Construction Unit Converter

What is the construction unit converter?

Building work mixes measuring systems all the time. Drawings come in millimetres, timber is sold in feet, land is measured in acres, guntha or cents, and concrete is ordered in cubic metres or cubic yards. This converter turns one value into every common unit at once, so you can compare quotes, read foreign plans and check supplier figures without doing the maths by hand.

How to convert units

1. Choose the Length, Area or Volume tab.
2. Type a value and pick the unit you are converting from.
3. Read the table of results, which updates as you type.
4. Press Copy all conversions to paste the full list into a message or spreadsheet.

The Units toggle switches the starting unit between metres and feet and keeps the same quantity, which is handy when you mostly work in one system.

Units included

• Length: millimetres, centimetres, metres, kilometres, inches, feet, yards and miles, plus feet-inches input and output such as 5′ 7 1/2″.
• Area: square millimetres, square centimetres, square metres, hectares, square kilometres, square inches, square feet, square yards and acres.
• Indian land units: guntha, defined as 1,089 square feet (about 101.17 square metres), and cent, defined as 435.6 square feet or one hundredth of an acre (about 40.47 square metres).
• Volume: cubic metres, litres, cubic centimetres, cubic feet, cubic yards, cubic inches, US gallons and imperial gallons.

Typing feet and inches

Choose Feet and inches in the From list and type values the way you would write them: 5′ 7 1/2″, 5ft 7in, 5′-7″ or just 67″. Fractions such as 3/8 are understood. The results include a feet-inches line rounded to the nearest sixteenth of an inch, which matches a standard tape measure.

Tips

The international inch is exactly 25.4 mm and the foot is exactly 0.3048 m, so length conversions here are exact. Land units can differ by region and by old local custom, so confirm guntha, cent and similar units with your local land records before buying or selling property. When ordering ready-mix concrete, check whether your supplier quotes in cubic metres or cubic yards, because one cubic yard is only about 0.76 cubic metres.

Common conversions on site

A few conversions come up again and again. One metre is about 3 feet 3 3/8 inches. One square metre is about 10.76 square feet, so a 1,000 square foot flat is roughly 93 square metres. One hectare is about 2.47 acres. One cubic metre holds 1,000 litres or about 264 US gallons, which helps when sizing a water tank. Type any of these into the converter to see the full list of equivalents.