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Material Weight Calculator


From aluminum to zinc, and balsa wood to plywood, this handy material weight calculator makes it easy to calculate a material’s weight across various profiles.

For technical guidance, please refer to the user guide below the calculator. We’ve also included a series of helpful step-by-step guides below that to show you the process of calculating a material’s weight, as well as handy density reference tables in case you want to calculate weight manually.

Calculate Material Weight:
1
toolcrowd material weight calculator profile image
Total Weight = 0.00 lbs / 0.00 kg
Disclaimer: The weights shown in the above calculator are for guidance only and should not form the basis of any calculations where precise or accurate information is required. It isn’t uncommon for theoretical metal weights and densities to vary considerably from actual weights and densities, for example, due to differences in manufacturing processes and material compositions. Therefore, you should obtain relevant, accurate information from manufacturers if exact weight calculations are required.

How to Use the Material Weight Calculator

  1. The calculator supports a wide variety of profile types, and you can choose these using the ‘Select a Material Profile’ dropdown in box (1).

  2. Regardless of the profile type chosen, you can choose from a wide range of material types for your calculation using the ‘Material’ dropdown in box (2). The following material types are available:

    Metal
    • Aluminum
    • Brass
    • Bronze
    • Cast Iron
    • Copper
    • Gold
    • Lead
    • Magnesium Alloy
    • Manganese
    • Mercury
    • Mild Steel
    • Nickel
    • Platinum
    • Silver
    • Stainless Steel
    • Tin
    • Titanium
    • Zinc
    Wood
    • Balsa
    • Bamboo
    • Cedar
    • Maple
    • MDF
    • Oak
    • OSB
    • Pine
    • Plywood (Hardwood)
    • Plywood (Softwood)
    Construction Materials
    • Brick
    • Cement
    • Concrete
    • Cork
    • Drywall/Plasterboard
    • Glass
    • Granite
    • Gravel
    • Insulation (Various Types)
    • Reinforced Concrete
    • Sand
    • Tar
    Plastic/Rubber
    • Nylon (6)
    • PVC
    • Rubber
    Other
    • Ice
    • Snow (Compacted)
    • Snow (Fresh Falling)
    • Water

    The ‘Density’ box will automatically be populated based on the material type you choose.

    You can update the ‘Density’ figure if needed, although this is based on average industry figures for each material. If you’re using a specific type of material and you know the density, we’d recommend using the real-life figure in your calculation to produce more accurate results.

  3. You can include multiple units of your chosen profile type in your calculation by changing the figure in the ‘Quantity’ input in box (2).
  4. Depending on the material profile you are using in your calculation, you’ll need to enter various dimensions, for example, ‘Length’, ‘Width’, ‘Diameter’, ‘Thickness’, or ‘Height’ to name a few.

    The calculator is programmed to automatically reformat depending on your chosen material profile, so you’ll only see the relevant dimensions for your particular calculation/material profile type.

    The calculator supports several unit types from metric millimeters to imperial feet, and you can choose these using the ‘Unit’ dropdown beside each dimension input field.

    !

    Note: If you choose ‘inch’ as a unit, you’ll need to use either whole or decimal numbers instead of fractions. For example, 0.25 instead of 1/4.

    Click the button below to view a table of common material dimensions as decimals that you can use in the calculator:


