Why masonry jobs are hard to price
- Unit counts. Brick, block and stone veneer each cover a different area per unit.
- Mortar and sand. They're easy to underestimate, and short loads cost you a trip.
- Height slows the work. Taller walls need scaffolding and more labor hours.
- Openings and details. Lintels, ties, flashing and weep holes all belong on the bid.
How Trades HQ helps masons
- Masonry calculator. Enter each wall's length and height, pick brick, 8" or 12" block, or stone veneer, and it creates material and labor lines for your estimate.
- Ready-made masonry items in your Price Book, like modular brick, 8" and 12" CMU, Type S mortar, sand and brick ties. Add your prices once and reuse them.
- Labor-rate guidance by state. See typical brick and block mason wages in your state, then set your own rate.
- Measure from blueprints. Measure walls right off a blueprint PDF.
- Proposals customers approve online, then one click to invoice.
- Live job profit as labor and materials come in.
A brick wall estimate, step by step
- Measure the wall face: length × height.
- Add waste for cuts and breakage.
- Multiply by the bricks per square foot for your brick and joint size.
- Add mortar, sand, ties and any lintels.
- Price labor by the square foot or by the hour, and add scaffolding for tall walls.
- Apply your overhead and profit.
Example (illustrative): a 30 ft long, 8 ft high wall of modular brick, the same wall as the screenshot below.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Wall face | 30 × 8 | 240 sq ft |
| Plus 7% waste | 240 × 1.07 | 256.8 sq ft |
| Bricks at 6.5 per sq ft | 256.8 × 6.5 = 1,669.2, round up | 1,670 bricks |
| Mortar at about 30 bricks per bag | 1,670 ÷ 30 = 55.7, round up | 56 bags |
Bricks per square foot depend on the brick size and joint width, so check your supplier's numbers.
Pricing tip: Price scaffolding and setup as their own lines, so a tall wall never gets the same price as a garden wall. And remember that markup and margin aren't the same number: a 20% margin needs a 25% markup. The Estimating Basics guide walks through the math, and the free markup and margin calculator does it for you.
