The foundation is the underground part of a building or structure that receives loads and transfers them to the ground. The most popular type of foundation for building houses is considered to be a strip foundation. This widespread use of strip foundations is explained by its versatility and affordable cost. Before you begin construction, you need to make a choice between a shallow and buried strip foundation.
Shallow strip foundation
A shallow foundation saves both budget and time. And labor costs will be significantly less, since its construction does not require a deep pit. The following foundation is used for lightweight structures of small area:
- wooden houses
- aerated concrete structures or buildings built from aerated concrete and foam concrete blocks, the height of which does not exceed 2 floors
- monolithic buildings with permanent formwork
- small structures built of stone
Depth shallow foundation reaches half a meter.
Recessed strip foundation
This foundation is used for the construction of structures with heavy walls, concrete floors, a basement or an underground garage. The length of the foundation depth must be calculated in advance. First you need to determine the level of soil freezing, then subtract 30 cm and lay the foundation at this depth.
Preparing for work
To build a strip foundation yourself, you must first carry out precise planning. The need for careful calculations is explained by the fact that the foundation is one of the most important structural elements of any building or home. Mistakes made at the beginning of construction can provoke negative consequences during the operation of the house.
Marking
Marking is carried out by marking on the ground both the external and internal boundaries of the future foundation. To do this, it is best to use pegs or reinforcement rods and ropes. But it will be more effective to use special devices, such as laser levels. Remember that large errors in markings will significantly affect appearance finished construction.
To achieve ideal results you need:
- determine the axis of the structure being built
- use a plumb line to mark an angle, then pull a rope from it at an angle of 90 degrees to two more corners of the structure
- use a square to determine another angle
- check the angles, focusing on the diagonals. If the test gives positive results, pull a rope between them
- take on the internal markings, retreating from the external markings to the distance of the thickness of the future foundation
When you are finished with the markings, study the differences in the surface at the construction site and select the lowest point to measure the depth of the trench and eliminate the difference in the height of the foundation. If the building is planned to be small, then the depth of the pit can be 40 cm.
Cushion installation and waterproofing of strip foundation
A sand cushion with added gravel should be laid on the finished trench. The recommended height of each layer is 120-150 mm. After this, each layer must be shed with water and compacted to increase density. To insulate the finished pillow, you need to lay out a durable waterproofing film on it.
Installation of strip foundation formwork
Formwork is usually made from planed boards approximately 40-50 mm thick. You can use slate for this purpose.
When erecting formwork, control verticality. The recommended height of the frame above the ground is 30 cm. This is necessary to build a small base. Asbestos concrete pipes are laid in the formwork to introduce sewerage and water supply into the building.
Place a plastic film between the concrete and the formwork; this will protect the formwork from contamination.
Laying reinforcement
The next stage is the installation of fittings. Reinforcing bars with a cross-section of 10-12 mm are connected with a special knitting wire so that the sides of the square cells are 30-40 cm. The reinforcement can be either steel or fiberglass.
Ventilation and communications
Pouring a strip foundation with concrete
Fill the formwork with concrete gradually. The thickness of the layers is 15-20 cm; to avoid voids and increase overall strength, compact the layers with a special tool - a wooden tamper or an internal vibrator.
You can order ready-mixed concrete from a factory or make it yourself using a concrete mixer. The recommended proportion of cement, sand and crushed stone is: 1:3:5.
The layers should not differ in composition. In cold weather, you should use a concrete heater and frost-resistant additives; in hot weather, water the concrete.
Completion of work
Once the concrete is poured, it should be covered with film to prevent drying out and left to gain strength for at least 2 weeks.
It will help you quickly find out how many cubes of concrete you will need and calculate the volume. online calculator. Thanks to a quick calculation, you will find out the number of cubes; you just need to enter the data and thickness of the concrete slab and get the finished result. The calculator calculates cubes of concrete for floor screed.
In order for construction work to proceed efficiently and without delays, it is necessary to provide the required amount of building material. When screeding a floor, you need to know how much concrete is needed to complete this job.
How to calculate the number of cubes of concrete correctly in order to avoid unnecessary costs and the presence of low-quality material? Calculations can be done very simply using an online concrete cubic capacity calculator.
How to calculate the volume of concrete for laying a floor?
Using the concrete volume calculator, you can make the most accurate calculation in a few minutes necessary materials for construction. To do this, you need to enter geometric shapes into the prepared table the dimensions of the area of the room, using the formula we find out the area m 2 and enter this value. We measure the average thickness of the screed and enter this value into the table.
