SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
Waste is set to 8% by hand. Pick a tier above to replace it, or keep your own figure.
The plate's long dimension, off the fabrication drawing.
Use the plate as detailed rather than the column it sits on — the plate is almost always considerably larger, and it is the plate's edge that the margin is measured from. Where the plate is not rectangular, take the smallest rectangle that contains it.
The plate's other plan dimension.
A square plate makes the two the same, and the page still asks for both because a plate taking moment about one axis is often rectangular — and when it is, the pier it needs is rectangular too, in the same direction.
How much concrete stands outside every edge of the plate.
This is the figure the whole page turns on, and it is not a preference. It comes from the anchor's edge-distance requirement — a post-installed anchor close to a free edge loses capacity to a cone that breaks out sideways — and from the confinement the plate's bearing was designed on. Both are in the design. Entering less than the design assumed makes the pier smaller, the concrete cheaper, and the assumption behind the plate untrue.
From the top of whatever it stands on, up to the underside of the plate.
Measure to the CONCRETE, not to the steel: the grout bed under a baseplate is a separate item and a separate page, and including its thickness here quietly adds grout-thickness of concrete to every pier. Where the pier rises out of a pad footing, this is the height above the pad's top surface.
How many identical piers this pour covers.
Only piers of the same size. A frame with two plate sizes has two pier sizes, and running them together hides which pour is which — which matters, because they are usually formed and poured in one visit and the forms are cut to a size.
The margin for form deflection, spillage and over-break at the base.
Formed piers are a small pour with a lot of edge, so the loss is proportionally larger than on a slab. Eight per cent covers ordinary forms on a prepared base; raise it where the pier starts below ground against excavated faces, because over-break there is not waste so much as concrete going somewhere nobody measured.
Concrete for the piers
1.87 yd³
The volume is exact arithmetic on the size this page derived. What it cannot check is the margin you entered: that comes from the anchor's edge-distance requirement and from the bearing the plate was designed on, and the absence of a warning here is not approval of either.
- Pier length
- 24 in
- Pier width
- 24 in
- Plan area of one pier
- 4 ft²
- Volume per pier
- 0.43 yd³
- Base volume before waste
- 1.73 yd³
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Column Pier Size from Baseplate Edge Distance Calculator: 1.87 yd³ — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Pier plan size = plate dimension + 2 × the edge distance wanted on each side; concrete volume = pier length × pier width × pier height × the number of piers, plus a waste allowance
- The margin of concrete outside a baseplate is set by the anchor's edge-distance requirement and by the bearing assumption the plate was designed on — both come from the design, not from this page
Inputs used
- Baseplate Length
- 16 in
- Baseplate Width
- 16 in
- Concrete Margin Wanted Outside the Plate
- 4 in
- Pier Height
- 35 in
- Number of Piers
- 4
- Waste Allowance (%)
- 8
Intermediate steps
- Pier length
- 24 in
- Pier width
- 24 in
- Plan area of one pier
- 4 ft²
- Volume per pier
- 0.43 yd³
- Base volume before waste
- 1.73 yd³
Confidence note: The volume is exact arithmetic on the size this page derived. What it cannot check is the margin you entered: that comes from the anchor's edge-distance requirement and from the bearing the plate was designed on, and the absence of a warning here is not approval of either.
What this calculation does not cover
- It does not check bearing. Whether the concrete under the plate can carry the load is a design question, and the baseplate bearing page is where it belongs — a pier sized here can still be the wrong pier.
- It does not set the edge distance. That figure comes from the anchor manufacturer's requirement and from the assumption the plate was designed on, and entering a smaller one here produces a smaller pier and no warning, because this page has no way to know what your design assumed.
- It does not size reinforcement, and a pier with a column on it is very rarely unreinforced.
- It assumes a prismatic pier — the same rectangle all the way down. A pier that steps out to a pad footing near the base has a volume this does not describe.
Estimated cost — your price
This site holds no price list for this material — local prices vary too much to publish honestly. Enter your supplier's price and the result is costed with it.
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-09-20 · v1.0.0
Regulatory standards & verification citations2
- Pier plan size = plate dimension + 2 × the edge distance wanted on each side; concrete volume = pier length × pier width × pier height × the number of piers, plus a waste allowance
- The margin of concrete outside a baseplate is set by the anchor's edge-distance requirement and by the bearing assumption the plate was designed on — both come from the design, not from this page
Cite this page
Your workspace
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