US to Metric Construction Unit Conversions
US construction projects commonly use feet, inches, square feet, and cubic yards, while most international standards and imported materials reference meters, millimeters, and cubic meters. This converter lets you switch between them instantly on the job site.
Key conversions: 1 inch = 25.4 mm (exact), 1 foot = 304.8 mm, 1 sq ft = 0.0929 m², and 1 cubic yard = 0.7646 m³. Concrete, gravel, and soil are typically ordered in cubic yards in the US but in cubic meters on metric specifications.
Frequently Asked Questions
1 m² = 10.7639 sq ft. A 1,000 sq ft home is approximately 92.9 m². Many building codes and international specifications use m², so this conversion comes up often.
In the US, concrete is almost always ordered in cubic yards (e.g., "4 yards of concrete"). One cubic yard = 0.7646 m³. Check with your supplier which unit they use, especially for imported mixes.
The inch was redefined in 1959 to be exactly 25.4 mm, making all inch-to-mm conversions exact. Prior to that, slight regional variations existed between the US and UK inch definitions.