What's the difference between a footing and a grade beam?

A footing directly bears on soil; a grade beam typically spans between piers or piles and doesn't rely on continuous soil bearing — geometrically they're calculated the same way.

Does this include rebar?

No — see the Rebar Calculator or the Concrete Slab + Rebar Combined Mass Calculator for reinforcement.

How do I measure the length around a building with corners?

Along the centreline, as the length field asks, and the corners come out right on their own. Measuring the outside perimeter instead counts each outside corner square twice, adding the footing width squared times the depth at every corner — four of them on a rectangle. Where an internal footing meets an external one in a tee, measure the branch to the face of the footing it joins rather than to its centreline, or the overlap is counted twice as well.

What depth do I enter for trench-fill, or for a footing under a foundation wall?

The depth of concrete actually placed, which depends on the foundation type. A UK trench-fill foundation fills the trench with concrete to near ground level, so the depth entered is most of the trench depth and the volume is far larger than a traditional strip foundation's, where a shallower band of concrete carries brick or blockwork up to ground level. In North America a footing carries a poured or block foundation wall (a stem wall); enter only the footing's own thickness and take the wall as a separate volume.

What goes under a grade beam that this volume leaves out?

On clay that swells and shrinks with its moisture content, a grade beam spanning between piles is often cast over a void former — a collapsible cardboard form or compressible board in the bottom of the excavation, so that heaving ground cannot lift the beam. The former takes up depth in the dig but no concrete, so enter the beam's own depth rather than the depth excavated, and order the formers separately. UK practice calls this heave protection under ground beams on shrinkable clay; in North America cardboard void forms do the same job on expansive soils.

How is the concrete ordered in each market?

The result gives cubic metres with a cubic-yard equivalent: UK and Canadian ready-mixed suppliers take orders in cubic metres, US ones in cubic yards. A UK order also names a designated or designed mix suited to the ground, including any sulfate in the soil, while a North American order names a specified compressive strength — in psi in the US, MPa in Canada — and a slump. The volume is the same whichever you name; round it up to the increment the supplier sells in before booking the delivery.

Materials & Quantities

Continuous Footing / Grade Beam Volume Calculator

Estimate the concrete volume needed for a continuous strip footing or grade beam.

Answers as you typeNo submit button
Every formula citedNamed published standards
Calculated in your browserNo account, nothing uploaded

SettingsSettings for this calculationUS

Market

Imperial · sales tax

Who is doing the work?

Waste is set to 5% by hand. Pick a tier above to replace it, or keep your own figure.

Footing Length

The total linear length of the continuous footing or grade beam.

Measure along the centerline of the footing run.

Footing Width

The cross-sectional width of the footing.

Residential strip footings are commonly 16-24 in (0.4-0.6m) wide.

Footing Depth

The cross-sectional depth (height) of the footing.

Depends on frost line and load requirements — check local code.

Waste Factor (%)

Extra concrete for spillage and formwork irregularities.

5% is standard for a straightforward strip footing pour.

Concrete volume needed

6.844 yd³

High confidence

Base volume (no waste): 6.52 yd³
Equivalent in cubic yards: 6.84 yd³

Then change the inputs to see how far the answer moves.

Show calculation logic

How this was calculated

Formula source(s)

Concrete volume = length x width x depth, the standard geometric formula for a continuous rectangular-section footing or grade beam

Inputs used

Footing Length: 66 ft
Footing Width: 24 in
Footing Depth: 16 in
Waste Factor (%): 5

Intermediate steps

Base volume (no waste): 6.52 yd³
Equivalent in cubic yards: 6.84 yd³

Final result6.84 yd³

What this calculation does not cover

A GRADE BEAM AND A STRIP FOOTING ARE NOT THE SAME ELEMENT, and nothing here distinguishes them. A grade beam spans between piles or pads and is designed in bending, with steel top and bottom; a strip footing bears continuously and spreads load into the ground. They can share a rectangular cross-section and an identical concrete volume while having entirely different reinforcement, and the volume is the only thing this returns.
A VOLUME, NOT A DESIGN. The width, depth and reinforcement of a footing come from the load it carries and the ground it sits on, and this takes all three as given. It answers what to order, not what to build.
Excavation is not the same shape as concrete. Trench sides slump, over-dig happens at every corner, and soft spots get dug out and filled — which is why the volume placed routinely exceeds the volume calculated by more than the waste allowance covers, and why the allowance is worth setting from experience of the ground rather than from a default.
Frost depth, the founding stratum and the water table decide how deep the footing goes before any of this arithmetic starts. A footing at the right size and the wrong depth is a heave failure waiting for a cold winter.
Steps in a footing on sloping ground add concrete at every step and are easy to leave out of a straight-run take-off.
Formwork, blinding, reinforcement, spacers and any waterproofing or damp-proof membrane are separate quantities that are not derived from the volume above.

Estimated cost — your price

Price per yd³ ($)

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.

Part of bigger jobs

This trade is one line of several job takeoffs. Run the whole job and every other trade comes back with it, off the same measurements.

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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 2026-09-02 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.1

Regulatory standards & verification citations1

Concrete volume = length x width x depth, the standard geometric formula for a continuous rectangular-section footing or grade beam

Cite this page

Your workspace

Most jobs need more than one number. Add the calculators you need next and they open right here, underneath this one — your figures stay on screen and nothing is lost to a page change.

Tools and safety for this job

To place and finish concrete, erect formwork, fix reinforcement and excavate by hand. Generic types, no brands, no prices.

