DIY Conversion Tables and Conversion Information

Please use the links below to navigate to your desired area……

• Block to Bricks
• Bricks – Imperial to Metric
• General Conversion Tables
• Material Coverage Table
• Glass Thickness to Weight
• Paving slabs
• Wallpaper Coverage

Basic Conversion Tables:

The centimetre is very seldom used in the building and allied trades. The measurements are normally given in metres and millimetres.

Conversions for Length

Conversions for Liquid Volume

Conversions for Liquids

Conversions for Volumes

Conversions for Weight

Conversions for Area

Conversions for Weights of Materials

Conversion for Coverage of 1 Tonne of Stone

Minimum Depth of Services – Pipes and Drainage

General Purpose Concrete and Foundation Concrete

…also see our calculating material volumes project.

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Coverage of Materials:

If you are laying a patio or drive, placing topsoil for a lawn or covering your garden with stone, it is very useful to know how much you will need. Use our easy to read graph below to get the quantities right.

Measure the area of your garden and go up the left hand side of the graph to that area (for example 20 square metres at the top). Read horizontally along that line to the thickness of material you need (example 100mm). Where that line meets the diagonal line of your chosen depth go straight down and read the amount you need in cubic metres. (example = 2.00 cubic metres) This can be converted into weight using the tables above.

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Bricks:

An imperial standard brick is 9 inches long, 4 1/2 inches wide and 3 inches deep.

A metric brick is 8.86 inches long (225mm) 4.43 inches wide (112.5mm) and 2.95 inches deep (75mm).

The above sizes include mortar joints at 10mm

This makes the metric brick marginally smaller than its imperial counterpart and the difference, when joining new to old, must be taken up with an increase in the mortar joints.

There are 60 bricks to 1 square metre and you will use approximately 0.022 cubic metres of wet sand and cement to lay them with 10mm joints, this is equivalent to approximately 60kg.

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Blocks:

A normal block is 2 bricks long, 3 bricks high and one brick wide (when laid with 10mm joints)

There are approx. 10 blocks to 1 square metre and you will use approx  0.012 cubic metres of wet sand and cement to lay them with a 10mm joint. This is equivalent to 31kg.

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Paving Slabs:

Paving slabs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, we have listed a few of the popular ones with their respective coverage

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Wallpaper:

Normally you will get 4 "drops" from one roll of paper with a standard close pattern. Some papers have patterns a long way apart, you will need to consult your supplier for this. The table below shows standard rolls with normal patterns.

Glass:

Thickness of glass, with the introduction of the metric system, is now defined in mm rather than weight. For the record here’s how it used to be.

All article content written and produced by Mike Edwards