Job takeoff
Build a masonry wall takeoff
Units, weeps and what holds the wall — anchors for brick veneer, bond beams and rebar for block — plus the movement joints each needs, with the unit choosing which order you get.
A takeoff is the trade word for the shopping list a job produces — every material, and how much of each, worked out by its own cited calculator.
- 2Measurements in
- 4Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
Calculators behind the other choices:
Calculators behind the other choices:
Compare one layer at these dimensions, with the rest of the build-up held as you have it:
Give the job once
Every figure on the right follows these, in the units you choose.
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the masonry wall quote check: each line is read against these same calculators — what it leaves out, what it adds, and what to ask.
Check the quoteEvery trade, from those dimensions
then change a dimension, and each line shows what moved.
| Trade | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing CalculatorWeeps in the course directly above the base flashing, near the foot of the wall: an outside masonry wall is flashed and weeped at its base whether it is a veneer draining its cavity or a block wall letting out the water that gets past its face. One run at the base only; the flashing over each opening needs its own. Drop the row for a block wall that stands indoors or backs a veneer.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing Calculator | 18 weep holes | |
Brick CalculatorBricks for the face area at the brick size and joint you set.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste factor: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 1992 bricks | |
Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing CalculatorAnchors back to the structure behind, at the spacing the code allows.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing Calculator | 126 anchors | |
Brick Movement Joint Spacing CalculatorVertical expansion joints for one straight run turning a corner at both ends, at the default 7.5 m (25 ft) spacing, with the sealant and backer rod at the full wall height. Tighten the spacing where the wall has several openings; the joints at inside corners, offsets and changes of height are extra.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Brick Movement Joint Spacing Calculator | 2 movement joints | |
Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing CalculatorWeeps in the course directly above the base flashing, near the foot of the wall: an outside masonry wall is flashed and weeped at its base whether it is a veneer draining its cavity or a block wall letting out the water that gets past its face. One run at the base only; the flashing over each opening needs its own. Drop the row for a block wall that stands indoors or backs a veneer.
Why this quantity? | 18 weep holes | |
Brick CalculatorBricks for the face area at the brick size and joint you set.
Why this quantity? | 1565 bricks | |
Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing CalculatorAnchors back to the structure behind, at the spacing the code allows.
Why this quantity? | 126 anchors | |
Brick Movement Joint Spacing CalculatorVertical expansion joints for one straight run turning a corner at both ends, at the default 7.5 m (25 ft) spacing, with the sealant and backer rod at the full wall height. Tighten the spacing where the wall has several openings; the joints at inside corners, offsets and changes of height are extra.
Why this quantity? | 2 movement joints |
Estimates, not a quote. Each row gives its base, the allowance on top, the adjusted figure and what to order; change an allowance on the row, or open its reasoning to see every figure it rests on. A trade's own page carries what it does not cover — open the one you are about to order against.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Brick68 h (44–139)
About 68 person-hours in all, between 44 and 139.
Trade by trade
- Mason1 mason + 1 labourer4 days
About 4 days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
3 rows carry no hours of their own
- Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing: counted with Brick
- Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing: counted with Brick
- Brick Movement Joint Spacing: counted with Brick
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Brick53 h (34–110)
About 53 person-hours in all, between 34 and 110.
Trade by trade
- Mason1 mason + 1 labourer3½ days
About 3½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
3 rows carry no hours of their own
- Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing: counted with Brick
- Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing: counted with Brick
- Brick Movement Joint Spacing: counted with Brick
Setups you have saved
The build-up, the dimensions and any allowance you changed — kept on this device, and reusable on any job. Your prices are not copied in: they stay in your price book, so a setup never holds a stale one.
How far does a budget go?
At your own prices, with this build-up unchanged.
About this job
A masonry wall is two quantities that behave nothing alike. The units are a straight function of the wall's face area and the size of the thing being laid, and they are easy; everything else — what holds the wall to the structure behind it, what lets the cavity drain, where the wall is allowed to move — is a function of code and exposure, and those are the lines that get left off.
The unit is the choice that decides the whole order, which is why it is the variant rather than a setting. A brick veneer is bricks, anchors and weeps: a skin held to something else, draining into a cavity. A block wall is blocks, grout, bond beams and rebar: the structure itself. Sharing a dimensions panel does not make them the same order. The one row they have in common is the weeps at the base, where an outside wall of either kind lets out the water that got into it, and even their movement joints work in opposite directions. The units pick the sizes: a 215 × 65 mm (about 8 1/2 × 2 1/2 in) brick and a 440 × 215 mm (about 17 3/8 × 8 1/2 in) block when metric is showing, US modular units when imperial is, each one choice away in the other.
