As we all know, a skyscraper is believed to be a building at least 150 meters tall with more than 40 floors. Their great heights earned them the name skyscrapers. Typically, skyscrapers are built to provide more space for offices, hotels, residents, and so on.
The weight of an average skyscraper is around 222,500 tons, per different records. This weight is measured by multiplying the total number of floors by the total weight of materials used on each floor.
In calculating the weight of a skyscraper, the footprint and thickness of each floor’s reinforced concrete will be considered. In addition, the live load can also be considered to increase the accuracy of the result. Usually, the base slab and foundational materials are excluded during the calculations.
No, not all tall buildings are skyscrapers. The minimum number of stories for a skyscraper should be 40, although there are some skyscrapers with a lesser story. However, they are still considered skyscrapers because of their closeness to them.
Looking at a skyscraper from the ground, it will seem as if the sky above has been cleared and the building has gone into the sky.
How Heavy Is a Building?
Determining the heaviness of a building is no child’s play and can be very easy if you know what to do. To do this, you will follow a rule of thumb that states that to determine the weight of any substance accurately, you have to give a value to the varying elements in terms of weight and volume.
You must also note that adding live loads is important to measure accurately. That is because live loads are moveable items in the building, such as furniture, electrical appliances, and so on, according to the Indian Standard (I.S.) Codes of measuring the weight of a storey building.
Notably, another established rule denotes that every story house weighs 2000 pounds (a ton) for every square foot, while a two-story house weighs above 2750 pounds for every square foot.
So, we can say that the weight of a ten-storey building is 20 000 pounds for every square foot. However, you should not rely fully on this calculation as there will be variations in different buildings.
How Much Does a Skyscraper Cost?
Skyscrapers are one of the most beautiful buildings around the globe and are very expensive to own. Completing a skyscraper during construction can take several years and cost billions of dollars.
The cost of a skyscraper is influenced by many factors such as the size, location, layout, and reason for constructing the skyscraper.
Are All Heavy Buildings Tall?
We have many buildings around the globe with large weights due to the materials used in building them. It should be noted that although a big house will be heavy, it does not imply that it is heavier than a small house. The size of the materials used in building a house will determine its overall weight.
Largest Skyscrapers in the World
Below are examples of the largest structures around the globe, and do not be surprised that not all of them are skyscrapers.
The Palace Of Parliament
This place is one of the world’s hugest structures and is structured in the capital city of Romania, Bucharest. The building weighs above 3 million tons and has just 12 floors. Surprisingly, the building took more than 13 years to be completed.
One World Trade Center
This heritage building is structured in New York City, the U.S.U.S., and has a height of 1792 ft measured from its peak to its base. The building weighs up to half a million (500,000) tons and occupies over 3 million sq ft of space to hold a position as one of the gigantic structures around the globe.
Pyramid of Khufu
It is known that pyramids are built out of very large stones, and the Khufu pyramid in Cairo, Egypt is evidence of this. The pyramid, known as the Pyramid of Giza, is a key member of the Seven Wonders of the World, weighing over 5,000,000 tons.
NASA Vehicle Assembly Building
This large building is among the largest buildings around the globe with extreme weight and was constructed using approximately 98 600 tons of steel. The building is structured on Merritt Island in Florida and serves as the building base of the US NASA for vehicles and rockets.
Great Mosque Of Mecca
Mosques are generally spacious buildings that occupy a large area of land. For example, the Great Mosque of Mecca occupies over 100 acres of land and covers over 5 million sq ft. The size of the materials for its construction is around 850 000 tons approximately.
The Burj Khalifa
This building is tagged as the tallest building around the globe and measures 2 716.5 ft in height. In addition, it is one of the heaviest globally, weighing more than 2.2 million tons. Burj Khalifa is structured in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.).
New Century Global Center
This center is structured in Chengdu, China, and is very large, covering about 19 million sq ft. More than 4 million sq ft of the land is used as shopping malls, while the other part of the land is used as iMax theatres and hotels. The building weighs about 2.3 million tons.
Conclusion
Discovering the heaviness of a building is not related to and cannot be estimated from the height of such a building. And this can be seen from the above explanation, from which some buildings are not up to half the height of a skyscraper but are heavier than skyscrapers.
To accurately determine the heaviness of a skyscraper, you must consider the nature of the building materials used, live loads, and some other necessary parts.