C is the height of the slab
In this way, calculating the cubic capacity of concrete with a calculator is carried out in a matter of minutes, now you will find out how much concrete mixture you will need to purchase. Please note that the concrete thickness in the calculator table in meters is indicated by default!
Features of using floor screed mortar
To ensure that the final result of calculating the volume of concrete for construction work on floor screed does not change radically, several factors must be taken into account during such work:
- area of the room where renovation is planned;
- initial amount of floor; the thickness of the concrete pouring layer will depend on this indicator;
- brand of cement and quality of sand.
How to calculate the required amount of concrete manually?
If you want to compare the obtained data with the calculation of concrete cubic capacity using an online calculator, then to do this you need to take data on the area of the room for floor screed and multiply by the desired layer thickness.
Area formula But in fact, not everything is so simple; a complicating circumstance in such a matter will be the definition required thickness screeds, but for different types buildings it will be different.
The peculiarities lie in the expected load on the floor, for example, in residential premises these figures are up to 5 cm, for the strength of the coating, and in non-residential premises - half as much.
Thus, if the area of the room is 20 m 2, then with a thickness of 5 cm the final figures will be as follows: 20 m 2 * 0.05 m = 1 m 3, this is how much mixture is needed to screed the floor.
What is the best composition for floor screed?
Before calculating the amount of concrete for the screed, you need to decide which brand of mortar to choose. The best option there will be a solution marked M 150 or M 200, you can get such a mixture from M400 cement, if you mix it with sand in a ratio of 1: 3, or two parts.
- room 29 m2;
- screed thickness – 5 cm;
- required volume – 1m3;
- cement will be 0.24 m 3 (4 parts in total);
- sand – 0.75 m3.
Taking into account the weight of one cube of each component unit separately, we obtain the following data: if we take the average figures - 1300 kg for cement and 1625 for sand, then we get 325 and 1220 kg of each component, respectively.
When preparing materials, you need to take into account the shrinkage of the solution, which often gives a result less than expected by 10%. You need to make an appropriate reserve so that you don’t have to make a new batch separately later.
When calculating the volume of concrete using a calculator or manually, you need to carefully double-check the data, and only then make the final purchase of building materials. And in this situation, it’s not even about money, but about the quality of the work done, how reliable and durable the floor will be.
If you use a calculator to calculate a floor screed, you must first decide what brand of screed to make, how to strengthen it, and how economically you want to approach this matter.
To save concrete, you can add a coarse fraction, such as gravel or slag, to half the floor.
If we talk about the mass of the screed, then you can make it yourself; we use the following proportion: for one part of cement we put two parts of sand and three parts of crushed stone, or screenings. You can also make the composition only from sand and cement; each master has his own methods, taking into account the characteristics of the initial state of the place for laying the floor. Quickly calculate the required amount of sand and cement.
In order to strengthen the screed, a reinforcing mesh or fiber is used, such material is attached to the base, and the fiber is mixed into the concrete to form a screed.
What tools are used to make the screed?
- For large quantity you will need a concrete mixer for mixing, and if you use shovels, this process will be long and labor-intensive;
- beacons to ensure an even screed;
- laser and regular level, the more accurately the top point of the floor is determined, the better and more economically the work will be done;
- You will also need trowels, shovels, construction wheelbarrows, buckets, etc.
When laying a cement mixture, the base must be dry and clean, and best of all, special penetrating compounds that will ensure good bonding function with the laying mixture.
There is a more economical and faster option. This This method is very suitable for apartments and houses where it is required as soon as possible make repairs.
Conclusion
Now you know how to calculate the cubic capacity of concrete using an online calculator or do it manually using simple mathematical calculations. Wishing you quick and high-quality repairs, be careful and follow safety rules when working with cement mortar!
Construction begins with a project. It is recommended to first sketch even small structures on paper so that you can clearly see the proportions and estimate the consumption of materials. For serious buildings, you need design and estimate documentation made by professionals, but when building a private house, cottage, fence or garage, you can get by with online calculators or ready-made solutions. The most important issue when constructing structures is the construction of a reliable foundation, and therefore the question of how to calculate the amount of concrete for the foundation is paramount.
It is not difficult to calculate concrete for the foundation if you are certain about the size and type of structure. The type of foundation and its dimensions should be determined by an experienced builder, based on the characteristics of the building under construction, the type of soil and the depth of its freezing in the area.
Tape
The most popular foundation for the construction of a private house is considered to be a strip foundation. It is a kind of closed ribbon of concrete running under all the load-bearing walls of the building.
