Short answer: one cubic metre of brickwork with 10 mm mortar joints takes about 392 common red bricks (230×115×75 mm) or 500 modular bricks (190×90×90 mm). Add 5–10% for breakage before you place an order.
You will often hear "500 bricks per cubic metre" quoted for every brick. That number is only right for modular bricks. Most red bricks sold by local bhattas in North India are the larger 230 mm size, and using 500 for those means you order about 25% more bricks than the wall needs.
Bricks per cubic metre, by brick size
The calculation is simple: add the 10 mm mortar joint to each side of the brick, find the volume of that "brick + mortar" block, and divide one cubic metre by it.
| Brick | Size (mm) | Size with 10 mm joint | Bricks per m³ (with mortar) | Bricks per m³ (no mortar) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common red brick | 230×115×75 | 240×125×85 | 392 | 504 |
| Common red brick (smaller) | 230×110×70 | 240×120×80 | 434 | 565 |
| Modular brick (IS 1077) | 190×90×90 | 200×100×100 | 500 | 650 |
The "no mortar" column is for theory questions in exams. For buying bricks, always use the "with mortar" column.
Worked example (common red brick):
0.240 × 0.125 × 0.085 = 0.00255 m³ per brick with mortar
1 ÷ 0.00255 = 392 bricks
Add 5% wastage → 392 × 1.05 = 412 bricks to order per m³
Measure your brick before you calculate. Bhatta bricks vary a lot. Pick 10 bricks from the truck, lay them end to end, measure the total length and divide by 10. Do the same for width and height. Use those numbers in the calculator below.
Bricks per brass and per sq ft
Contractors in India usually quote brickwork in brass (100 cft) or by the sq ft of wall, not in cubic metres. Here are the same numbers in those units:
| Unit | Common red brick (230×115×75) | Modular brick (190×90×90) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 brass of brickwork (100 cft = 2.83 m³) | ~1,110 bricks | ~1,416 bricks |
| 1 sq ft of 4.5 inch wall | ~4.6 bricks | ~4.7 bricks |
| 1 sq ft of 9 inch wall | ~9.1 bricks | ~9.3 bricks |
| 1 m² of 4.5 inch wall | ~49 bricks | ~50 bricks |
| 1 m² of 9 inch wall | ~98 bricks | ~100 bricks |
None of these include wastage. For a full sq ft breakdown, see how many bricks in 1 square foot.
Cement and sand for 1 m³ of brickwork
Mortar fills roughly 22–23% of a brick wall's volume. Dry mortar is taken as wet volume × 1.33, and we add 15% for frog filling and spillage. That works out to about 0.34 m³ of dry mortar per m³ of brickwork.
| Mortar mix | Where it is used | Cement (50 kg bags) | Sand |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:4 | Load-bearing walls, parapets, walls below plinth | ~2.0 bags | ~9.6 cft |
| 1:6 | Partition walls and most walls in RCC-frame houses | ~1.4 bags | ~10.3 cft |
These numbers are for common red bricks. Modular bricks need slightly more mortar per m³ (about 1.45 bags at 1:6) because there are more joints.
Mistakes that make brick orders go wrong
- Using 500 for red bricks. That is the modular brick number. For 230 mm bricks it overestimates by about 100 bricks per m³.
- Not deducting openings. Subtract doors and windows before calculating. One 7×3 ft door in a 9 inch wall saves about 190 bricks.
- Mixing up sq ft and m². 1 m² = 10.76 sq ft. Using a per-m² figure on a sq ft area makes the order about 10 times too big.
- Counting the bricks and not checking quality. A load with many under-burnt (pale, soft) or over-burnt (black, twisted) bricks will have more than 5% wastage. Do the drop test on a few bricks from every truck. A good brick does not break when dropped flat from about 1 m onto hard ground.
