Expert: Lynn Houston - 7/3/2010

Question
Hi Lynn! First let me say, thank you for devoting your time and efforts to this wonderful website. Now, I am someone that is "mathematically challenged", so I am hoping you can help me. My husband and I have just bought our first house, ( a mobile home) and before we have it set, we'd like to put a basement in, so here's my question:
Our house is 28X64, so we are going to assume that is the same size our basement will be.
A standard size cinderblock is "8x8x16".
Knowing this how many cinderblocks will we need to cover a 28x64 area with a height of 10 feet?
Any insights you can provide will be greatly appreciated and I thank you again for your time and efforts.

Answer
Since this is an real life project and not a homework assignment, I'm assuming you just need the bottom line.  2040 blocks.  If your measurements change and you want to figure out new dimensions, convert the feet to inches, then divide by either 8 or 16 (depending on whether you're figuring height or length) and don't forget the corners (you need to subtract 16 from either the width or length because the blocks will overlap in the corners.