Bricks are small, rectangular masonry units used to build walls, laid in courses and bonded with mortar. They have been a fundamental building material for thousands of years because they are durable, fire-resistant, locally produced and easy to handle.
The main types in Indian construction are traditional first-class red clay bricks (moulded, dried and kiln-fired) and the more uniform, often cheaper and more eco-friendly fly-ash and cement bricks. A standard modular brick is about 190 × 90 × 90 mm, laid with a 10 mm mortar joint, though sizes vary by region and manufacturer.
Walls are described by thickness: a half-brick (4.5″) wall for partitions, a full-brick (9″) wall for load-bearing and external use. As a rule of thumb, about 500 standard bricks fill one cubic metre of brickwork including mortar. Estimating brickwork means the wall volume, the brick count (with a wastage allowance for breakage and cutting), and the cement and sand for the mortar.