Question

How much mortar is needed for a 900 brick (assume std. 3 ¾” × 2 ½” × 8” brick) wall that is two (2) courses wide (each wall has 450 bricks with ½” between them), has ³/₈” mortar joints and (18% waste)?

Answer 1

Assuming the bricks to be arranged in 45*10 order which gives 450 bricks in one side.

therefore,

total length of the brick wall = 10 (8)+9 (0.375) = 83.375"

here 0.375 is the mortor joint thickness and 9 is the number of mortor joints.

total height of the brick wall = 45 (2.5)+44(0.375)= 129"

using the length and height of wall find the area of the 450 brick wall

area of 450 brick wall = 83.375 * 129 = 10755.375 sq. inches. = 74.69 sq. ft.

so from the total number of bricks we can find the amount of mortor used.

divide 900 by 30 in order to get  amout of 60 pound bags of mortor.

900/30=30 bags of mortor is required for construction of 900 brick wall.

But in addition we have considered 18% of wastage.

Therefore 0.18*30=5.4 bags more is added to 30 bags of mortor.

Total number of mortor bags =35.4 which we can round it to 36 bags (60 pounds bag)