How much waste should I allow for bricks?
Last reviewed 1 July 2026
Short answer
5% for a straightforward run of walling, and 10% where there are piers, returns, openings or decorative detailing. Bricks are sold in packs of 400 or 500, so in practice you round up to the next whole pack — which often provides more margin than any percentage would.
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Where brick waste comes from
- Cuts. Every return, pier, reveal and bond correction produces a cut brick, and only some cuts produce a usable other half.
- Breakage. Bricks arrive with chipped arrises and broken corners. Facing bricks with a damaged face cannot go on the visible side.
- Colour rejection. Facing brick packs contain a natural range. Some units will be too far off the average to use in a prominent position.
- Handling. Bricks are dropped, packs are split, and the bottom course of a pack takes the weight of everything above it.
Suggested allowances
| Work | Allowance |
|---|---|
| Straight run of walling, no openings | 5% |
| Wall with piers or returns | 7–10% |
| Wall with several openings | 10% |
| Decorative bond, soldier courses, plinths | 10–15% |
| Curved or radiused walling | 15% |
| Reclaimed bricks | 20% — quality varies enormously |
| Blockwork | 5% — larger units, fewer cuts |
Pack sizes usually decide it
UK facing bricks come in packs of 400 or 500. If your calculation gives 747 bricks, you are buying two packs — 1,000 — regardless of what percentage you applied.
That is not waste in the usual sense. It is a genuine surplus, and it is worth keeping rather than returning: matching bricks in five years' time for a repair is close to impossible.
Where the number lands just over a pack boundary, it is worth checking whether a small dimensional change to the wall brings it back under. Dropping one course off an 8 m wall saves nearly 60 bricks.
Note: Order it all in one delivery
Blend as you lay
Do not work a pack at a time. Take bricks from three or four packs simultaneously and mix them as you go.
Natural colour variation in facing brick is a feature when it is distributed across the wall and a defect when it appears as horizontal bands. The banding is caused by laying pack by pack, not by the bricks themselves.
Safety notice: Material planning only