Building a terrace yourself is a piece of cake. Calculating the required decking boards, on the other hand, is a bit more difficult. Nothing goes wrong with these formulas.
Building a terrace yourself certainly sounds difficult at first. But that's not it at all. Calculating the required decking boards is much more tricky. And that doesn't just apply to the flooring itself - after all, you also have to build a wooden substructure beforehand. And of course the material requirements for this also have to be calculated. After all, you don't want to buy too many supplies and spend way too much money, do you?
You don't need to be a math genius to calculate the material requirements either. After all, there are simple formulas that can be used to determine this very easily. And it doesn't matter whether you choose WPC decking or wooden decking.
Preparation for the calculation
Before you can calculate anything at all, it is important that you mark out the terrace or its area with the help of stakes and a string. Please always work very precisely, because you need the measurements that you then have to take for the exact material calculation.
Calculate amount of decking needed
If you would like to calculate the material requirements for decking boards, then you must note a few important values before the calculation. You need:
- width of terrace
- the width of the decking boards
- Joint width between the planks (0.5 cm)
- Wall connection joint (1 cm)
You can then use these values to calculate the amount of decking you need. You do it like this:
Terrace Width : ((Terrace Board Width + 0.5) + 1)=Number of Deck Boards Required
Add 10 percent waste to this result.
Calculate material requirements for the substructure
Of course you also have to calculate the material requirements for wooden beams for the substructure. After all, you can't lay as many wooden beams as you want. It's also important that you know thatSupporting beams of the substructure are always laid across the decking boards. So take a folding rule and measure the length from the building exit to the garden. With the knowledge that the beams are always laid at a distance of approx. 50 centimeters, you can then calculate the material requirements. You do it like this:
Length of terrace : 50 (distance between joists)=required number of joists
If your terrace is 300 centimeters long, for example, calculate 300 : 50=6. You will then need 6 construction timbers. Then add 5 percent for the waste to the result.