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Brick Veneer Cost in Ontario (2026): $30 a Square Foot and Up, What Moves It, the Ledge and Lintels, a Front Elevation and a Whole House Priced
Exterior Finishes
Brick Veneer Starts at About $30 a Square Foot Installed, and the Brick You Pick and the Wall It Goes On Decide the Rest
Brick is the one exterior that nobody has to repaint, re-side or apologize for at resale, and it is priced like it. Supplied and installed in Central Ontario, brick veneer starts at about $30 a square foot of wall and runs to $45 before HST, with most houses landing near $36. That is three to four times the price of mid-grade vinyl and about double fibre cement. The number moves with two things: the brick itself, which can be $1 or $2.50 apiece, and the wall it is going on, which either has a ledge to carry it or does not. Everything else is detail, and the details are on this page.
The numbers
$30starting rate, builder-grade brick
$36mid grade, the usual house
$21,600a 600 sq ft front elevation at mid grade
$104,073a 2,400 sq ft house in brick, with eaves and HST
| Grade | Installed, per sq ft | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Builder | $30 | A standard clay brick in a stock colour, running bond, plain soldier course over the windows, precast sills, a plain two-storey wall with ladder access. The number every subdivision front is priced at. |
| Mid | $36 | A better brick with some colour range or a textured face, a couple of detail courses, rowlock sills, a header band at the floor line, corners and returns at the windows done properly. |
| Premium | $45 | Clay brick in a special size, colour or blend, arches, corbels, stack-bond panels, brick returns into deep window reveals, or any wall that needs staging and a mason who takes his time. |
The rate covers the brick, mortar, ties, weep vents, through-wall flashing, loose steel lintels over standard openings, the 1 in. air space and the mason, on a wall that already has a ledge to sit on. The 5% brick waste is in it. The exterior cladding cost calculator prices brick by the wall at these rates and adds the ledge, tearoff and scaffolding lines when you need them.
What moves the number
The brick. A standard modular clay brick lays about seven to the square foot. At $1 a brick that is $7 of brick in the wall; at $2.50 a brick it is $17.50. Nothing else on the job changes and the rate has moved $10. “Brick” on a quote means nothing until the maker and the product are named, so ask for it by name, the way you would ask for the shingle.
The wall. A plain rectangle with windows in a row is the $30 wall. Add a bay, a bump-out at the garage, a gable with a vent in it and a brick arch over the front door, and the same brick costs $40 laid, because a mason is paid by the day and the day is spent cutting. Figure a house with dormers, bays and three materials at 15 to 25% more per square foot than a plain box at the same area.
The height. Up to two storeys a crew works off ladders and planks. Above about 20 ft of wall the schedule adds $1.50 a square foot for scaffolding or a lift on the wall above that line, and $3 where the lot does not let a lift near the house.
The season. Mortar does not cure below 5 C. Brick, stone and stucco carry a 10% winter premium for heated hoarding, and in a Simcoe January most masons would rather not start at all. Vinyl and fibre cement go on at normal rates all winter.
The support. A new house gets its brick ledge poured into the foundation and it costs the brick nothing extra. An existing house with siding on it has no ledge, and a steel shelf angle bolted to the foundation is $45 a linear foot before a single brick is laid. Brick support and ledges goes through what holds the brick up, because 600 sq ft of brick is about twelve tons and it has to sit on something.
What is not in the rate
- Tearoff. Vinyl or aluminum siding off the wall is $2 a square foot, wood siding $2.50, old brick $9, plus a $550 bin. It is priced by what is coming off, never as a lump.
- The ledge on an existing house, $45 a linear foot, bolted to sound concrete. If the foundation is block or rubble the engineer has an opinion first.
- Sheathing repair at $6.50 a square foot where the old siding was hiding rot, and $400 to $900 per window if the framing around it is gone. You find this on tearoff day, which is why the contract carries unit rates for it.
- Scaffolding above 20 ft, as above.
- Decorative stone pieces: cast stone sills, keystones, address blocks and the like are listed per piece on a good quote. Plain precast or rowlock sills are in the rate.
- Soffit, fascia and eavestroughs, priced per linear foot on their own hub, and usually off and back on when 4 in. of brick lands under them.