    • Material Weight Calculator – Inch to Decimal Conversion Table
      1/8 0.125 1-9/16 1.5625 3-5/8 3.625
      5/32 0.15625 1-5/8 1.625 3-11/16 3.6875
      3/16 0.1875 1-11/16 1.6875 3-3/4 3.75
      7/32 0.21875 1-3/4 1.75 3-13/16 3.8125
      1/4 0.25 1-13/16 1.8125 3-7/8 3.875
      9/32 0.28125 1-7/8 1.875 3-15/16 3.9375
      5/16 0.1325 1-15/16 1.9375 4 4.00
      11/32 0.34375 2 2.00 4-1/8 4.125
      3/8 0.375 2-1/16 2.0625 4-3/16 4.1875
      13/32 0.40625 2-1/8 2.125 4-1/4 4.25
      7/16 0.4375 2-3/16 2.1875 4-5/16 4.3125
      15/16 0.9375 2-1/4 2.25 4-3/8 4.375
      1/2 0.5 2-5/16 2.3125 4-7/16 4.4375
      17/32 0.53125 2-3/8 2.375 4-1/2 4.50
      9/16 0.5625 2-7/16 2.4375 4-9/16 4.5625
      19/32 0.59375 2-1/2 2.50 4-5/8 4.625
      5/8 0.625 2-9/16 2.5625 4-11/16 4.6875
      11/16 0.6875 2-5/8 2.625 5 5.00
      3/4 0.75 2-11/16 2.6875 5-1/16 5.0625
      13/16 0.8125 2-3/4 2.75 5-1/8 5.125
      7/8 0.875 2-7/8 2.875 5-3/16 5.1875
      13/16 0.8125 2-15/16 2.9375 5-1/4 5.25
      15/16 0.9375 3 3.00 5-3/8 5.375
      1 1.00 3-1/16 3.0625 5-7/16 5.4375
      1-1/16 1.0625 3-1/8 3.125 5-1/2 5.50
      1-1/8 1.125 3-3/16 3.1875 5-5/8 5.625
      1-3/16 1.1875 3-1/4 3.25 5-3/4 5.75
      1-1/4 1.25 3-5/16 3.3125 5-7/8 5.875
      1-5/16 1.3125 3-3/8 3.375 5-15/16 5.9375
      1-3/8 1.375 3-7/16 3.4375 6 6.00
      1-7/16 1.4375 3-1/2 3.50    
      1-1/2 1.50 3-9/16 3.5625
  5. Once you’ve entered all of the required information, you can use the ‘Calculate’ button to complete your calculation. You can also reset the material weight calculator using the ‘Reset’ button if you’d like to complete another calculation.

How to Calculate Material Weight

The easiest way to calculate material weight is using our handy calculator above.

If you’d prefer to calculate a material’s weight manually though, you can do so via the following equation:

Weight = Material Volume x Material Density

This equation remains the same whether you’re working with metric units, such as millimeters, or imperial units, such as feet.

As shown in the formula, the first step is to find the volume of the material in question. For basic shapes, for example, cubes or sheets, this should be relatively simple, but it might be trickier for more complex profiles such as hexagonal plates or beams.

You can calculate the volume via the following equation:

Volume = Area x Length

The final input is the density of the material in question, which you can define as the material’s ‘mass per unit volume,’ or essentially, how heavy the material is for a given size.

When it comes to density, these figures are readily available for various materials, and we’ve included tables with the density data for a wide variety of materials below.

Let’s look at a real-life example to show you step-by-step how to calculate a material’s weight:

How to Calculate the Weight of a Concrete Slab

When it comes to calculating the weight of our concrete slab, there are a few dimensions that we’re interested in as shown in this diagram:

material weight calculator example image - slab dimension example

Whereby:

L = The length of the concrete slab

W = The width of the concrete slab

T = The concrete slab’s thickness

We’re also interested in the density of the concrete slab, but we’ll focus on the dimensions only for now.

For this example, let’s assume the following dimensions for our concrete slab:

  • Length: 2m
  • Width: 1m
  • Thickness: 0.1m

The first step is to determine the volume of the concrete slab, and we’ll get this by multiplying the cross-sectional area by the slab’s length, as mentioned above.

1) To get the area, we’ll multiply the slab’s width by its thickness as per the following equation:

Area = Width x Thickness
Area = 1m x 0.1m
Area = 0.1m2

2) Now that we have the slab’s cross-sectional area, we can calculate its overall volume using the following equation:

Volume = Area x Length
Volume = 0.1m2 x 2m
Volume = 0.2m3

3) The final step is to multiply the slab’s volume by the density of concrete to find the overall weight. We’ll use a density of 2300kg/m3 for the concrete in our calculation as follows:

Weight = Volume x Density
Weight = 0.2m3 x 2300kg/m3
Weight = 460kg

As shown, multiplying the volume figure we’ve just calculated by the known typical density of concrete gives us a final weight of 460kg for our concrete slab.


