How to calculate the amount of cinder block?

Novice builders are often faced with the problem of correctly calculating the required amount of material. In order not to be mistaken with the numbers, it is necessary to take into account the dimensions of the material and the future structure, the necessary stock for cutting, debris and other features. Our article is devoted to the intricacies of calculating such a building material as a cinder block.

The appearance of cinder blocks is directly related to the natural human desire for waste-free production. In the postwar years, production in the USSR developed at a rapid pace. Metallurgical plants are literally overgrown with mountains of slag. Then the decision came to use this waste to create building materials.

Slag served as a filler for a cement-sand mixture. The resulting mass was molded into large "bricks". The finished blocks were too heavy - they weighed 25-28 kg. To reduce weight, voids were made in them. Hollow specimens were slightly lighter - from 18 to 23 kg with standard dimensions.

The name cinder blocks is still used today, although not only slag, but also other components are used as fillers. In modern blocks, one can find granite screenings or crushed stone, river gravel, broken glass or expanded clay, volcanic mass. Small business is most often engaged in the production of cinder blocks. Small private enterprises produce building blocks on vibrating machines, filling several forms with a cement mixture at once. After molding and tamping, the "bricks" gain strength for at least a month.

Cinder blocks are endowed with certain advantages and disadvantages.

• The advantage of block building material, first of all, is its low cost. That is why the material is in great demand.
• This building material also has other positive characteristics. For example, blocks do not change their size after laying out. The structure will not shrink, which means that the design calculation will not be adjusted during the construction process.
• The strength and hardness of the "big brick" determine its service life. This is no less than 100 years! Durability is not calculated, but time-tested. There are many buildings of the middle of the last century that "stand firmly on their feet." The houses did not lurch or crumble, only the facades require cosmetic repairs.
• Blocks react poorly to ultraviolet light and temperature extremes. The material is not edible for rodents and insects.
• Due to the increased size, construction is proceeding at a rapid pace. Much less masonry mix is ​​used for laying blocks than, for example, for a brick wall of similar dimensions.
• Street noises are not audible behind the cinder block wall, because it is capable of absorbing sounds.
• Finally, if you have simple equipment and desire, the blocks can be made at home, which will further reduce the cost of construction.

The disadvantages of a building material are no less than advantages.

These include the following characteristics.

• Nondescript appearance.
• Problematic of fastening to walls due to voids in the body of the block.
• The need for cladding to make the structure attractive and protect the building material from the effects of external moisture.
• Fragility. If dropped during work, during transportation or loading, the unit may break.
• High thermal conductivity. Without additional insulation, the structure retains heat poorly.
• Wide tolerance limits. Dimensions may differ significantly from the nominal value.

The sizes of cinder blocks directly depend on their types.

Standard cinder blocks are products with the following parameters, measured in millimeters:

• length - 390;
• width - 190;
• height - 188.

Hollow and full-bodied products have similar dimensions. The first, as lighter, are used exclusively for masonry walls. The latter can serve as a source material not only for walls, but also for foundations, columns or other structural elements of buildings that bear the greatest loads.

Slag half-blocks are always hollow. Overall dimensions may differ only in thickness (width). The length is constant and remains equal to 390 mm, the height is 188 mm.

The thicker half-blocks are 120 mm wide, while the thinner ones are only 90 mm wide. The latter are sometimes called longitudinal slabs of cinder blocks. Scope of semi-blocks - internal walls, partitions.

Available in the giant slag family - an enlarged building block. Its dimensions are 410x215x190 millimeters.

For the construction of any object (house, garage or other ancillary structure), information on the number of cinder blocks is required. Excess building material is useless, and a shortage can lead to downtime and additional costs for loading, transporting and unloading the cinder block. In addition, different batches, even from the same manufacturer, may differ slightly. What can we say about buying missing blocks from another supplier!

Problems with the construction of a building due to lack of basic material are guaranteed not to be, if you first calculate the need for cinder blocks with maximum accuracy. Of course, you will have to buy more. First, because you always need a supply. And secondly, the blocks are not sold by the piece. Manufacturers stack them on pallets and fasten them so that the goods do not break upon delivery to the buyer, and it is convenient to load them into vehicles.