How to calculate how many cubes of concrete are needed for the foundation? Calculators to help determine consumption cement-sand mortar for pouring, are available on many sites with construction topics, one of which is presented at the end of this material. To calculate the volume in cubic meters, you need to know the linear dimensions of the structure: height, width and total length of the base.
Concreting of the strip base occurs by pouring the finished cement-sand mixture into wooden formwork with pre-installed reinforcing mesh. Large fractions (gravel, crushed stone) are added to the solution to obtain higher strength characteristics of the foundation.
The dimensions of the base depend on the dimensions of the building that is planned to be erected. Typically, the width of the foundation strip is at least 300 mm, the height of the ground part is from 400 mm, and the depth can reach 1500-2500 mm, depending on the availability of groundwater, freezing depth and the desire to equip a basement. Strip foundations It is not recommended to install on heaving soils if the formwork is buried below the freezing depth.
For middle zone, when constructing small private houses and baths, it is enough to deepen them within 1500 mm with a height of the ground part of up to 400 mm.
The length of the foundation will be equal to the total length of all external walls, including the internal load-bearing wall, under which the foundation is also installed. As a result, having received all the required values, you can calculate the volume of concrete for the foundation. In this case, a calculator may not be required - just multiply all the indicators in meters and get the desired number in cubic meters.
The calculation formula looks like this:
V=h*b*l, Where:
- V – volume of solution in m3;
- h – height in m;
- b – width in m;
- l – tape length in m.
For example, for a building measuring 6x6 m and one internal load-bearing wall, with a foundation height of 2 m and a width of 0.4 m, the volume of mortar for pouring will be: V=2*0.4*30=24 m 3. With the same width and height of the foundation, for a house measuring 10x10 and two load-bearing internal walls, the calculation will look like this: V=2*0.4*60=48 m 3.
This calculation allows you to calculate the almost exact cubic capacity of the solution, but it should be remembered that during transportation some of the concrete is lost, and if the formwork is loose, part of the concrete solution may leak out, but at the same time there is an additional internal volume occupied by the reinforcement frame. Therefore, it would be correct to introduce a correction factor in the direction of increasing the calculated value by 2%.
As a result, we obtain a more accurate formula for calculating the volume of concrete for a strip foundation:
V=h*b*l + 0.02*(h*b*l)
The resulting value is rounded to the nearest whole number. For our examples, the refined calculation will look like this: for a 6x6 house V=24+0.02*24=24.48 (25) m 3, for house 10x10 V=48+0.02*48=48.96 (49) m 3.
Slab
A slab foundation is a continuous monolithic foundation under a building site. For its construction, concrete of a grade not lower than M100 is used. Calculating the volume of this monolith is quite simple - just multiply the length, width and height of the slab.
Pouring a solution of cement and sand with the addition of large fractions for a monolithic slab is carried out to a height of at least 100 mm. Thus, for a slab with a thickness of 100 mm, the following volumes of concrete are obtained:
- for a house 10x8 – 8 m3;
- for a 9x9 house – 8.1 m3;
- for a house 18x8 - 14.4 m3.
This calculation is suitable for completely flat slabs, but to give the base higher strength characteristics, additional stiffeners are often installed in the form of trapezoidal longitudinal beams. Therefore, the correct calculation of a slab foundation must also include the volume of pouring stiffeners.
To the already obtained volume of the slab, it is necessary to add the volume of the stiffeners, for which the formula for the area of a trapezoid is used. Volume slab foundation with stiffeners are found as follows:
- Calculate the volume of your slab: V=h*b*l.
- Find the area of the trapezoid: S=h1*(a+c)/2, where h1 is the height of the edge of the trapezoid, and and c are the lengths of the bases of the trapezoid.
- Find the volume of the stiffener and multiply by the number of ribs: V1=S*l*n, where n is the number of stiffeners.
- The resulting volumes are added up and the total volume of concrete required is obtained: Vtotal=V+V1.
Typically, reinforcement is located at the bottom of the base in increments of 3000 mm. They can be made as exclusively longitudinal reinforcements, or with intersections, forming squares. Typically, the ratio of the wide part of the trapezoid of the stiffener is 1.5:1. To calculate a slab foundation, volume adjustments are also provided with an error factor of 2%.
Columnar
This type of foundation is a kind of pile field, only the support pillars are not driven in with a pile driver, but are poured into prepared pits. A columnar foundation allows you to get a reliable foundation with minimal material consumption. The pillars may have round or square section, they are placed along the perimeter of the building spot and at the junctions of the walls.
