Brick is expensive, right? You might be surprised.

Did you know that the Brick Industry Association (BIA) has calculators to help you determine the cost of brick construction compared to other facade materials? And they aren’t just hyper-generalized, click-bate, data-scraping calculators either. They are specific to your region and openly compare the cost of brick to competitors. Calculators are available for residential cladding, including one that compares square foot costs and one that puts those costs into the context of your mortgage.

BIA’s non-residential calculator goes so far as to apply costs for brick and its competitors on many different types and sizes of commercial and institutional structures, including apartment buildings, college dorms, hospitals and schools! Here are some sample results produced by entering the zip code for Sioux Falls, South Dakota and choosing a 150,000 square feet high school building:

As you can see, a high school in Sioux Falls is estimated to be less expensive when built with brick than one built with any other compared material except for EIFS (Exterior Insulation Finish System) on metal studs. That’s true with both brick systems in the comparison. It beats manufactured stone with metal studs. It beats precast concrete significantly. And, it beats the pants off of metal panel curtain wall and glass curtain wall!

That’s just one of the untold number of comparisons one could run with BIA’s calculators using any zip code in the U.S. and crossing it with different building types. Be careful, it’s addictive! Once you emerge from hours of fun with cost comparisons and you arrive at the inevitable conclusion that brick is the best value for your next project, go ahead and use the Square Foot Pricing Calculator to determine the number of brick your project will likely require, the number of brick of a given type that will be needed for each square foot of the facade, and the total estimated cost of the brick!

Brick’s value is often talked about in terms of the long view — its longevity and durability, energy efficiency, etc. — as if a brick building would have to stand for 100 years or more to “pay off” the extra expense at the time of construction compared to other facade materials. BIA’s calculators will change your perceptions. Most brick buildings could easily stand for over a century and still be in good repair, that’s true. But brick’s full value actually begins with the construction of the first wall!