Movement joints are the line worth reading twice. Concrete block shrinks, so the block variant has a control-joint row, spaced by one simplified rule of twice the wall height, capped at 7.6 m (25 ft). Clay brick grows, and its expansion joints are spaced by length alone, so the brick variant has a row of its own on the brick rule — no more than 7.5 m (25 ft) apart by default, set out in equal bays with the first joint half a bay from a corner — rather than borrowing a count from block.
How each line reads
- Base
- What the calculator gives for these dimensions, before anything is added.
- Allowance
- Cutting waste, a lap or spare stock — named, with where it comes from, and changeable on the row.
- Adjusted
- The base with its allowance on top.
- Order
- What to buy: the adjusted figure in whole boards, bags, rolls or lengths.
The order this happens in
Quantities do not tell you the sequence, and on this job the sequence is where the money goes wrong.
- Set out the first course dry and check the bond works to the openings before anything is bedded.
- Build the corners first and run a line between them; the line is what keeps the middle honest.
- Bed the ties or anchors as the courses rise, never pushed in afterwards.
- Keep the cavity clear as you go — mortar droppings on a tray are what block weeps.
- Form the movement joints as part of the wall, not cut in after it.
- Point up while the mortar is still green, and protect the top of unfinished work overnight.
What this takeoff does not cover
- The mortar as a line of its own. On brick, the brick row's breakdown shows the premixed bags its joint geometry needs, but only the bricks go into a project. On block, the block row's breakdown gives the face-shell joint volume, but it is not an order: NCMA TEK 4-2A's site-mixed rules come to about five to eight times it once droppings and mortar lost into the cores are counted, and mortar is not a line in this project.
- The movement joints a real brick layout places first — at inside corners, offsets, openings and changes of height or support. The brick movement-joint row counts one straight run at an even spacing, and a joint placed at a corner is counted once for the building, not once for each wall.
- Grout for the bond-beam courses, and any bond-beam course past the two this takeoff sets. Bond beams are filled solid, and the block row's grout covers the stretcher courses only; a wall with more of them — mid-height, over openings — takes more U-blocks, more bar and fewer stretchers than these rows show.
- The foundation. A masonry wall stands on something, and what that something is — a strip footing, a slab thickening, an existing structure — is a separate takeoff with its own quantities.
- Lintels, cills, copings and the damp-proof course. Each is a component chosen for its opening or its exposure, not a function of the wall's face area.
- Whether the wall is adequate. Nothing here checks slenderness, lateral restraint, wind loading or the reinforcement a retaining or freestanding wall needs; the code pages cover those and a structural wall is an engineer's decision.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the masonry wall quote check. Every line of it is read against these same calculators and your measurements. Quantities only, never prices.
What it leaves out
Every line this takeoff has that nothing on the quote reads as.
What it adds
Labour, removal, hire, fees — each named for what it is.
What to ask
One list of questions, ready to copy. Never a verdict.
More takeoffs
Other job takeoffs
Concrete slab
3 tradesConcrete, reinforcement and formwork for a ground slab from one set of dimensions.
Run this takeoffTimber deck
4 tradesBoards, footings, fixings and finish for a rectangular deck.
Run this takeoffSegmental retaining wall
4 tradesBlocks, levelling pad, drainage stone and reinforcement layers for a block retaining wall.
Run this takeoff
Frequently asked questions
- What does the masonry wall takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Wall length 10 m · Wall height 2.4 m, it orders: Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing, 18 weep holes; Brick, 1,565 bricks; Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing, 126 anchors; Brick Movement Joint Spacing, 2 movement joints. Opened at Wall length 33 ft · Wall height 8 ft: Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing, 18 weep holes; Brick, 1,992 bricks; Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing, 126 anchors; Brick Movement Joint Spacing, 2 movement joints. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the masonry wall takeoff run?
- 4 calculators, one to a line: Cavity Wall Weep Hole Spacing Calculator, Brick Calculator, Brick Veneer Anchor Spacing Calculator, Brick Movement Joint Spacing Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.
- What does the masonry wall takeoff leave out?
- 6 things, each named on this page: The mortar as a line of its own; The movement joints a real brick layout places first; Grout for the bond-beam courses, and any bond-beam course past the two this takeoff sets; The foundation; Lintels, cills, copings and the damp-proof course; Whether the wall is adequate.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The masonry wall quote check reads a quote's lines against these same calculators and your measurements, and reports what it leaves out, what it adds and what to ask. It reads quantities, never prices.