Deepening columnar foundation usually exceeds the freezing depth for a given area, and the ground part has a height of 400-500 mm. The building structure can be installed directly on the support pillars, but most often a grillage is installed around the perimeter, which connects the pillars into a single whole.
To calculate the volume of concrete required for pouring a columnar foundation, you need to know the length of the column, its cross-sectional area and the number of columns. If a grillage is provided, its linear dimensions will be required; the volume of the grillage is calculated in the same way as in the case of a strip foundation.
V=a*b*l*n, where a and b are the cross-sectional sides of the pillar, l is the length of the pillar, n is the number of pillars in the foundation.
To calculate the volume of concrete for pouring pillars with a circular cross-section, you will need a formula for finding the area of a circle: S=3.14*R*R, where R is the radius. We get the formula for calculating the volume of pillars with a circular cross-section:
To obtain the total volume of concrete required for pouring the pillars and grillage, it is necessary to add up the already obtained indicators, not forgetting the error factor of 2%.
Calculation of cement for the foundation.
To accurately determine the time for completing concreting work and the amount of material consumed, calculations should be made; an online calculator for calculating the volume of concrete will help with this.
The concrete volume calculator will independently calculate for you the required amount of solution, providing the most accurate numbers. Consumption is taken into account in cubic meters.
Calculate the volume of concrete for a foundation slab or screed
The calculator below produces calculation of concrete for slab foundation in accordance with building codes and regulations. To calculate a slab foundation, you need to know the area and thickness of the slab, because a slab is an ordinary rectangular parallelepiped.
A slab foundation is a closed reinforced concrete solid monolithic slab that is laid under the entire area of the house, thereby distributing the load along the entire length.
Enter your data in the fields for calculation:
Correctly calculating the cubic capacity of concrete in this case is much more difficult: we must multiply the length of the structure, which includes the perimeter from the outside and the length of all partitions between rooms, by its height and width (provided that the foundation strip has the same cross-section along its entire length).
It is imperative to take into account the depth of groundwater, landscape, soil and other factors when calculating the height of the foundation.
The foundation is an important part of any structure and at the same time the most expensive. To create a reliable and durable foundation, it is necessary to choose the right building materials, as well as determine their quantity.
Why do you need the cubic capacity of the foundation?
The volume of the supporting base is important to determine for several reasons:
- First, the known volume of the foundation helps to accurately determine the volume of excavation work and the costs associated with this stage.
- Secondly, based on the volume of the foundation it is not difficult to determine the required amount of concrete mass and building materials, which will be required to prepare the solution.
- Thirdly, knowing the volume of the foundation, you can easily calculate the consumption of materials that will be required for formwork, creating a reinforcing frame and other activities.
In construction, when calculating foundation parameters, volume is taken as the basic unit, not mass, since 1 m 3 of concrete mixture different brands has different weight. To determine the cubic capacity of a complex-shaped foundation, the structure is divided into simpler shapes.
The calculation of the volume of the foundation is carried out according to a certain scheme, which depends on the type of foundation.
Determining the volume of a strip foundation
In general, you can calculate the amount of concrete for pouring a strip base yourself. To do this, you need to know the height, width and length of the tape. If the foundation has the same width and height along its entire length, then you can use a simple geometric formula:
V = S*L.
In this formula, the letter “S” denotes the cross-sectional area of the foundation, which can be calculated by multiplying the width of the foundation by its height. The letter "L" indicates the total length of the concrete strip.
For example, you can consider the following option:
The strip base for a house measuring 10*8 meters has a width of 0.4 meters and a height of 0.8 meters. First, the cross-sectional area of the foundation is determined:
L = (10+8)*2 = 36 meters.
V = 0.32*36 = 11.52 m3.
Consequently, to pour a strip foundation for a house measuring 10*8, about 12 cubic meters of concrete solution are needed.
If the foundation has different widths in individual sections, then the calculation is carried out separately for each section, then the resulting values are summed up.
It is also important to take into account those parts of the foundation that are located under all load-bearing partitions, calculate their volume and add to the overall result.
Independent calculation of the volume of a monolithic slab base
The slab base is a monolithic reinforced concrete structure located over the entire area of the building. Such a foundation is in most cases made in the shape of a rectangle or square. Therefore, the main parameters are also considered to be the length, width and height of the reinforced concrete structure. The volume is calculated using the formula:
V = S*H.
In this formula, the letter “S” denotes the area of the base, and the letter “H” is the height of the slab.
For example, you need to determine the volume of concrete that will be required to pour a monolithic slab measuring 8*8 meters and 0.3 meters high.
First we determine the area of the base.