A front elevation and a whole house, priced
A 600 sq ft front elevation on an existing two-storey, vinyl coming off, mid-grade brick. Brick 600 at $36 is $21,600. Shelf angle along the 40 ft front at $45 is $1,800. Vinyl tearoff 600 at $2 is $1,200. Bin $550. Total $25,150 before HST, $28,419.50 with. At builder grade the brick line drops to $18,000 and the total to $21,550 before HST; at premium the brick is $27,000 and the total $30,550. The ledge, the tearoff and the bin did not care which brick you picked.
A 2,400 sq ft net-wall new house, all brick, mid grade, on a ledge poured with the foundation. Brick 2,400 at $36 is $86,400. Aluminum soffit and fascia, 150 lf at $25, is $3,750. Aluminum 5 in. eavestrough, 150 lf at $13, is $1,950. Subtotal $92,100. HST $11,973. $104,073 all in. The same house in mid-grade fibre cement with stone on the front and an engineered wood accent is $55,600 before HST on the three-materials comparison, and in all vinyl it is $25,950. Brick is the house you pay for once.
The common compromise: brick on the 600 sq ft front, fibre cement on the other 1,800. Brick $21,600 plus fibre cement 1,800 at $18, $32,400, is $54,000 of cladding, with a brick face on the street. That is what most subdivision builders do, and it is not a bad answer.
Brick on an ICF house
Most of the houses I build are ICF, and the brick ones get a brick ledge formed into the top of the foundation wall, so the brick sits on concrete and ties into the webs in the foam. No shelf angle, no $45 a foot. The eight finishes for ICF walls article covers brick against the other seven with costs, and the ledge forms and tie details are the business of ICFPro.ca. The short version: brick on ICF is the same $30 to $45 a square foot, the ledge is a foundation line item, and the wall behind the brick is insulated and airtight before the mason shows up.
Where homeowners go wrong
- Comparing two quotes with two different bricks. A $30 quote with a stock brick and a $38 quote with the brick you actually liked at the showroom are not competing. Get both on the same brick, by name, then compare.
- Forgetting the ledge. “Brick the front” on an existing house is brick plus a shelf angle plus a bigger overhang at the eave. If the quote has one line, it is missing two.
- Letting someone caulk the weep holes. They are not a defect. What the holes are for, and why the flashing behind them matters more than the brick.
- Measuring the floor instead of the wall. A 2,000 sq ft house has 2,200 to 2,600 sq ft of net wall. Brick priced on the floor area is 20% short before the first course goes down.
- Paying for brick in a lump. Brick goes on by the course and the invoice should follow the wall. A 10% holdback until the weeps, flashing and lintels have been looked at is normal; the Construction Act expects it.
Questions people ask
How much does brick veneer cost per square foot in Ontario?
About $30 a square foot supplied and installed at builder grade, $36 at mid grade, $45 for premium brick and detail work, before HST and before tearoff, a ledge on an existing house, or scaffolding above two storeys.
How much does it cost to brick the front of a house?
A 600 sq ft front elevation runs about $21,600 in mid-grade brick, plus $1,800 for a shelf angle on an existing house, $1,200 to strip the vinyl and $550 for a bin: $25,150 before HST. On a new house with the ledge in the foundation, the $21,600 is the whole number.
Is brick cheaper than stone?
Brick at $36 is cheaper than natural thin stone at $50 or full-bed stone at $65, and a little more than manufactured stone at $32. Stone veneer costs has every grade of stone on the same basis.
Does brick need maintenance?
Almost none. Some repointing at sills and below downspouts after twenty or thirty years, and keeping the weep holes clear. No paint, no stain, no replacement. That is what the extra $18 a square foot over fibre cement buys.
Can brick go on in winter?
Not below 5 C without heated hoarding, which adds about 10%. Most masons in Simcoe County stop in December and start again in April, and a good one will tell you so instead of laying brick in frozen mortar.
Get your own number
The exterior cladding cost calculator prices brick wall by wall at these rates, with the shelf angle, the tearoff and the scaffolding as separate lines so you can see what the brick costs and what the house costs. If you have brick quotes already and they are $8,000 apart, the $99 review reads up to three of them against this schedule and tells you which brick each one priced. For a plan set, the $249 takeoff measures every elevation.
Sources and further reading
- Ontario’s Building Code, Section 9.27 Cladding: the first and second planes of protection, sheathing membrane, flashing at openings and transitions, and the clearances from grade and roofs that every siding and stucco job has to meet.
- Canada Masonry Design Centre: masonry veneer support, shelf angles, weep holes, through-wall flashing and air space, in Canadian terms.
- ICFPro.ca: the ICF walls, brick ledges and attachment details that decide how cladding goes on an ICF house.
