How to Estimate Ingredients for 3" Brick Masonry Wall?

Masonry wall is the most common item in building construction. We use bricks for making masonry wall. The common size of brick is 9½"x4½"x2¾" inch.

Most commonly used wall thickness in building construction are 3", 5" and 10". We generally use cement-mortar for jointing bricks with one another. The ratio of cement-mortar, we use, for 3" and 5" thick wall is 1:4 and for 10" thick brick wall is 1:6.

The ingredients or materials needed for making brick masonry wall are cement, sand and bricks. So, we have to estimate those materials.

To estimate materials for brick masonry wall we need to know the thickness of mortar joint. We put half inch thickness of mortar between bricks for jointing. So our brick size with mortar thickness will be 10"x5"x3".

Read More: Quality Checklist for Brick Work.

Now lets estimate the materials.

Materials for 100 square feet 3 inch thick brick masonry wall -

Area of one brick with mortar = 10"x5" =0.83'x0.42' = 0.35 square feet (as our wall is 3" thick, so we'll ignore the 3" side of bricks for estimating bricks).

Bricks needed for 100 sq.ft masonry wall are = 100/0.35 = 285.71 numbers,
say, 286 numbers.

If we take 5% wastage of bricks, then total bricks needed for 100 sq.ft 3" thick masonry wall are = 285.74 + 5% = 300 numbers.

Now lets calculate the mortar volume -

volume of 1 number of brick with mortar is = 10"x5"x3"= 0.83'x0.42'x0.25' = 0.09 cubic feet (cu.ft).

Without mortar volume of one number of brick is = 9½" x 4½" x 2¾"= 0.79' x 0.38' x 0.23'= 0.07 cu.ft.

For 100 square feet (sq.ft) brick wall brick needed 286 nos excluding wastage.
So, mortar volume for 100 sq.ft brick wall is = 286 x (0.09-0.07) = 5.72 cu.ft.

Dry volume of mortar is 5.72x1.54 = 8.81 cu.ft, 
Including 5% wastage dry volume of mortar will be 9.25 cu.ft.

As we use 1:4 cement-sand ratio for 3" brick wall, so cement will be -

cement = 9.25/5 = 1.85 cu.ft.
1 bag cement volume is = 1.25 cu.ft.
So, cement needed 1.85/1.25 = 1.48 bag,
say, 1½ bag.

Sand will be needed for 100 sq.ft 3" thick brick wall is =9.25/5 x 4= 7.40 cu.ft.
Say, 8 cu.ft.

Summary:

Materials needed for 100 square feet 3" thick brick wall are -

Brick - 300 numbers,
Cement - 1½ bag, and
Sand - 8 cu.ft.

Practical estimation:

The above estimation of 100 sq.ft 3" thick brick wall is correct. But practically I found that the required sand quantity is 10 cu.ft. So, it'll be better to calculate the required materials for 100 sq.ft 3" thick brick wall by following manner -

Cement - 1½ bag,
Sand - 10 cu.ft, and
Brick - 300 NOS.

How to estimate materials for different quantity of 3" thick brick wall?

Suppose you need to calculate the required materials for "Y" sq.ft 3" thick brick wall. You can do this by following way -

Cement - Y x 0.015,
Sand - Y x 0.10, and
Brick - Y x 3.