Brick and block coursing calculator

How many courses of brick or block make up a height, and the nearest heights that work to full courses, for setting out openings, sills and floor levels.

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Worked example

The height to the underside of a lintel over a door, 2,100 mm above the course the door sits on, in brickwork:

28 courses exactly

A brick course is 75 mm (the brick plus the joint)
13 full courses in a metre

How the sum works

A UK brick is 65 mm high and a block 215 mm. With the usual 10 mm bed joint, a brick course is 75 mm and a block course 225 mm, so three brick courses match one block course. The calculator divides the height by the course height, and if it doesn't come out whole, gives the full-course heights either side so you can adjust the opening, the sill or the floor level to suit. A lintel or sill sits on a bed joint, so allow one joint (10 mm) on top of the course height for its underside.

On site

Make a gauge rod marked at the course height and check it against the drawings before you start: window and door heights, sill levels, lintel bearings and the damp-proof course all want to land on a course. Older bricks can be a different height, so measure what you are matching.

Guides that go with it

How many bricks and blocks per square metre?A standard UK brick wall takes about 60 bricks per m2 (half-brick) or 120 (one-brick), and blocks about 10 per m2. The sum, waste and openings explained.How do I do a quantity take-off from drawings?How to take off quantities from drawings for a small job: scale check, set order, deductions, waste and pricing, with a worked garden room example.What should I put in a quote for building work?What a quote for building work should say: scope, exclusions, drawings, price and VAT, validity, payment stages, dates, provisional sums and variations.

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