls of brickforce, plus 13 bags of cement and 5 rolls of brickforce for the foundation walls.

What changes the number

Change	Effect on the example house
Medium slope instead of flat	Foundation walls 7 242 bricks instead of 4 609
Steep slope	Foundation walls 9 436 bricks (and an engineer must design the foundation)
Inside walls 110 mm (one skin) instead of 220 mm	About 3 800 fewer wall bricks
Maxi bricks (290 x 140 x 90)	12 298 for the walls: fewer, bigger bricks
Cement blocks (390 x 140 x 190, one skin)	4 612 blocks for the walls
Face bricks (222 x 106 x 73)	19 160 for the walls

Gable ends, a double garage, a fire wall, a braai or a chimney add more bricks. On a slope the foundation is the part that changes most, which is why we show it for the low and the high end of your slope.

Why not just use a rule of thumb?

"So many bricks per m² of floor" is quick, but two houses of the same size can have very different wall lengths: an L-shaped house or one with many small rooms has more wall, and more corners, than a simple rectangle. Ordering 2 000 bricks too few stops your builder; 2 000 too many is money lying in the yard. See how to compare house plans and the full materials list for a house.

Want the exact count for your house? Upload your plan: we measure your walls from the drawing.

Count my bricks

These are material quantities, not a quote or a building plan. Your builder and, where needed, your engineer must confirm them for your stand and soil.