A cube of face brick runs $350 to $900 per thousand, the labor to lay it adds $300 to $800 per thousand more, and a finished wall lands somewhere between $10 and $45 per square foot once scaffold, ties, and mortar are in the bill. A homeowner-scale garden wall can come in under that; a full veneer job on a house runs higher. Here's the piece-by-piece math so you can sanity-check any quote.
Brick is priced per thousand, but walls are measured in square feet, so the conversion is what matters. A modular brick bedded with a ⅜ inch joint covers enough layout for 6.86 bricks per square foot, which means the per-1,000 price translates like this:
| Price per 1,000 | Material cost per sq ft | Where you land |
|---|---|---|
| $350 | $2.40 | Economy modular, picked up at the yard |
| $500 | $3.43 | Mid-range face brick, the common case |
| $900 | $6.17 | Architectural and specialty colors |
| Glazed / oversized | up to ~$15 | Wider and specialty shapes command a premium |
Current cost guides put standard face brick materials at roughly $2.50 to $6.25 per square foot, which is the same math approached from the other direction. Anything quoted outside that band deserves a question: below it, you're probably looking at concrete brick or a seconds grade; above it, you're paying for color or texture, not structure.
Masons price by the thousand too. Expect $300 to $800 per 1,000 bricks laid on straightforward work, before the extras. On a per-square-foot basis that's another $2 to $5.50 of labor against 6.86 bricks per square foot, stacked on top of materials.
Finished-wall quotes bracket the whole job. Basic brick walls run $10 to $45 per square foot installed depending on region and complexity, and Homewyse's mid-2026 numbers for a full basic veneer installation sit at roughly $38 to $51 per square foot — that higher figure is a real wall on a real house: scaffold, flashing, ties, corners, and joint tooling, not just brick stacked on a slab. If you want the look for less, thin brick veneer installs at $8 to $18 per square foot because there's no structural masonry behind it.
What moves a labor quote: wall height (scaffold instead of a step ladder), openings (every window adds a lintel and cut bricks), arches and radiused work, and site access. A four-foot garden wall you can reach over is the cheap end of the curve. A two-story gable with scaffolding is not.
The count comes from one formula: bricks per square foot = 144 ÷ (bedded width × bedded height), using the face dimensions plus the mortar joint. For modular brick bedded at 8 × 2⅝ inches, that's 144 ÷ 21 = 6.86. Multiply by wall area, add 10 percent for cuts and blending, and figure roughly 37 bricks per 80 lb bag of premix mortar. Here's how that lands on common projects:
| Wall | Bricks (incl. 10% waste) | 80 lb mortar bags | Brick cost @ $500/1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fence panel, 10 × 10 ft (100 sq ft) | 755 | 19 | $378 |
| Garden wall, 20 × 8 ft (160 sq ft) | 1,207 | 30 | $604 |
| Double that, 25 × 10 ft (250 sq ft) | 1,886 | 47 | $943 |
| Two-story accent, 50 × 10 ft (500 sq ft) | 3,772 | 93 | $1,886 |
Notice the material line is the small end of the bill. Even 500 square feet of brick is under $2,000 in masonry units and maybe $500 in mortar. The installed price of that same wall at $38-$51 per square foot is $19,000 to $25,500 — labor, scaffold, flashing, lintels, and everything the mason brings. That gap is why brick is priced by the square foot installed, not by the cube.
Somewhat, but not in the way the sticker suggests. King and Queen brick cost more per thousand, but they cover more wall per piece:
| Brick size | Bedded face (⅜ in joint) | Bricks per sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| Modular | 8 × 2⅝ in | 6.86 |
| Queen | 8 × 3⅛ in | 5.76 |
| King | 10 × 3⅛ in | 4.61 |
Run the totals and material cost usually lands within a few percent either way — fewer bricks, each one pricier. The real difference is joints. A King wall has a third fewer joints to fill and tool than a modular wall, and joint tooling is where masons spend their day. On a big job that shows up in the labor line. One caution: King and Queen don't lay to the same module as standard lintels and coursing, so confirm the whole wall system is designed around the brick you picked, not just the price.
The brick and the mason are the big numbers, but a veneer wall carries a supporting cast that adds real money on a house job:
Bricks, mortar bags, and cost from your wall dimensions, brick size, joint, and local price — waste factor built in.
Brick Calculator →Budget $350-$900 per thousand for brick, $300-$800 per thousand to lay it, and $10-$45 per square foot for the finished wall — plan around $38-$51 if it's full veneer on a house. Convert your wall to a brick count before you call for quotes: the brick calculator does the 6.86-per-square-foot math with the waste factor and mortar bags included. If the project is a patio or walkway surface rather than a wall, clay pavers price out differently — the paver calculator handles that count, and our paver patio cost guide covers the installed pricing. Comparing against block construction instead? The concrete block calculator runs that takeoff.
Finished brick walls run $10-$45 per square foot installed, and a full veneer job runs higher — Homewyse pegs basic brick veneer at roughly $38-$51 per square foot in mid-2026. Materials alone work out to $2.40-$6.17 per square foot at typical $350-$900 per-1,000 brick prices.
A modular brick bedded with a ⅜ inch joint lays at 144 ÷ 21 = 6.86 per square foot, so order 7 per square foot before waste. Queen size runs about 5.7 and King about 4.6 per square foot.
About 686 modular bricks before waste, so 755 with a 10 percent allowance, plus 19-20 bags of 80 lb mortar at roughly 37 bricks per bag. At $500 per 1,000 that is about $378 of brick.
5-10 percent is standard, covering cuts, breakage, and blending between cubes. Push to 10 percent on walls with lots of openings, and 15 percent is not unreasonable for curved garden walls where every piece tapers.
Usually a wash on materials — King brick costs more per 1,000 but you need only 4.6 per square foot instead of 6.9, so the totals come out close. The real saving is labor: fewer bricks to lay and fewer joints to tool.