How to Calculate the Need for Red Bricks ? 🧱

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Red bricks are a material in a building that is the main component in making a wall, so the calculation of the need for these red bricks in a construction development project should be done carefully and accurately, so as not to cause losses for the construction executor.

Because if there is an oversupply, it will be redundant and if the supply is less, then it must reorder which takes time.

There is actually an easy way to calculate the need for red bricks that will be used when you want to make a construction formed from the arrangement of red bricks, I happened to be building a simple fence at the front of my house, so I can give a calculation simulation like this:

Step 1, Measuring the Dimensions of Bricks

To my knowledge, the recommended size of red bricks according to the Indonesian National Standard (SNI) is 5 x 11 x 22 cm, meaning 5 cm thick, 11 cm wide and 22 cm long. But if we look at the original conditions in the field that the dimensions of these red bricks can be different, which depends on the manufacturer of the red brick maker itself, most of them in Indonesia the manufacturing process is still done manually by humans, so it is natural that the size of these red bricks on the market is not uniform.

Length of my brick = 19 cm

Width of my brick = 9.5 cm

Thickness of my brick = 4 cm

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Step 2, Determine the Size of the Spesi

Spesi is the concrete adhesive for the bricks when they are arranged to form a wall, again when referring to the recommended standard for the size of the spesi is 1.5 cm. This recommendation is not fully implemented in the field, because the habit of the workers to make the thickness of the spesi around 2 - 3 cm, why is that? Because it was one of the construction workers' strategies to speed up the process. So it can be concluded that the size of this spesi can be adjusted as desired, as long as it does not exceed reasonable limits.

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Step 3, Calculating the Number of Bricks

I have obtained all the variable data needed, so to facilitate the calculation I made a sketch to make it look clearer.

So we will calculate the need for bricks for an area per 1 square meter, and I take one part that will be a sample, which will later become a dividing variable to get the result. Here's how to calculate it:

• First add up each side (part of the brick + part of the spesi) that will be used to calculate the area of the sample section, we analogize Side A = 19 cm + 2 cm which we consider as the Length and Side B = 4 cm + 2 cm which we consider as the Width.

• The length of the sample part is 21 cm and the width of the sample part is 6 cm, then we convert the units into meters, so we can write it as Length = 0.21 m and Width = 0.06 m.

• Area of the sample section (1 brick + spesi) = 0.21 m x 0.06 m = 0.0126 m2

• Number of bricks required per 1 square meter = 1 m : 0.0126 m = 79.365 pieces, rounded up to 80 pieces.

Based on the results of the calculation, it turns out that the need for bricks in 1 square meter of the area of a wall is 80 pieces, so to calculate the total need for bricks for the entire building is to multiply it by the total area of the wall, for example the total area of the wall is 150 square meters, then the formula for the total need for all bricks is 150 x 80.

That's how to calculate the need for bricks in a construction project, the thing that must be considered is the size of the brick itself which will greatly affect, so it must be examined properly.

If there is anything that is unclear and wants to be asked, please reply in the comments section, I will be happy to explain further.

Thank you for reading and hopefully it will be useful.

Best regards,

@fajrularifst