Protection this work requires

Hardwood dust is a recognised carcinogen: extract at the tool and wear a P2/N95 respirator when cutting or sanding indoors.
Wet cement and lime burn skin and eyes painlessly until the damage is done: waterproof gloves to EN 374, safety glasses whenever the mix can splash, and never kneel in wet mix in permeable trousers.
Saws, grinders and breakers run above 85 dB, where hearing damage accumulates and does not recover: defenders or plugs for every cut, not just the long ones.
Breakers and grinders cause permanent nerve damage: limit continuous trigger time, keep hands warm, and stop if fingers tingle or blanch.
Boards, blocks and bagged material cause most lasting back injuries on small sites: two people or a lifter for full sheets, and never a bag on one shoulder up a ladder.
Nailing, chiselling and cutting all throw fragments: glasses to EN 166 or ANSI Z87.1, and goggles rather than glasses overhead.
Digging blind strikes gas, water and power every day: get the plans, scan with a cable avoidance tool, and hand-dig trial holes over anything you find.

Show the 16 tools this job needs

Essential

Bull float and edger
Cable and pipe detector
Circular saw
Claw hammer
Screed bar or rail
Shovel and spade
Spirit level
String line and pins
Tape measure
Wheelbarrow

Recommended

Cordless drill/driver
Plate compactor
Rebar cutter and bender
Rebar tying tool

Optional

Angle grinder
Power float

Also needed as materials: circular saw blades, cutting and diamond discs, drill and driver bits, tie wire.

what each concrete tool is for and what each groundwork tool is for, and the spec that decides which to buy where one does.

Now that you have the number

These guides cover the work this quantity is for — the first ones run this calculator inside the section that raises the question.

A Seat Wall: Height, Depth and the Concrete Under Ituses this calculator
Sitting height is a sum with the cap inside it, seat depth is bought in cubic metres, and the footing is sized by frost because nothing above it weighs enough.
Building a Free-Standing Garden Wall That Stays Upuses this calculator
A boundary wall is a cantilever held down by nothing but its own weight. Where the piers, the trench width, the DPC and the coping come from.
Building an Extension Over or Near a Drainuses this calculator
A manhole inside the footprint is a consent question before it is a building one: whose pipe it is, whether it moves, and who signs it off.

Called something else where you work? Footing and foundation — the term in each market, how close the equivalence really is, and the standard that governs it.

Still deciding? Pad Footings vs Continuous Strip Footing · Frost-Protected Shallow Foundation vs Deep Footing — the factors that actually differ, with no invented prices.

Worked example: Brick garden wall — step 2 of 8

The data behind it: Production rates by operation

How to calculate continuous footing / grade beam volume in 5 steps

Footing LengthThe total linear length of the continuous footing or grade beam.
Footing WidthThe cross-sectional width of the footing.
Footing DepthThe cross-sectional depth (height) of the footing.
Waste Factor (%)Extra concrete for spillage and formwork irregularities.
Concrete volume neededThe tool computes the concrete volume needed from those figures and shows the formula, its sources, and a confidence rating alongside it.

Concrete volume needed by footing length

Page defaults, not your figures above.

Footing Length	Concrete volume needed (yd³)
40 ft	4.02
60 ft	6.03
80 ft	8.04
100 ft	10
120 ft	12.1

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between a footing and a grade beam?: A footing directly bears on soil; a grade beam typically spans between piers or piles and doesn't rely on continuous soil bearing — geometrically they're calculated the same way.
Does this include rebar?: No — see the Rebar Calculator or the Concrete Slab + Rebar Combined Mass Calculator for reinforcement.
How do I measure the length around a building with corners?: Along the centreline, as the length field asks, and the corners come out right on their own. Measuring the outside perimeter instead counts each outside corner square twice, adding the footing width squared times the depth at every corner — four of them on a rectangle. Where an internal footing meets an external one in a tee, measure the branch to the face of the footing it joins rather than to its centreline, or the overlap is counted twice as well.
What depth do I enter for trench-fill, or for a footing under a foundation wall?: The depth of concrete actually placed, which depends on the foundation type. A UK trench-fill foundation fills the trench with concrete to near ground level, so the depth entered is most of the trench depth and the volume is far larger than a traditional strip foundation's, where a shallower band of concrete carries brick or blockwork up to ground level. In North America a footing carries a poured or block foundation wall (a stem wall); enter only the footing's own thickness and take the wall as a separate volume.
What goes under a grade beam that this volume leaves out?: On clay that swells and shrinks with its moisture content, a grade beam spanning between piles is often cast over a void former — a collapsible cardboard form or compressible board in the bottom of the excavation, so that heaving ground cannot lift the beam. The former takes up depth in the dig but no concrete, so enter the beam's own depth rather than the depth excavated, and order the formers separately. UK practice calls this heave protection under ground beams on shrinkable clay; in North America cardboard void forms do the same job on expansive soils.
How is the concrete ordered in each market?: The result gives cubic metres with a cubic-yard equivalent: UK and Canadian ready-mixed suppliers take orders in cubic metres, US ones in cubic yards. A UK order also names a designated or designed mix suited to the ground, including any sulfate in the soil, while a North American order names a specified compressive strength — in psi in the US, MPa in Canada — and a slump. The volume is the same whichever you name; round it up to the increment the supplier sells in before booking the delivery.

Preliminary estimate, not certified engineering. This tool produces an indicative quantity calculation for planning purposes only — it is not a certified structural analysis, a guaranteed material takeoff, or a substitute for building department approval. Always verify measurements on-site and have a licensed contractor or structural engineer review any load-bearing, code-sensitive, or safety-critical work before purchasing materials or starting construction. Spotted an arithmetic or standards error? Report it to contact@craftquantities.com with your inputs — a confirmed fix gets a permanent check of its own, so the same mistake cannot come back.