Quick Reference Information – Material Density Tables

The following tables show the density data for both metric and imperial measurements for various types of material:

Construction Material Density Table

Construction Material Density Information

Construction Material Type

Density

Metric

Imperial

Brick 1920 kg/m3 119.9 lb/ft3
Cement 1400 kg/m3 87.4 lb/ft3
Concrete 2300 kg/m3 143.6 lb/ft3
Cork 120 kg/m3 7.5 lb/ft3
Drywall 612 kg/m3 38.2 lb/ft3
Glass 2700 kg/m3 168.6 lb/ft3
Granite 2600 kg/m3 162.3 lb/ft3
Gravel 1800 kg/m3 112.4 lb/ft3
Insulation
(Polystyrene Board)
34 kg/m3 2.1 lb/ft3
Insulation
(Mineral Wool – Light)
25 kg/m3 1.55 lb/ft3
Insulation
(Mineral Wool – Medium)
110 kg/m3 6.9 lb/ft3
Insulation
(Mineral Wool – Dense)
200 kg/m3 12.5 lb/ft3
Reinforced Concrete 2400 kg/m3 149.8 lb/ft3
Sand 1650 kg/m3 103 lb/ft3
Tar 1275 kg/m3 79.6 lb/ft3

Metal Density Table

Metal Density Information

Metal Type

Density

Metric

Imperial

Aluminum 2700 kg/m3 168.6 lb/ft3
Brass 8730 kg/m3 545 lb/ft3
Bronze 8900 kg/m3 555.6 lb/ft3
Cast Iron 7200 kg/m3 449.5 lb/ft3
Copper 8960 kg/m3 559.4 lb/ft3
Gold 1932 kg/m3 120.6 lb/ft3
Lead 11300 kg/m3 705.4 lb/ft3
Magnesium Alloy 1830 kg/m3 114.2 lb/ft3
Manganese 8000 kg/m3 499.4 lb/ft3
Mercury 13600 kg/m3 849 lb/ft3
Mild Steel 7850 kg/m3 490.1 lb/ft3
Nickel 9000 kg/m3 561.9 lb/ft3
Platinum 21500 kg/m3 1342.2 lb/ft3
Silver 10600 kg/m3 661.7 lb/ft3
Stainless Steel 7930 kg/m3 495.1 lb/ft3
Tin 7500 kg/m3 468.2 lb/ft3
Titanium 4500 kg/m3 280.9 lb/ft3
Zinc 7200 kg/m3 449.5 lb/ft3

Wood / Timber Density Table

Wood / Timber Density Information

Wood / Timber Type

Density

Metric

Imperial

Balsa 170 kg/m3 10.6 lb/ft3
Bamboo 350 kg/m3 21.9 lb/ft3
Cedar 380 kg/m3 23.7 lb/ft3
Maple 755 kg/m3 47.1 lb/ft3
MDF 700 kg/m3 43.7 lb/ft3
Oak 600 kg/m3 37.5 lb/ft3
OSB 640 kg/m3 40.0 lb/ft3
Pine 450 kg/m3 28.1 lb/ft3
Plywood (Hardwood) 675 kg/m3 42.1 lb/ft3
Plywood (Softwood) 550 kg/m3 34.3 lb/ft3

Rubber / Plastic Density Table

Rubber / Plastic Density Information

Rubber / Plastic Type

Density

Metric

Imperial

Nylon (6) 1130 kg/m3 70.5 lb/ft3
PVC 1275 kg/m3 79.6 lb/ft3
Rubber 1060 kg/m3 66.2 lb/ft3

Other Substances Density Table

Other Substances Density Information

Material Type

Density

Metric

Imperial

Ice 920 kg/m3 57.4 lb/ft3
Snow (Compacted) 500 kg/m3 31.2 lb/ft3
Snow (Fresh Falling) 100 kg/m3 6.2 lb/ft3
Water 1000 kg/m3 62.4 lb/ft3

Other Helpful Weight Calculators

Calculators by Section Type:

Calculators by Material:


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Author: Jon Maxwell
Senior Writer, ToolCrowd
Jon Maxwell writes about various topics for ToolCrowd, including tool reviews, material advice, common home problems, and general DIY advice and how-to articles. His work has been published in national publications for audiences including consumers, homeowners, and industry experts. Jon has a bachelor's degree in Building Surveying and a master's degree in a branch of Civil Engineering focusing on concrete and steel durability. When he isn't writing for ToolCrowd, Jon enjoys completing DIY tasks in his own home, as well as woodworking in his home workshop, snowboarding, and website development. Contact Jonarrow_right_alt
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