Counting a builders' yard: heavy goods and open areas

Counting a builders' yard or a building-materials shop differs from counting a clothing or food warehouse. Cement bags, rebar, pipes, boxes of tiles, pallets of bricks, sheets of plasterboard: the goods are heavy and bulky, often stand in an open yard, and one position may be kept in several units of measure. So the standard counting method does not work here, and the sources of error are different. Below are the main rules.

Units of measure: the main source of error

In building materials most differences come from confusion over units. In the books a pipe is kept in metres, while in the yard six-metre lengths are counted in pieces. Tiles are in square metres in the books but lie in boxes. Cement is in kilograms or tonnes in the books and in bags in the yard.

Before the count, add a coefficient column to the list: "1 box = 1.44 m²" or "1 length = 6 m" (conditional figures, put in your own). The counter counts pieces or boxes, and the table does the rest of the conversion. An example: the books show 288 m² of tiles and one box holds 1.44 m², so the yard should hold 200 boxes (288 ÷ 1.44 = 200). If the counter finds 195 boxes, the difference is 5 boxes, or 7.2 m². Pay special attention to opened, part-full boxes and offcuts: they are stock too and should be counted in a separate place.

Counting by pallets and layers

Closely stacked goods are slow to count piece by piece, and error-prone. Instead use counting by layers: bags per layer × number of layers + the incomplete top layer. For example, 12 bags in a layer, 8 full layers and 5 bags on top. The calculation: 12 × 8 + 5 = 101 bags.

Check two points. First, whether the layers really are identical, since the middle of a pallet may be empty or hide other goods. Second, the top layers, which are often incomplete and get left uncounted. For bricks, blocks and tiles the routine is the same: rows × height. Stick a label with the number from the list on the pallet, and the next count will go faster. Do not mix broken tiles, bent rebar and torn bags with sound goods either: put them in a separate zone and count them separately.

The open yard and the weather

Working in an open yard has its own rules:

• Divide the yard into zones and number each one. In a large yard stacks and rows are quickly confused.
• In rain and snow a paper list is hard to use. Put the paper in a plastic folder and take a permanent marker, not a pencil.
• Labels peel off or become unreadable in damp. For positions outdoors, stick the label under film or on the box.
• Protect the scanner or phone from rain and choose a version that is easy to use with gloves.
• Plan the count for daylight: in the dark, errors in an open yard multiply.
• The same item may lie both in the yard and in a covered store. Combine both places into one position, so the goods do not turn into two different rows.

For cement and dry mixes add one more check: that the bags are not damp or torn. A damaged bag is marked separately in the count.

Loose and bulk goods

Heaps of sand, gravel and rubble cannot be counted piece by piece. Their quantity is estimated by volume: length × width × average height, adjusted for the shape of the heap. The result is approximate, so agree in advance what deviation is acceptable in the books. If possible, compare it with weighbridge documents for receiving and dispatch.

Safety and machinery

With heavy goods, safety matters more than speed. During the count, forklifts and lorries should not move in the zone being counted. Use a ladder or platform for the upper rows, and no worker should lift heavy bags alone. A responsible person controls machinery movement in each zone.

Conclusion

In building materials, success rests on three things: units of measure and coefficients written down in advance, counting by layers, and a plan for the open yard and the weather. Before a count at builders' yards, StockCheck agrees the list of units and coefficients, and delivers the report as Excel, PDF or a file for 1C.