How to Measure for Brick Veneer: Wall Faces, Openings, and Net Area

Measuring brick veneer means measuring the face that will be covered, wall by wall, then subtracting the windows and doors. The result is a net area in square feet. The brick count follows from that net area and the coverage rate of the brick actually being used.

What do you measure for brick veneer?

Measure each wall face separately. Record the length and the height of each face, then record each opening in that face. A veneer face is the outside surface the brick will cover, from the starting course at the bottom to the top of the veneer at the eave or soffit. Measure the face itself, not the floor plan inside the house, because the veneer sits outside the framing and its lengths differ at corners.

Keep one line per wall and one line per opening. A ledger with a line per wall catches a missed wall, and a line per opening catches a missed deduction. The fixture ledger below shows the form.

How do you measure a wall with a gable end?

Split the gable face into a rectangle and a triangle. Measure the rectangle as length times height to the eave, then measure the triangle as one half times the base times the triangle height from the eave to the peak. A gable with a 30 ft base and a 6 ft triangle height adds 90 ft2 of triangle to the rectangle below it. Measure the triangle height from the eave line, not from the ground, or the rectangle height gets counted twice.

How do you avoid double counting a corner?

Use one corner rule for the whole job and write it on the ledger. Run the first wall to the outside corner, and run the adjoining wall only to the inside face of the first wall's veneer. That counts the corner column once. Measuring both walls to the outside corner counts the same column twice on every corner, and the error grows with the number of corners. This rule is measuring practice, not a Brick Industry Association requirement: the Association's wall-area method defines the net area, and the corner rule is how the measurer keeps that net area honest.

How do you deduct windows and doors?

Subtract the full width times height of each window and door from the gross area of its wall. The Brick Industry Association's wall-area method defines net wall area as gross area less the areas of openings, and that definition is the whole deduction rule. Measure the opening that will stay free of brick, and record it on the same wall line so a later check can see which openings were deducted.

Small vents and penetrations need a note, not a guess. Measure them where you can. Where a vent is too small to measure reliably, write it on the ledger so the ordering step can judge the allowance with the full list in front of it, instead of discovering an unmeasured hole after the order is placed.

How do you turn net area into a brick count?

Multiply the net area by the coverage rate for the named brick size and joint width. The Brick Industry Association's Technical Note 10 gives 675 modular bricks per 100 ft2 at a 3/8 inch joint, which is 6.75 bricks per ft2, and 655 standard non-modular bricks per 100 ft2 at the same joint, which is 6.55 bricks per ft2. The rate belongs to the named size and joint. Carrying the modular rate to a standard brick understates the count, and the fixture below shows the size of that error.

For the fixture wall, the arithmetic runs: gross 40 times 10 equals 400 ft2; openings 21 plus 15 plus 15 equal 51 ft2; net 400 less 51 equals 349 ft2; net bricks 349 times 6.75 equals 2355.75, so 2356 bricks net, rounding the fractional brick up. Two independent checks confirm the rate. The face-module check divides 144 in2 per ft2 by the modular nominal face of 8 in times 2-2/3 in, which is 21.333 in2, giving 6.75 bricks per ft2. The metric check converts 349 ft2 to 32.42 m2, divides 6.75 by 0.09290304 to get 72.66 bricks per m2, and multiplies 32.42 times 72.66 to get 2355.75 again.

The same 349 ft2 at the standard rate of 6.55 gives 2285.95 bricks, about 70 fewer. That gap is the cost of recording the wrong brick size on the ledger. The net count is not an order quantity. The Technical Note 10 general rule adds at least 5 percent to net brick quantities for breakage and waste, which would put the fixture order at 2474 bricks, but waste, packs, and ordering belong to the ordering step, not to measurement. This page hands over the checked net count of 2356 bricks.

Measurement errors that throw the count off

• Using gross area instead of net area. Every undeducted opening inflates the count by its area times the rate.
• Measuring both walls to the outside corner. Each corner column is counted twice.
• Recording the wrong brick size or joint. The modular and standard rates differ by 20 bricks per 100 ft2.
• Missing the gable triangle, or measuring the triangle height from the ground and double counting the rectangle.
• Mixing feet and inches. Convert inches to feet by dividing by 12, or work in square inches and divide by 144 to reach square feet.
• Measuring the inside floor plan instead of the veneer face. Corner and thickness differences make the inside lengths wrong for the outside face.

Safety and professional scope

Measuring a veneer face plans quantities only. It does not design the veneer system, select ties, flashing, drainage, or support, and it does not approve a wall for construction. Those decisions rest with the project architect, engineer, and owner, as Technical Note 10 itself states. Measure from safe footing, and do not climb to reach a gable or eave measurement without proper access equipment.