How To Calculate Materials For 3” Brickwork

This post will show you how to calculate materials for 3” brickwork.

Most of the brick walls in residential buildings are 5” and 10” thick.

Yet we often need to use 3-inches thick brickwork as partition walls and some other finishing items.

So it’s essential to learn the technique to calculate materials for 3”-thick brick walls.

After discussing the technique, I’ll show you a quick tip to calculate the required materials.

So, let’s first see…

How To Calculate The Quantity Of Brickwork In A 3-Inches Thick Wall?

Let’s say, you have a wall like this:

Example of a brick wall

This is an example of a 3 inches thick brick wall.

To calculate the brickwork quantity:

First, Calculate The Area Of The Wall.

The formula is,

= Length × Height

= 12’-4” × 10’-0”

= 123.33 square feet.

Next, Calculate The Area Of The Opening.

The formula is,

= Length of the opening × Height of the opening

= 3’-4” × 7’-0”

= 23.33 square feet.

Finally, Get The Quantity Of Brickwork.

And, the formula is,

= Area of the wall — Area of the opening

= 123.33 — 23.33

= 100 square feet.

How To Calculate The Number Of Bricks For 3” Brickwork?

For that:

First, Calculate The Volume Of The Brickwork.

The area of the brickwork is 100 square feet (we calculated this above).

And, the thickness of the three-inches thick wall is actually 2¾″ (0.229′).

Actual wall thickness of a 3-inches thick brick wall

So, the volume of the brickwork will be,

= 100 × 0.229′

= 22.90 cubic feet.

Next, Calculate The Volume Of A Brick (including mortar).

We know, the standard size of a brick is 9½″×4½″×2¾″.

Normally, half-inch thick mortar layer is used for bricklaying. So, the size of brick including mortar will be 10″×5″×2¾″.

Brick size including mortar in a 3-inches wall.

So, the volume will be,

= 10″ × 5″ × 2¾″

= 137.50 cubic inches.

Or, 0.08 cubic feet.

Finally, Calculate The Required Number Of Bricks.

And, the formula is,

= Volume of the brickwork ÷ Volume of a brick (including mortar)

= 22.90 ÷ 0.08

= 286 nos.

How To Calculate The Quantity Of Mortar For 3” Brickwork?

For that:

First, Calculate The Volume Of A Brick.

Standard Size of a brick

That is,

= 9½″ × 4½″ × 2¾″

= 117.56 cubic inches.

Or, 0.068 cubic feet.

Next, calculate the total volume of the required number of bricks.

The formula is,

= Required number of bricks × Volume of a brick

= 286 × 0.068

= 19.44 cubic feet.

Now, Calculate The Required Volume Of Mortar.

The formula is,

= Volume of brickwork — Volume of the required number of bricks

= 22.90 — 19.44

= 3.46 cubic feet.

How To Calculate Required Cement Quantity For 3” Brickwork?

For that:

First, Calculate The Dry Volume Of Mortar.

The required mortar volume for our brickwork is 3.46 cubic feet (We calculated this above).

But that is the wet volume of mortar.

We need to calculate the dry volume of that.

And, the dry volume is,

= 3.46 × 1.33

= 4.60 cubic feet.

Read More: Dry Volume Of Cement Mortar: Everything You Need To Know

Next, Calculate The Volume Of Cement In The Mortar

The formula is,

= (Dry volume of mortar ÷ Sum of ratio) × Cement ratio

= (4.60 ÷ 5) × 1

= 0.92 cubic feet.

[Note: Most of the time, 1:4 cement-sand ratio is used to prepare mortar for brickwork]

Now, Convert Cement Volume Into Bags.

The formula is,

= Volume of the required cement ÷ Volume of one bag cement.

= 0.92 ÷ 1.25 (1 bag cement = 1.25 cubic feet)

= 0.74 bag.

How To Calculate Required Sand Quantity For 3” Brickwork?

The formula for calculating sand quantity is,

= (Dry volume of mortar ÷ Sum of ratio) × Sand ratio

= (4.60 ÷ 5) × 4

= 3.68 cubic feet.

Summary:

So, the required materials for 100 square feet 3” thick brickwork are:

  • Bricks = 286 nos
  • Cement = 0.74 bags
  • Sand = 3.68 cubic feet

Adding 5% wastage:

  • Bricks = 300 nos
  • Cement = 1 bag
  • Sand = 4 cubic feet (Practically, for 1 bag of cement, the required sand is 5 cubic feet.)

[Note: Round figure is taken]

A Quick Tip For Calculating Materials For 3” Brickwork

Now I’ll show you a quick tip. Applying this, you can calculate the required materials for any quantity of 3” brickwork.

As we know, for 100 square feet of brickwork, the required materials are:

  • Bricks = 300 nos
  • Cement = 1 bag
  • Sand = 5 cubic feet

So, for one square feet brickwork:

  • Bricks = 300 ÷ 100 = 3 Nos
  • Cement = 1 ÷ 100 = 0.01 Bag
  • Sand = 5 ÷ 100 = 0.05 Cubic feet

Now, let’s say, you need to calculate materials for 500 square feet of brickwork.

For that:

  • Bricks = 3 nos × 500 = 1500 nos
  • Cement = 0.01 bags × 500 = 5 bags
  • Sand = 0.05 cubic feet × 500 = 25 cubic feet

So, the quick formula is,

Required materials for 3” brickwork = Required material per square feet × Quantity of brickwork

That’s it.

You May Also Want To Learn:

How To Calculate Materials For 5” Brick Walls?

How To Calculate Materials For 10” Brick Walls?

2 thoughts on “How To Calculate Materials For 3” Brickwork”

  1. Jahan Uddin Ahmed

    very good, very easiest tricks to learn the calculation process

    1. Liton Biswas

      Thank you, Jahan.