HOW TO ESTIMATE MATERIALS REQUIRED TO BUILD YOUR HOME

Estimating building materials for a home is a cumbersome job. It is workout from architectural and structural drawings. It needs vigorous calculations. It is the job of a Quantity Surveyor who calculates the volume of different items of works from drawings like R.C.C work, brickwork, plaster, flooring, painting, plumbing, sanitary etc. After that he has to calculate the quantity of materials needed for a particular item of work like how much steel, cement and sand required for R.C.C work, how much sand-cement-bricks needed for brickwork like that. Analysing all the items he finally calculates the total quantity of each material will be required for the building from start to finish. It's a lengthy process but most accurate. Whether it is small building or big building the process is same.

However, for residential buildings the floor to floor height is almost fixed. Say, it is about in between 3.0m to 3.2m, and the loading pattern is almost same like external and internal wall thickness, sizes of beams, thickness of slab etc. So the building's structural pattern is almost same. Based on this aspects some formulas are developed to calculate the quantity of building materials and labours for small buildings which are not cent percent accurate but works. Here, it is assumed that the building is a duplex type brick structured building and total covered area is not more than 90 square metre.

And,if you are going to start construction of your home and want to know, how much materials you need, here is the solution. It is very easy, simple, time-saving and gives 90-95% accurate result. To determine the quantity of materials, use the following equation given in the table. In the table, “A” denotes the covered / plinth area of the building in square meter. This equation is applicable for two storey buildings only.

Here, the size of brick is taken as 10" x 5" x 3" (248mm x 120mm x 70 mm)

For Example:

If the covered area of the building , A = 90 SQ. M

Bricks required for one storey = 226 x 90 + 6680 = 27020 nos.

Bricks required for double storey = 215 x 90 + 6300 = 25650 nos.

Total bricks required = 27020 + 25650 = 52670 nos.



The above equation is applicable for only two storeyed buildings, but for medium to high-rise building it is quite different. For R.C.C frame structure buildings up to 14 storeyed height, requirements of steel and concrete are more, and it varies with the height of the building. And, these can change again for different structural system of foundations. Hence, the requirement of labours and materials will differ. To estimate materials for multi-storeyed building for different structural system, another formula is developed and is explained in EASY AND QUICK BUILDING ESTIMATE for materials.These are very popular among the civil contractors, building developers and project managers. These rules are successfully applied to calculate approximate consumption of materials for project planning, preparation of B.O.Q, project report, project costing or procuring initial materials for project work.

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Green Environment

Hi, I’m Gobinda Burman (Green Environment). More than 27 years in the field of Building Construction industry, I’ve completed many high-rise building projects successfully. I have got the opportunity to learn and solve the critical practical problems related to building construction. I love to share my knowledge with those people who wants to build their own home and the budding civil engineers willing to build their career in this field..

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