Construction Material Calculator

How to use the construction material calculator

1. Select what you want to calculate — brick wall, plaster, floor tiles, paint or concrete.
2. Enter the length and height/width of the wall, room or slab in feet.
3. For concrete, also enter the thickness in inches.
4. Press Calculate Material — you get bricks, cement bags, sand, tiles or paint litres instantly.

Thumb rules this calculator uses

Brick wall: a standard 9-inch wall uses about 9 bricks per square foot; a 4.5-inch (half brick) wall uses about 4.5 bricks per square foot. Mortar needs roughly 0.25 to 0.3 cement bags per 100 bricks.

Plaster: for 12 mm thick plaster in a 1:6 mix, budget about 0.85 cement bags and 4.5 cubic feet of sand per 100 square feet.

Floor tiles: always add 10% extra for cutting and breakage. A 2x2 feet tile covers 4 square feet.

Paint: 1 litre covers roughly 100 square feet with two coats for interior emulsion. Rough or fresh plaster surfaces absorb more.

Concrete (M20): about 8 cement bags, 16 cubic feet sand and 32 cubic feet aggregate per cubic metre — this calculator converts it to your slab size.

Why estimate before buying

Material is the biggest cost in any construction or repair work, and shopkeepers sell in fixed units — a bag of cement, a thousand bricks, a box of tiles. If you estimate too little you make extra trips; if you buy too much you lose money on leftover material that cannot be returned. A five-minute calculation before ordering usually saves 5% to 10% of the material cost and a lot of wasted trips. Always add a small buffer (5-10%) for wastage, then buy in the next standard pack size.

Frequently asked questions