How to Calculate Pouring a Slab

Whether you want to pour a new driveway or have a place to put a shed, you'll need to pour a slab to do it. A slab typically refers to concrete and the thickness and size of this concrete is critical to knowing how much to order. Ultimately, the task comes down to careful measuring and some basic math. Once you have that down pat you'll know how much to order for your slab.

Tape measure
Paper
Pencil
Calculator

Instructions

- 1
  Measure the length and the width of the area for the slab using the tape measure. Record your measurements in inches on the paper with the pencil. For this example, the slab is 144 inches wide by 120 inches long.
- 2
  Enter the width of the slab into the calculator, then hit the multiplication symbol. Enter the length of the slab, then hit the enter key to determine the square inches of the slab. Example: 144 times 120 equals 17,280 square inches.
- 3
  Divide that number by 144 with the calculator, which is the amount of square inches in a square foot. Example: 17,280 divided by 144 equals 120 square feet.
- 4
  Multiply that number by the proposed thickness of the slab with the calculator and express the result in cubic feet. Example: 120 square feet times 4 equals 480 cubic feet.
- 5
  Divide the result from step 4 by 27, which is the amount of cubic yards in a foot, using the calculator to determine how many cubic yards you need, which is the standard unit of measurement for many concrete facilities. Example: 480 cubic feet divided by 27 equals 17.78 cubic yards, so you would order 18 cubic yards of concrete.

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