I recently renovated my apartment. As a policy, before buying any product, I research the market and collect quotations from at-least three vendors. I was a layman when it came to purchasing glass and I ended up struggling quite a bit to purchase suitable glass.

What I learned from the experience was an eye-opener and could potentially save you a lot of money.

Glass is always measured in inches. However, while buying the buyer is billed in feet with rounding off to the nearest greater half-feet.

For example, for a shelf, we need glass of length about 14 inches. Please remember, 12 inches = 1 feet and 6 inches = 0.5 feet.

The glass vendor will round off the measurement to the nearest greater half-feet. That is 18 inches. (6 inch x 3).

For shelves, the recommended thickness is 8 mm or 12 mm. 8 mm costs around Rs.50/sq. ft. and 12 mm costs around Rs.80/sq. ft.

Going by this rate, 14 sq. inch shelve of 12 mm thickness should cost Rs.93.30 where as glass vendor actually charges Rs.120/- (for 1.5 sq. Feet).

The glass also requires polishing. Polishing is charged per sq. feet costing at Rs.7/- to Rs.15/-

For a 12 mm glass shelves of size 14 inches width and 14 inches depth:

Theoretical Cost Breakup:
Total area of glass: 14” * 14” = 196 sq. inch = 1.3611 sq. feet
Cost of glass (@ Rs. 80/sq. ft): 1.3611 * 80 = Rs108.88/-
Cost of polishing (@ Rs. 7/sq. feet) = 1.3611 sq. feet x 7 = 9.52
Total actual cost: 108.88 + 9.52 = Rs. 118.40/-

Actual Cost Breakup:
Rounding off: 14” (1.166 feet) to 1.5 feet.

Hence, total area of glass: 1.5 * 1.5 = 2.25 sq. feet
Cost of glass (@ Rs. 80/sq. ft.): 2.25 * 80 = Rs. 180/-
Cost of polishing (@ Rs. 7/sq. feet) = 2.25sq. feet x 7 = Rs. 15.75
Total actual cost: 180 + 15.75 = Rs. 195.75/-

Difference in cost: Rs. 77.35/-

Hence, while constructing your house or any other project, ensure that the dimensions are either in whole-feet or half-feet. For ex: width maybe either 1.5 feet or 2.0 feet but never 1.2 feet or 1.6 feet.