Units of measurement in an Indian BOQ

Every item in a BOQ is measured in a specific unit, and the unit is not a formatting choice. It follows from how the item is executed and how it is priced. Concrete is bought and placed by volume, so it is measured by volume. Plaster is applied to a surface, so it is measured by area. Doors are made and hung individually, so they are counted.

Getting a unit wrong does not produce a slightly wrong number — it produces a nonsensical one, and it usually survives review because the figure looks reasonable in isolation.

The unit assignments below follow IS 1200 and standard schedule practice. Where your project specification states its own rules, those take precedence — check against the standard before relying on these figures for a bill you are bound by.

The units

Abbreviation	Unit	Used for
cum, m³	Cubic metre	Volume — concrete, masonry, earthwork
sqm, m²	Square metre	Area — plaster, flooring, painting, shuttering
rmt, m	Running metre	Length — skirting, cornice, pipes, railings
kg	Kilogram	Weight — reinforcement steel, structural steel
MT, t	Metric tonne	Bulk steel, large quantities
nos	Number	Countable items — doors, windows, fixtures
quintal	100 kg	Occasionally in older schedules for steel

Imperial units — cft, sqft, running foot — persist in Indian residential practice and in client conversation, even where the BOQ itself is metric. Mixing the two within one document is a real hazard.

Item by item

Earthwork and foundation

Item	Unit
Excavation in foundation	cum
Earth filling in trenches and plinth	cum
Sand filling under floors	cum
Anti-termite treatment	sqm
PCC bed	cum

Excavation is measured by the volume removed, from ground level to founding depth. Filling is measured by the volume placed, which is not the excavation volume less the structure — it is measured separately.

Concrete and reinforcement

Item	Unit
RCC in footings, columns, beams, slabs	cum
Reinforcement steel	kg
Shuttering / centering / formwork	sqm

The three units together are why concrete work is three separate BOQ items. Volume, weight and contact area are not derivable from one another, and each is priced differently.

Shuttering is measured by contact area — the surface the formwork touches, not the plan area of the member. A beam's shuttering includes both sides and the soffit; a column's includes all four faces.

Masonry

Item	Unit
Brickwork 230mm and above	cum
Brickwork 115mm and below	sqm
Block masonry	cum or sqm by thickness
Stone masonry	cum

This is the unit change people miss. Walls of half-brick thickness and below are measured by area, not volume, because thickness is constant and volume adds no information. A 115mm partition measured in cum and priced against a cum rate meant for 230mm work gives a wrong figure in both directions.

Finishes

Item	Unit
Internal plaster 12mm	sqm
External plaster 15mm or 20mm	sqm
Ceiling plaster	sqm
Painting, internal and external	sqm
Primer, putty	sqm
POP / gypsum punning	sqm

Plaster thickness is part of the item description, not the unit. 12mm and 15mm plaster are different items at different rates, both measured in sqm.

Flooring

Item	Unit
Tile, stone, marble flooring	sqm
Skirting	rmt or sqm
Dado and wall tiling	sqm
Floor screed / base	sqm or cum

Skirting is the ambiguous one. Some schedules measure it in running metres with the height in the description; others in square metres. Either is defensible; mixing them within one BOQ is not. State which convention applies.

Joinery and openings

Item	Unit
Door and window frames	rmt or cum of timber
Door shutters	sqm or nos
Windows, supply and fix	sqm or nos
Grills and railings	sqm or kg
Lintels	cum

Joinery is where units vary most between schedules. A flush door might be nos where sizes are standard, or sqm where they vary. The BOQ must be explicit, because a contractor pricing per-number against a per-sqm intention will be wrong by a wide margin.

Waterproofing and services

Item	Unit
Terrace waterproofing	sqm
Toilet and wet-area waterproofing	sqm
Pipes	rmt
Sanitary fixtures	nos
Electrical points	nos or point

Conversions worth knowing

Brass deserves a note. It is a traditional unit of 100 cubic feet, still used for sand and aggregate in parts of India. A supplier quoting per brass and a BOQ written in cum need converting, and the factor is 2.832 cum per brass.

Where unit errors actually happen

Thumb-rule figures carried across systems. Steel at "4 kg per sqft" is a hybrid — weight per imperial area. Converting the area to sqm without converting the rate gives a figure roughly ten times wrong. It looks obviously wrong at the total, which is why it usually gets caught. Smaller versions of the same error do not.

Rates quoted in one unit against quantities in another. A market rate per cft applied to a quantity in cum overstates by 35 times. Again usually caught — but a rate per sqft against a quantity in sqm overstates by 10.76, which on a single item can pass review.

Half-brick walls measured in cum. As above. This one survives because both the quantity and the rate look plausible.

Skirting mixed between rmt and sqm within one BOQ, so the total is meaningless.

The discipline that prevents all four: put the unit in every intermediate calculation, not just the final line. A measurement sheet where each step carries its unit makes a mismatch visible; one that carries bare numbers does not.

For how these units apply through a full takeoff, see how to make a BOQ from architectural drawings. For deduction rules within each item, see deductions in brickwork and plaster measurement. For what sits inside the rate each unit is priced against, see how to prepare a rate analysis.

Frequently asked questions

What does cum mean in a BOQ?

Cubic metre — the unit for volume items such as concrete, masonry above half-brick thickness, and earthwork. It may also be written m³.

Why is 115mm brickwork measured in square metres?

Because the thickness is constant, so volume carries no information that area does not. Half-brick and thinner walls are measured by area and priced against an area rate, which is a different rate from the volume rate used for 230mm work.

What is a brass in construction?

A traditional unit equal to 100 cubic feet, still used for sand and aggregate in parts of India. One brass is 2.832 cubic metres.

Is shuttering measured by plan area or contact area?

Contact area — the total surface the formwork touches. A beam’s shuttering includes both sides and the soffit, so it substantially exceeds the beam’s plan footprint.

Which standard defines BOQ units?

IS 1200, the Indian standard method of measurement of building and civil engineering works, published in parts covering different trades. Where a project specification defines its own units, those govern, but the deviation should be stated explicitly.