If necessary, you can purchase material and piece by piece. However, the lack of reliable fastening is fraught with chips and even complete destruction. In order to calculate the need for building blocks, for example, for a house, you need to know the dimensions of this building.

First of all, you need to remember the school curriculum, more precisely, the definition of areas and volumes. The task is simple, accessible to everyone and does not require any engineering knowledge.

The number of cinder blocks required can be calculated in two ways.

• By volume. The volume of the walls of the building is determined, the number of bricks in 1 m3 is calculated. The volume of the building in cubic meters is multiplied by the number of blocks in one cube. It turns out the required number of slag bricks for the whole house.
• By area. The area of ​​the walls of the house is calculated. The number of blocks per 1 m2 of masonry is found. The area of ​​the walls of the house is multiplied by the number of pieces of cinder blocks in one square meter.

If you need to count the number of standard blocks in a square meter, two sizes are taken into account: length (390 mm) and height (188 mm). We translate both values ​​into meters and multiply among themselves: 0.39 mx 0.188 m = 0.07332 m2. Now we find out: how many cinder blocks are there for each square meter. To do this, divide 1 m2 by 0.07332 m2. 1 m2 / 0.07332 m2 = 13.6 pieces.

Similar calculations are performed to determine the amount of building material in one cube. Only here all block sizes are involved - length, width and height. Let's calculate the volume of one cinder block, taking into account its dimensions not in millimeters, but in meters. We get: 0.39 mx 0.188 mx 0.190 m = 0.0139308 m3. The number of bricks in 1 cube: 1 m3 / 0.0139308 m3 = 71.78 pieces.

Let's consider the calculation of the material requirements for the house in a "volumetric" way.

• Let's say the house is planned to be built square, with each wall 10 meters long.The height of the one-storey building is 3 meters. The thickness of the outer walls is the thickness of one cinder block, that is, 0.19 m.
• Let's find the volume of all the walls. Let us take two parallel walls equal in length to ten meters. The other two will be shorter in length by the thickness of the already counted walls: 10 m - 0.19 m - 0.19 m = 9.62 m. The volume of the first two walls: 2 (number of walls) x 10 m (wall length) x 3 m (wall height) x 0.19 m (wall thickness) = 11.4 m3.
• Let's calculate the volume of two "shortened" walls: 2 (number of walls) x 9.62 m (wall length) x 3 m (wall height) x 0.19 m (wall thickness) = 10.96 m3.
• Total volume: 11.4 m3 + 10.96 m3 = 22.36 m3.
• Suppose that the house has two doorways 2.1 m high and 1.2 m wide, as well as 5 windows with dimensions 1.2 mx 1.4 m. We need to find the total volume of all openings and subtract it from the previously obtained value.

Volume of door openings: 2 pcs. x 1.2 mx 2.1 mx 0.19 m = 0.9576 m3. Volume of window openings: 5 pcs. x 1.2 mx 1.4 mx 0.19 m = 1.596 m3.

The total volume of all openings in the walls: 0.9576 m3 + 1.596 m3 = 2.55 m3 (round to two decimal places).

• By subtracting, we obtain the required volume of cinder blocks: 22.36 m3 - 2.55 m3 = 19.81 m3.
• We find the number of blocks: 19.81 m3 x 71.78 pcs. = 1422 pcs. (rounded to the nearest integer).
• Considering that there are 60 pieces on a pallet of standard cinder blocks, you can get the number of pallets: 1422 pieces. / 60 pcs. = 23 pallets.

The same principle is used to calculate the need for building material for internal walls. With other dimensions, for example, a different wall thickness, the calculated values ​​must be adjusted. It should be understood that the calculation gives an approximate number of cinder blocks, the fact almost always differs from the calculation in one direction or another, but not much at all. The above calculation is made without taking into account the seams, which account for 8 to 10 mm and a margin of approximately 10-15% of the calculated value.

How to calculate how many cinder blocks are in 1 m3, see the video below.