Steel weight calculator
Two jobs, both estimate-grade: convert bar counts and lengths into kilograms with the D² ÷ 162 rule (what the steel shop bills by), and budget how much steel a house roughly needs per square foot or per m³ of concrete. It is deliberately not a bar bending schedule — reinforcement design belongs to a structural engineer.
Bar weight (D² ÷ 162)
Budget bands (thumb rules — not a design)
Where the built-up area comes from
The buildable footprint and floor count for a plot are computed by the Plot2Plan generator from the building rules — generate a plan and the materials card carries its built-up area straight into this estimate.
Common questions
How is TMT bar weight calculated?
Weight per metre = diameter² ÷ 162 (from IS 1786). So an 8 mm bar weighs 0.395 kg/m, 12 mm is 0.889 kg/m, 16 mm is 1.58 kg/m. A standard 12 m length of 12 mm bar weighs about 10.7 kg, and steel is sold by weight, so this is exactly how the shop bills you.
How much steel does a house need per square foot?
Ordinary G+1/G+2 residential RCC work lands around 3.5–4.5 kg of steel per square foot of built-up area. A 1,200 sq ft build is therefore roughly 4.2–5.4 tonnes. Use the band for budgeting; the real quantity comes from the structural drawings.
How much steel per m³ of concrete?
Typical residential ranges: slabs 70–90 kg/m³, beams 130–180, columns 150–220, footings 75–90, staircases 100–140. Element type matters more than anything else — a column carries far more steel than the same volume of slab.
Can this replace a bar bending schedule?
No, deliberately. A bar bending schedule sets bar sizes, spacing, laps, hooks and bends from the structural design, and only a structural engineer produces it. This calculator does quantity and budget arithmetic — counting kilograms, not designing reinforcement.