Brick / block wall (new build or extension wall): calculator for UK builders
Answer the measurements this calculation needs and JobBosh works out the materials with wastage and pack rounding, the labour hours by role, the plant, the waste and the site needs - then prices them from your own figures, a supplier's quotation or a dated price you record. Free, no account needed to start.
What it works out
- Material: Facing bricks; Concrete blocks 100 mm (440 x 215); Building sand (bulk bag); Cement (25 kg); Mortar plasticiser; Stainless wall ties + clips; ...
- Labour: Lay facing brickwork; Labourer: mixing, loading out, cleaning; Lay blockwork
- Plant: Cement mixer hire
- Waste: Masonry waste (broken bricks, mortar droppings, packaging)
The questions it asks
| Question | Unit / choices | Required? | Help |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall length | m | required | |
| Wall height | m | required | |
| Construction | one of: half brick facing, cavity brick block, block single 100, block single 140, one brick solid | optional - default cavity_brick_block (labelled assumed) | |
| Openings to deduct (doors, windows) | m2 | optional - default 0 (labelled assumed) | |
| Cavity insulation | one of: none, partial fill board, full fill batts | optional - default full_fill_batts (labelled assumed) | |
| Lintels over openings | nr | optional - default 0 (labelled assumed) | |
| External wall (weather, scaffold at height)? | yes / no | optional - default yes (labelled assumed) |
The norms behind it, with their sources
Coverage, productivity and wastage defaults you can edit; each carries where it comes from and is shown as assumed until your own benchmark replaces it.
| Norm | Value | Source | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facing bricks per m2, half-brick wall, 10 mm joints | 60 nr/m2 | standard metric brick 215 x 102.5 x 65 with 10 mm joint | assumed |
| Blocks per m2 (440 x 215) | 10 nr/m2 | standard block | assumed |
| Brick cutting / breakage | 5 % | trade practice | assumed |
| Mortar per 1000 bricks | 0.55 m3/1000 | trade practice (1:1:6 or 1:4) | assumed |
| Mortar per 100 blocks | 0.5 m3/100 | trade practice | assumed |
| Building sand per m3 of mortar | 1800 kg/m3 | trade practice | assumed |
| Cement 25 kg bags per m3 of 1:4 mortar | 11 bags/m3 | trade practice | assumed |
| Wall ties per m2 of cavity wall | 2.5 nr/m2 | typical 900 x 450 spacing | assumed |
| Lay facing brick per m2 (bricklayer + labourer share) | 1.1 hr/m2 | trade practice ~400 bricks/day/gang | assumed |
| Lay blockwork per m2 | 0.5 hr/m2 | trade practice | assumed |
| DPC length per metre of wall | 1 m/m | one course | assumed |
A worked example
Answers used: Wall length 4 m; Wall height 4 m; Construction cavity brick block; Openings to deduct (doors, windows) 0 m2; Cavity insulation full fill batts; Lintels over openings 0 nr; External wall (weather, scaffold at height)? yes. These are the recipe's own quantities for those answers - the prices are yours, the supplier's or a quotation's, never a figure typed on a web page.
| Kind | Line | Quantity | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|---|
| material | Facing bricks | 1008 nr 3 x pack - packs of ~400 | 16 m2 x 60 per m2, +5 % |
| material | Concrete blocks 100 mm (440 x 215) | 168 nr 168 x nr - sold per block / per pack of ~70 | 16 m2 x 10 per m2, +5 % |
| material | Building sand (bulk bag) | 2629.44 kg 4 x bag - bulk bag ~800 kg | 1.33 m3 mortar x 1800 kg/m3 |
| material | Cement (25 kg) | 401.72 kg 17 x bag - 25 kg bags | 1.33 m3 x 11 bags/m3 |
| material | Mortar plasticiser | 2.66 L 1 x tin - 5 L | 1.33 m3 x 2 L/m3 |
| material | Stainless wall ties + clips | 40 nr 1 x pack - box of 250 | 16 m2 x 2.5 per m2 |
| material | Cavity insulation batts (full fill) | 16.8 m2 5 x pack - packs of ~4 m2 | 16 m2 of cavity |
| material | Damp-proof course (roll) | 8 m 1 x roll - 30 m rolls | 4 m x 2 leaves |
| labour | Lay facing brickwork | 17.6 hr | 16 m2 x 1.1 h/m2 |
| labour | Labourer: mixing, loading out, cleaning | 10.56 hr | 60 % of bricklayer hours |
| labour | Lay blockwork | 8 hr | 16 m2 x 0.5 h/m2 |
| plant | Cement mixer hire | 5 hire-day | one hire-day per gang day |
| waste | Masonry waste (broken bricks, mortar droppings, packaging) | 0.32 m3 | 16 m2 x 0.02 m3/m2 |
Labour on this example: about 36.16 hours across the roles; at your rates it becomes money.
Site questions this work raises: Site access and neighbours, Parking and traffic, Utilities and welfare, Waste, Access equipment and temporary works.
Specialists or hire it may need, drafted as enquiries from the job's facts: Scaffolding, Materials (merchant) delivery.
Walls above 1.5 m: scaffold or tower, priced by quotation.
Then what
Price the lines from your crew rates and your material prices (each with its source and date), answer the site questions (parking, skip, welfare, power, water, protection), let JobBosh draft the supplier enquiries you approve, and issue a branded quotation your customer accepts on a secure link. Guest work is kept for 14 days; a free account keeps it for good.
Start a brick / block wall (new build or extension wall) job now