What are the most common mistakes when trying to calculate the cost of installing a terrace?
1. One of the most common errors is the inaccurate calculation of terrace boards, requiring the required amount of materials. Very often customers only report length and width. Example: 7 m x 3.5 m, the question “how much will a 24.5 m2 terrace cost?”.
According to this logic, the area can be multiplied by the price per square meter and get an answer to the question. But such a calculation will not be accurate!
Why?
We produce WPC boards of different lengths, which allows for more accurate calculations.
Question: “How much will a terrace 7m x3.5m cost?” *
* Please note – the terrace does not only consist of WPC boards!
What materials are still needed?
In addition to boards, you also need screws, board fastenings (clips), lacquers, lacquer-bearing construction (supports, concrete foot, concrete pillar, etc.), decorative elements (for example, a covering strip).
The real situation is shown in the drawing, accurately measuring the terrace.
It is necessary to estimate the height of the terrace, because the number of boards also depends on it.As the height from the ground is 30 cm, in this case you will need either a step or a board around the perimeter to cover this height.
What is the difference between a correct calculation and inaccurate information?
And if there is enough material for the installation of the terrace, according to the calculation 7m x 3.5m = 24.5 m2?
a) If the standard 4 m long boards are used.
Taking 4 meters of standard boards, cutting them to the required length leaves cuts. Initially, “24.5 m2 WPC boards” were mentioned on request. It has 41.79 pieces of 4 meter long boards. Round up to 41 pcs. Let’s see what happens to these boards?
As you can see, it will not be possible to fully install the terrace, even if all the boards have already been used!
How many scraps will remain?
16 pcs. 0.475 m (because we left an additional 2.5 cm, because we anticipate the overlap covering the edge that will be around the perimeter) and 25 pcs. by 0.275 m (because in this case we placed the WPC board to the window and an additional distance of 20 cm deep to the window box occurs).
So we will get trimmings together: 7.60 m + 6.88 m. = 14.48 m
How many square meters will we lose? 2.17 m2? How much did it cost? And the terrace is not finished …
We continue our work. We still have to create the edges of the terrace and build the stairs.
So we will need an additional 17 WPC boards.
The result: when you order the remaining boards, they will probably be delivered in a slightly different shade, as they will already be from another production batch.
The terrace is completely covered with WPC boards. The following remnants of the additional boards remain: 12 x 0.475 m, because we use two additional pieces to cover the side edges of the stairs.
As we can see, WPC boards are lined on the terrace. However, we calculated the total amount and square footage of boards that were supposed to be for a “7m x 3.5m” patio using standard 4m long boards.
Total used: (41 pcs. + 17 pcs.) = 58 pcs. 4 m long boards
Area: (58 x 4 m) / 6.66 m = 34.83 m2
34.83 m2?
This 7m x 3.5 m is 24.25 m2, and if we request a quote indicating an inaccurate m2 area, we will also receive an inaccurate calculation. As our example shows, you will have to buy an additional 10 m2 to complete the terrace and you will get 2.92 m2 of waste that will be thrown away. And the money was paid for the scraps. It should be remembered that the boards are also used for stairs and the covering edge around the perimeter
b) If boards are used according to the ordered length, taking into account the drawing provided by the customer.
The result is:
How many boards do you need? What shape and size of the terrace?
25 pieces – 3.72 m; 25 pieces – 3.52 m; 1 piece – 7.05 m; 1 piece – 3m; 4 pieces – 4m; 1 piece – 4.5 m; 1 piece – 0.5 m. Total: 212.05 m. Let’s convert into square meters: 212.05 / 6.66 m = 31.83 m2. There is no significant refund left to pay for.
In this situation, we will try to get acquainted in as much detail as possible with the materials needed for the installation of the terrace:
Please note that in this case the boards are placed on a concrete base!
Required:
25 pieces – WPC board ART1 146x25x3720 mm;
25 pieces – WPC board ART1 146x25x 3520 mm;
1 piece – WPC board ART1 146x25x 7050 mm;
1 piece – WPC board ART1 146x25x 3000 mm;
4 pieces – WPC board ART1 146x25x 4000 mm;
1 piece – WPC board ART1 146x25x 4500 mm;
1 piece – WPC board ART1 146x25x 500 mm;
22 pcs. – WPC beam 30x40x3000 mm;
9 pieces – WPC finishing strip 54x10x3000 mm;
640 pcs – fasteners + stainless steel screws
30 pieces – start and end metal clips
If there is no ready-made concrete surface, then the foundation can be formed by concreting poles, screwing metal screw piles or displaying plastic adjustable feet.
What else makes up the cost of installing a terrace?
Load-bearing frame construction:
Different types of construction also require different materials. At the beginning, we recommend that you choose the most suitable type of load-bearing frame, according to the situation in the planned location.
2. Workforce. Whether you install the terrace yourself or entrust the work to professionals.
3. If you want to replace the old terrace with a new one, you have to take into account the additional costs of dismantling the old terrace.
Note. When choosing a load-bearing frame, consider whether a roof terrace will also be planned in the future, because when preparing a load-bearing frame for a terrace, supports or other structures for the roof structure must be prepared immediately.
Summary
Answering the question: “How much will a terrace 7m x 3.5m, with a total area of 24.5 m2?”. It is not possible to estimate exactly what budget should be planned to create a terrace.
A clear vision is always needed before installing a terrace to make the calculation as accurate as possible.