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Discussion Forum

weight of standard construction material

| Posted in General Discussion on January 12, 2005 09:51am

For a book I’m writing, anybody know–or have a good guess–at the weights of the following:

*1/2 inch regular wallboard, 4×8 sheet?

*1/2 inch CDX sheathng plywood, 4×8?

*one bundle of fiberglas shingles, 25 yr?

*ALL nails in a standard 1800 sq ft Cape-style house?

*total weight of 1800 Cape-style house, not including foundation?

Reply

Replies

  1. Piffin | Jan 12, 2005 10:21pm | #1

    That last Cape I worked on was 30x50 from 1800 exactly.

    The house mover who lifted it or us had a way of estimating weight based on the connections and gauges onhis compressor for all the lift jacks. If I remember right, he said it ran about 38,000 pounds, sans chimney and foundation

    Shingles, - c.80#

    plywood - 42# - 50# ( did they use plywood on old Capes?, LOL

    rock - 70# - 72#

    6-800# nails

     

     

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  2. BUIC | Jan 13, 2005 07:07am | #2

    sheetrock is the easy one to answer, a 4x8 sheet weighs 14 pounds per 1/8" of thickness... so 1/2" rock is 56 lbs.  -  5/8" rock is 70 lbs. and so on.  Let us know what the final number is for the whole kit and kaboodle   BUIC

    1. BHarold | Jan 13, 2005 08:30pm | #9

      Piffin has a higher figure (and sounds like he knows). Who's right?For the sake of the book I'm going with the highest reasonable sounding figure.

  3. J2020 | Jan 13, 2005 10:06am | #3

    "*ALL nails in a standard 1800 sq ft Cape-style house?"

    This seems like a question that could start WW3 on this board.

    Having never built a Cape, I'll take a stab off the top of my head. Lot's of variables here too...

    Sheathing, floor, roof all nailed. Pre-fab roof trusses:

    550 lbs.

     

     

    1. brownbagg | Jan 13, 2005 04:37pm | #4

      How many boxes of nail does it take to build a house

      1. User avater
        jagwah | Jan 13, 2005 05:14pm | #5

        Don't know

        but I know

        How many Breaktimers does it take to roof a house...

         

         

        Only 1...But ya gotta slice 'em real thin.

         

        Edited 1/13/2005 9:14 am ET by JAGWAH

  4. DThompson | Jan 13, 2005 05:14pm | #6

    FYI concrete is 160 pounds per cubic foot x 27 = 4320 pounds per cubic yard, Hard to imagine that an average 20' x 20' garage slabe weighs 21,000 pounds.

    1. ClaysWorld | Jan 13, 2005 07:23pm | #7

      Not hard to beleive when you load your pickup with it.

      1. DThompson | Jan 13, 2005 08:14pm | #8

        45c below here this morning and I am not going out so I can spend some time on triva. How much concrete could you get in the back of a pick-up and how much will it weigh? I'm going out to measure up my GMC if you don't hear from me you know I froze and got stuck to the truck. Back in a few.

        1. DThompson | Jan 13, 2005 08:35pm | #10

          My GMC box, with a liner is 6'-2' x 1'-6" x 7'-10', approximately, which comes to about 72.5 cubic feet or 2.67 cubic yards which weighs 11,600 pounds. That would be one low rider I'm telling you.

        2. ClaysWorld | Jan 13, 2005 08:58pm | #11

          Just in fun, but the last time I did that was the last time I'll do that.

           I had a job back when and it was a friends girlfriend that  I was replacing the driveway/bust out the old. So he's like tring to save her money and want's to use my truck while I'm jackn it and he and here are loading an running to the dump. Hmmmm he's back quick or hmmm im slow bustin this crap up. Any way at the end I barely get the truck and me back home , tranny slippn bad.

          and that was the end of that truck, and I'm sure glad I saved them lots of$$$$

          I did go with the house when it got sold, so since then I've done like maybe 80k  so I guess well call it advertising.

          Hmmmm maybe I should do that more often????? Opps forgot I don't jack that create no mo

  5. ClaysWorld | Jan 13, 2005 09:14pm | #12

    I've got a book that has a couple of pages of wight data, Basic Building Data by Don Graff. Third edition pg 94-95. I'll see if I can attach it.

    couldn't get it to load and I'm out of time, later.

    1. BHarold | Jan 13, 2005 10:41pm | #13

      Hi. Thanks for the thought. This MAC doesnt like to download files except for pdfs. If you could, I would be interested in what the book says just about the specific materials I mentioned...

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