3 Steps To Calculate How Much Concrete You Need

Craig Fosque | September 2, 2022

If you intend to engage in any construction project, you will want to include concrete as one of the building materials. To include it in your project, you should know how much concrete you need. Knowing the exact required quantity will help you prevent waste and maximize costs. Although you may use an online concrete calculator to determine the necessary amount of concrete, it’s better to know the exact steps involved for a deeper understanding of the calculation. In this article, you can discover the steps for calculating how much concrete you need.

Estimate the Concrete Volume

Before you can understand the quantity of concrete you need for a project, you have to know the required concrete volume. The information is essential as it allows you to draw the parameters of what you intend to build and allocate the exact concrete to the object. To estimate the concrete volume for your project, you will need to use different mathematical formulas based on the type of object.

If you want to construct a rectangular or square slab, you will multiply its height by its width and length. This formula stays constant for a concrete wall or column, but it gets tricky when the project is a round column. To calculate the volume of the round column, you should multiply its height by its diameter.

Estimate the Concrete Density

After getting the needed volume of concrete, the next step is to estimate the density of concrete. Getting an accurate estimate can help you understand how much concrete you will need to get the project as tightly packed as you want it. To estimate concrete density, you should divide the mass of the projected object by its volume since Density = Mass / Volume.

For an easier calculation method, you can find a sample of what you want to construct and get its volume. Then, use the mathematical formula above to arrive at the density. However, there is still an easier method that doesn’t require a formula because it uses the standard concrete density. For ordinary concrete, the density is 2400 kg/m3 and 1750 kg/m3 for lightweight concrete. If any of your projects fall under any of these standards, you have a cheat code without a formula.

Complete the Process

Once you have gotten the density and volume of the concrete needed for the project, you should multiply them to get the total weight. Then, divide the total weight by the weight in each dry concrete bag to get the number of bags to buy.

Also, try to get the quantity of mixed concrete you need for a perfect job. Mixed concrete is the product of water mixed with dry concrete. To save you the ease of calculating, you will generally need to mix 133.33 pounds of dry concrete with water to fill 1 foot.

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If you want to purchase high-quality ready mix concrete for strong projects and durable concrete accessories, Ernest Maier is the right place for you. With our products, you will get affordable prices and excellent delivery to Baltimore, the Eastern Shore, Washington, and everywhere between these places. Reach out to us for a customized quote, and we will reply to you as soon as possible.