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The Mortar Calculator counts bags of mortar for a brick or block job from the number of units or the wall area. QUIKRETE's Mortar Mix data sheet — a Type N mortar meeting ASTM C270 and C1714 — gives the yield of an 80 lb bag as up to 37 standard bricks or 13 standard 8 × 8 × 16 in concrete blocks, so the calculator divides your bricks by 37 or your blocks by 13 and adds 15–25% waste, the allowance in Brick Industry Association Technical Note 10. Other brick sizes are scaled by the mortar each brick takes in TN 10, Table 4: a non-modular standard brick uses 1.78 times the mortar of a modular one. For brick it also gives the site-mixed alternative — TN 10's theoretical mortar volume, about the same volume of loose damp sand, and masonry cement at the 1 : 3 to 1 : 2¼ proportions ASTM C270 allows. 1,000 modular bricks take 32 bags of 80 lb mortar mix with 15% waste, or 9.4 cu ft of site-mixed mortar from 4–5 bags of masonry cement; 100 blocks take 9 bags.
QUIKRETE Mortar Mix (Type N, ASTM C270 and C1714) lists the yield of an 80 lb bag as up to 37 standard bricks or 13 standard 8 × 8 × 16 in blocks. Divide the bricks by 37 or the blocks by 13 and add 15–25% for waste, the allowance in Brick Industry Association Technical Note 10. Other brick sizes are scaled by the mortar each brick takes in TN 10, Table 4.
| Brick | Mortar per 1,000 bricks | 80 lb bags per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Modular | 8.1 cu ft | 27.0 |
| Engineer modular | 8.5 cu ft | 28.3 |
| Closure modular | 9.1 cu ft | 30.2 |
| Roman | 10.7 cu ft | 35.4 |
| Norman | 11.3 cu ft | 37.6 |
| Engineer Norman | 11.7 cu ft | 38.9 |
| Utility | 12.3 cu ft | 40.9 |
| Queen | 12.2 cu ft | 40.4 |
| King | 14.3 cu ft | 47.4 |
| Standard (non-modular) | 14.5 cu ft | 48.1 |
QUIKRETE's Mortar Mix data sheet says an 80 lb bag lays up to 37 standard bricks or 13 standard 8 × 8 × 16 in blocks. Divide your bricks by 37 or blocks by 13 and add 15% for waste: 1,000 modular bricks take 32 bags of 80 lb, 100 blocks take 9.
Up to 13 standard 8 × 8 × 16 in concrete blocks per 80 lb bag of QUIKRETE Mortar Mix. A wall of 8 × 16 in block has 1.125 blocks per square foot, so 100 sq ft is 112.5 blocks — about 9 bags, 10 with waste.
ASTM C270 sets sand at 2¼ to 3 times the volume of the cementitious materials. With masonry cement that is one bag (about 1 cu ft) to 2¼–3 cu ft of damp sand; BIA TN 10 notes that 1 cu ft of loose, damp sand makes about 1 cu ft of mortar.
Type N (750 psi minimum in ASTM C270) is the general-purpose mortar for above-grade veneer and non-load-bearing walls; QUIKRETE Mortar Mix is Type N. Type S (1,800 psi) is used below grade, for retaining walls and where higher strength or wind and seismic loads call for it.
About 0.055 cu ft for modular brick with 3/8 in joints — 5.5 cu ft per 100 sq ft in BIA TN 10, Table 4 — rising to 0.069 with 1/2 in joints. Add 15–25% for waste.
Counting the blocks first? The concrete block calculator gives 1.125 blocks per square foot and the course layout.
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