How do I calculate cement and sand in 1:5 mortar ?

Actually, there are two types of mortar 1) Dry Mortar 2) Wet Mortar.

Dry Mortar only consist of dry cement, dry sand whereas in wet mortar we mix water with dry sand and cement.

Let us first calculate cement and sand in 1:5 dry mortar.

The quantity can be calculated in two way one is by weight and the other way is by volume.Let first consider volume method for calculation of cement and sand quantity in 1 : 5 dry mortar.

Dry quantity of mortar is always 1.2 to 1.3 times more then wet mortar, this due to voids present in small grain of sand and cement.

let start calculate the quantity of dry mortar by volume method.

formula :

Volume of dry ingredient = Volume of dry mortar x (Parts by volume of ingredient / Total parts of ingredient)

As we discussed above volume of dry mortar will be 1.2 to 1.3 more then wet mortar.

Quantity of cement in Cement Mortar

In 1:5 cement mortar 1 part is the cement and 5 part is of sand. total quantity of ingredient will be 1+5=6. Now we put value in above formula.

Volume of dry ingredient= (1.3x1)/6 = 0.1266

Since the cement is available in bags, volume of 1 cement bag (50kg) is 0.0347 m3

= (1.3×1)/(6×0.0347) = 6.24 bags of cement will be use in 1m3 of mortar.

Quantity of sand

Volume of sand is = Volume of dry mortar x (Parts of sand / Total parts of ingredient

= (1.3×5)/6=0.928m3 of sand or fine aggregate

Quantity of Water

For wet mortar recommended water-cement ratio varies from 0.4 to 0.6. Further, water requirement depends on any admixture added to mortar to improve its work ability. Admixtures must be added as per suppliers specifications.