Measuring your Wall

How to read a ruler in inches:

When you are trying to calculate your Faux Brick or Stone Pattern, you will probably run into ceiling heights and wall lengths that are not coming out in even numbers. If only this were a perfect world, Right? Knowing how to read your ruler, yardstick or measuring tape is critical in this process.

If you feel a bit rusty on how to measure your walls properly, don't feel too badly. This might be the first time you have dragged out a ruler since your teacher hit you with one, or was that just me? To the right is a photo of an english standard ruler. This is broken down into 1/16th measurements. You may find that measuring tapes will break down even further into 1/32nds for very precise measurements. For the purposes of creating your Faux Brick or Faux Stone Wall, 1/16th measurements will work fine. 2/32nds equals 1/16th. You will notice that 16/16ths is equal to one inch. Count the lines above if you don't believe me!

You will need to accurately measure your wall length and your wall height in order to use the calculator below. The calculator will accept decimals such as 80.5 or fractions such as 120 3/8 inches. Make sure you enter numbers in inches, not feet. Measure from the top of the ceiling to the baseboard. Don't count the baseboard because you should not be painting it! Measure the length of the wall, from corner to corner. It is probably rare that you would paint more than one wall with bricks, BUT, if you are, keep the same number of rows. The length of your brick or stone may be adjusted and you should not be able to tell slight differences from one wall to the next as long as the height of the brick or stone is the same, otherwise a lot of builders would be out of business! : )

Free Faux Brick and Faux Stone Calculator

What Our Faux Brick and or Faux Stone Calculator will tell you:

1. The standard size for a brick or a stone. This is extremely helpful when creating a faux brick look or faux stone look for a children's faery tale castle. There are actually many different sizes of brick or stone, but we have chosen the most popularly recreated sizes for use with our calculator.

2. Based on your wall measurements, it will calculate how many rows and columns you will need to paint to complete your wall.

3. Since more than likely you will not have a perfectly even number of bricks or stones that will fit across and down the wall, it will re-adjust the brick or stone size to fit exactly into the amount of space you have. Slight differences to actual size brick or stone will not be noticable to the naked eye and the remainder brick is distributed evenly among each row or column.

4. You will be able to add in the mortar or grout line measurements you need in between your bricks or stones to create your look.

5. It will tell you the adjusted brick or stone size that you need to measure to create a perfectly even number of rows of brick or stone.

6. It will also calculate in either inches or milimeters to give you the the dimensions you need.

To test the calculator below enter 1/4 inch in the first two boxes (for the grout/mortar) and 120 inches in the second two boxes. This would work for a 10' X 10' wall. You will get the following results:

Results
Number of rows: 48.1
Number of columns: 14.58

Notice with the correct size bricks that the we do not have an even number of bricks that will fit across and down the wall.

Adjusted measurements :
Number of rows: 48
Number of columns: 14

By eliminating the excess brick and recalculating the size of the brick slightly you can fit exactly 48 bricks down and 14 bricks across using the new dimensions below. Don't forget to stagger your rows!

Re-Calculated dimensions of brick/stone: resized to fit wall
Brick Width 8.33929 ( 8 5 / 16 ) inches
Brick Height 2.25521 ( 2 1 / 4 ) inches

Notice we gave you a slight brick length adjustement although the width did not change. This way you do not have to fudge the length of one brick...it fits perfectly on the wall with the new recalculated dimensions. Make sure you read our instructions on How to paint Faux Brick below!

Dimension Units:		Inches mms
Choose Material:		Brick Stone
Standard Brick/Stone Dimensions ( Height x Length )		x ( x )
Enter the Mortar Dimensions:		1/4" recommended-this becomes mortar/grout lines between bricks/stones
Width:
Height:
Enter the Wall Dimensions:
Length:
Height:

Results
Number of rows:
Number of columns:
Adjusted measurements :
Number of rows:
Number of columns:
Re-Calculated dimensions of brick/stone: resized to fit wall
Brick Width		( )
Brick Height		( )

If you feel this tool has been useful in helping to create your Faux Brick or Faux Stone Wall we ask that you consider making a small donation to Treasures of Africa Children's Home, an orphange in Moshi, Tanzania, Africa. The Children's Home is a project of HiddenwithChrist.com a 501( 3c) non-profit charitable organization. 100% of all proceeds will go to the orphange to pay for food, education and expenses to keep this Children's Home in operation. I am proud to say that my sister, Rita Langeland started this project as a dream several years ago and through hard work, dedication, the love of the Lord and through contributions from generous souls like you, has made the dream a reality. More than 20 children have been saved from a harsh life on the streets and the life of poverty and sickness that most orphans suffer. There are so many amazing stories to read about of the progress of each child at the children's home. Won't you please visit?.

Please Help! Even one single Dollar can help save a child!

Click Here to Read and Print instructions on "How to Paint Faux Brick".

We have hundreds of articles for artistic Do-It-Yourselfers. So please check our Arts and Crafts Articles and Tips section for your next project!
We also have Decorating tips that are chock full of great ideas for your next re-decoration project.

Click Here to Save This Page to Your Favorites List