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Building Volume Calculator

Work out building volume instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Building Volume Calculator

Gross building volume is footprint area times the number of floors times floor to floor height, with any basement added as footprint times its depth. Volume drives ventilation and heating load calculations and is the basis of cost per cubic metre benchmarking for warehouses and industrial buildings.

Formula

Building volume

m³ = footprint x floors x floor height + footprint x basement depth

Worked example

With the default values below, Building Volume Calculator returns Total building volume of 3,000.0. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Building footprintminimum 0.1 m²
200 m²
Number of floors above groundminimum 1
4
Floor to floor heightminimum 0.5 m
3 m
Basement depthminimum 0 m
3 m

Results

Total building volume
3,000.0 m³
Above ground volume
2,400.0 m³
Basement volume
600.0 m³
Overall height above ground
12.00 m

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Building volume
  3. 3Total building volume= 3,000.0 m³
  4. 4Above ground volume= 2,400.0 m³
  5. 5Basement volume= 600.0 m³
  6. 6Overall height above ground= 12.00 m

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the Building Volume figure worked out?

m³ = footprint x floors x floor height + footprint x basement depth. Gross building volume is footprint area times the number of floors times floor to floor height, with any basement added as footprint times its depth.

Why price by volume rather than area?

For tall single-storey buildings the cost is driven by cladding and structure height rather than floor area, so volume correlates better with cost than area does.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 4 inputs: Building footprint, Number of floors above ground, Floor to floor height, Basement depth. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic worked example — replace them with your own site or project figures.

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Building Volume Calculator – Calculate Total building volume