How to calculate the consumption of foam blocks?

Foam concrete is a very popular modern material and is appreciated by private and commercial developers alike. But all the advantages of products made from it are complicated by the difficult calculation of the required amount of material. You need to know how to do everything as quickly as possible and without mistakes.

Construction firms and manufacturers calculate the number of foam blocks in pieces. But this method is not very acceptable for a private customer, because it leaves too much probability of error. The most popular block sizes in Russia are 600x300x200 mm. The smallest commercially available version is 600x250x250 mm. And the largest is 600x500x250 mm.

Sometimes there are also constructions of the following dimensions, mm:

• 250x300x600;
• 200x400x600;
• 300x300x600;
• 300x400x600.

To calculate the number of foam concrete blocks in 1 pallet, it is necessary to take into account only the dimensions of the material itself and the size of the pallet. Before buying, it is imperative to check the quality certificates and product compliance with the state standard. Let there be a set of blocks 200x300x600 mm in size, which you want to put in pallets 1200x990 mm. This pallet volume is indicated for a reason - it is it that is most often used by modern manufacturers. For ease of counting, any manufacturer always puts the same number of products on pallets.

Blocks 600x300x200 mm in one pallet with a capacity of 1.8 m3 can accommodate exactly 50 pieces. If you need to calculate the pallet capacity only in square meters, the standard solution is to multiply the length by the width. For the same most popular type of foam concrete structures, the result will be 0.18 m2. That is, for 1 sq. m of pallet area 5 foam concrete elements are placed.

Returning to volumetric calculation, it is necessary to point out such massive varieties of pallets as:

• 0.9;
• 1.44;
• 1.8 cc m.

When laying out the most common group of foam concrete products, 25, 40 and 50 pieces can fit on them, respectively. The mass of the product, the density of which is 600 kg per cubic meter. m, can reach 23.4 kg. But real construction often involves the use of blocks of non-standard size.

The layout for all three main dimensions (0.9, 1.44 and 1.8 m3) of pallets is:

• for blocks 100x300x600 - 50, 80 and 100 pieces;
• for blocks 240x300x625 - 20, 32, 40 units;
• for blocks 200x300x625 - 24, 38, 48 copies.

Difficulty is the calculation of non-standard blocks that need to be laid out on atypical pallets. Suppose, when measuring, it was found that the width of the pack is 1 m, and its length will be 0.8 m (with a height of 120 cm). The simplest calculation according to school formulas will show the volume - 0.96 m3.

Measurement of individual products shows that they have sides:

• 12 cm;
• 30 cm;
• 60 cm.

The number of pieces of foam blocks in a cube is quite easy to determine. This indicator will allow you to find out how many of them will be in a package or in a pack of a given capacity. To begin with, the volume of a single block is calculated. When using products with a size of 100x300x600 mm, the volume of each of them will be 0.018 m3. And 1 cubic meter. m will account for 55 building elements, respectively.

It so happens that the size of the foam block is 240x300x600 mm. In this case, the volume of a single item will be 0.0432 m3. And in 1 cubic meter. m will be 23 foam concrete products. The same figure must be taken into account when accounting for the transportation of material by various modes of transport.

The most massive version of blocks (200x300x600 mm) allows you to lay on 1 cubic meter. m 27 products. Structures 100x300x600 mm are needed to form partitions and internal walls. When calculating, the result is regularly rounded down. As the calculations show, it is quite easy to determine the amount of material that will help to carry out repairs or complete construction. Therefore, it is desirable to carry out the calculation to control the accuracy of suppliers.

The foam block 200x200x400 mm has a volume of 0.016 m3. That is, 1 cubic meter. m account for 62.5 copies, and if you use elements of 20x30x40 cm, the volume will be 0.024 cubic meters. m, therefore 1 cubic meter. m will have 41 pieces of foam blocks. If we use structures of 125x300x600 mm, each of them will take 0.023 m3 in volume, and 43 units will be needed for 1 m3. Occasionally, a foam block with a size of 150x300x600 mm is sent to construction sites. There are 37 such parts in 1 m3 with a unit volume of 0.027 m3.

In reality, of course, residential buildings and other buildings are made not from "cubic meters", but from the foam concrete itself in its natural form. But you still need to carry out a careful calculation of the need. To begin with, let's repeat: when calculating the number of blocks that fit in 1 cube. m, it is required to round the result not up, but down in any case. The mathematics, of course, is strict, but this technique allows you to accurately place the delivered blocks in the body of a car or in a warehouse. If the counting is carried out in pieces, it is enough to multiply the sizes of all elements, and then divide the result by a thousand.

To calculate the total mass of all blocks used for building a house, most often they are guided by the standard dimensions of foam blocks - 20x30x60 cm.The typical weight of such a structure is approximately 21-22 kg. Such a calculation helps to find out how strong the pressure will be exerted by a separate wall on the foundation. As for the number of foam concrete products spent on the construction of a 6 by 8 m house, the total volume of the structures being formed is first calculated. Only then are the dimensions of frames, doors and other auxiliary, decorative parts taken away.

A similar approach is practiced in the construction of buildings in the form of squares 10x10 m. The calculation of the cubic capacity is certainly carried out taking into account the thickness of the main walls. And here the masonry method is of decisive importance. If you put the foam concrete fragments flat, the consumption will be greater in volume and quantity.

Let the perimeter of the house be 40 m, and the height of the structure - 300 cm. With a wall depth of 0.3 m, the total volume will be 36 cubic meters. m. Therefore, the required structure can be built from 997 elements of a standard size. But it so happens that the block is mounted with a small edge into the wall. Then the same perimeter is multiplied by 20 cm and by the aforementioned height of 300 cm. In this case, only 664 blocks can be dispensed with.

But even the appearance of a large number of pores does not mean that you will get a light wall. Quite the opposite: cement of the M500 category is used in production, so a structure three times heavier than a conventional product will turn out.However, this is justified by the increased strength and density. Such advantages are not overshadowed even by the increased cost.

The lightest foam block is designed to retain heat, because during production they not only create pores, but also try to use lightweight cement. The most accurate calculations of the parameters are carried out in specialized organizations, but for private use such subtleties are not needed.

Let's give another example: a house 6 m long and 8 m wide, with a standard height (all the same 3 m). The total perimeter will be 28 m, and the wall area will be 84 m2. But you should not stop at this stage, because openings have not yet been taken into account, which do not need to be made of foam concrete at all. Let, after deducting all foreign elements, the formed area be 70 square meters. m. If the thickness is 20 cm, then the volume of the material will be 14 cubic meters. m, and with a building depth of 0.3 m, it will grow to 21 m3.

The most commonly used block, as already mentioned, has a volume of 0.036 m3. That is, you need 388 and 583 parts, respectively. The calculation for laying flat and for narrow laying is carried out according to the already described scheme. However, it often turns out that the number of blocks calculated in the most careful way is not enough in practice. The fact is that sometimes a defect is allowed in production, and then the foam parts are not very suitable for real work.

In certain cases, an individual order for foam blocks is practiced. Then their size is completely non-standard and you cannot find ready-made numbers in the tables. Let the blocks be ordered 0.3x0.4x0.6 m. And let the house be the same square 10x10 m. The total volume of 1 part will be 0.072 cubic meters. m, that is, exactly 500 elements will be needed.

If during the construction of a house windows and doors of various standard sizes are used (and this is most often the case), the simplest calculation turns out to be much more complicated. However, there is one more trick that will help amateur developers. They only need to find the volumetric aggregate characteristic. Linear values ​​are added together. There is not even a difference where the window is and where the door is - when calculating the dimensions, this is insignificant.

See below for details.