[Closed] Giving dimensions

I'd say width X height X depth

Edit. I always state the unit of measurement and very rarely use
cm.

If it's critical I'd always label each

W100 x H250 x L75896

Just to make sure.

Yes or that if relevant. Some people though when I ask them make me question the assumption.

Never allow anyone else to misinterpret so always define it.

British people gauge dimension in feet and inches. So when they pick a bit of furniture, sofa etc, and the measurement is in millimeters, they prefer it converted to feet and inches because they can picture it better in their heads. True fact.

Without further qualification, yes. 8x6 is 8 along and 6 up. See also, X & Y (and Z) axes on graphs.

I don't see why you couldn't put them in any order you please so long as you're clear what you're referring to.

British people gauge dimension in feet and inches. So when they pick a bit of furniture, sofa etc, and the measurement is in millimeters, they prefer it converted to feet and inches because they can picture it better in their heads. True fact.

True fact if they're over the age of about 50, perhaps.

British people gauge dimension in feet and inches. So when they pick a bit of furniture, sofa etc, and the measurement is in millimeters, they prefer it converted to feet and inches because they can picture it better in their heads. True fact

Or, alternatively, complete cobblers?

I am 43, and I was taught the metric system from day one of my education. Everyone else of my generation was too.

I can work in feet and inches, but my ‘default’ is cm, m etc.

I am sure it is correct that ‘some’ British people prefer to have mm converted to feet and inches (Messrs Rees-Mogg and Farage spring to mind) but by no means all.

True fact if they’re over the age of about 50, perhaps.

Bollox, aged 57 and metric schooled

I nearly wrote "pensioners" but figured I was about on the cusp.

Speaking as an engineer you define it. Why wouldn't you reduce the possibility of error? Unprofessional. And only eijeets use imperial.

I nearly wrote “pensioners” but figured I was about on the cusp.

Been getting my pension for 2 yrs now,  bloody yoofs

Edit. I always state the unit of measurement and very rarely use
cm.

Yes, stating units can save embarrassment later.

Along the corridor and up the stairs would be my default but it makes far more sense to just mark it up to confirm that.
I dont remember ever being formally taught it for normal measurements as opposed to map reading.

Try to use the same units for each dimesion while your at it...

W8"xL1500cmxD1Å

Or, alternatively, complete cobblers?

I am 43, and I was taught the metric system from day one of my education. Everyone else of my generation was too.

I can work in feet and inches, but my ‘default’ is cm, m etc.

This is exactly my experience.

I am sure it is correct that ‘some’ British people prefer to have mm converted to feet and inches (Messrs Rees-Mogg and Farage spring to mind) but by no means all.

I also learned in metric. in the design studio i trained in, we were taught in the UK people gauge based on what they understand best, as i shall explain to you.

Ive had a number of customers ask for bookcases at about 5' or sometimes 6' high. Not one has ever asked me to make them something 5' as 1524mm, or 6' as 1828mm

People ask for coffee tables 4'wide. They've yet to ask me to make them a coffee table oh about 1219mm 🙄

How tall are you ?. Oh all of a sudden its 'about 5'10"(or whatever) and ask anyone here that and i doubt many will give this height in M/CM/MM they will answer you in feet and inches. In fact im sure theres been the odd thread where people's height came up and i dont remember anyone giving the metric equivalent.

But you find it utterly wrong that people dont gauge the type of thing they know. how tall are you and equate that to something they want me to build. they look at where the top shelf will sit, usually at eye level, and make an approximate guess, i would say based upon their own height because they project the measurement they are most familiar with.

"Cobblers" ?. Naw dont think so mate. I think I know what my customers are talking about and how they gauge the sizes of the furniture we make them.

TL:dr imperial is OK if it's not important.

Maybe "about 4'" is OK if you want something to sit in the middle of the floor (as shown by your use of the words "gauge" and "approximate").
In these cases it doesn't really matter if it's bigger or smaller by a bit.

But if you want something to fit precisely then it's metric.

I'm 58 and never measure in imperial - but then my dad was an architect and his measurements were always done in mm, even back in the 70's.

“Cobblers” ?. Naw dont think so mate. I think I know what my customers are talking about and how they gauge the sizes of the furniture we make them.

I reckon they look at you and go "this old duffer won't know that i'm 183cm tall, so i'll make it easy for him and say 6ft." 😛

Really, i think you're right. Imperial is handy for approximations. But when you go and measure up do you use fractions of inches?

That's just silly. I'd ask for a bookcase that's 1.8m, not one that's 1yd, 2' and 10 and 7/8"

I'm a couple of weeks short of 50, I'm 1.8m tall, weigh 68kg (absolutely no idea what that is in stones) and work exclusively in km and m etc. I translate road signs into proper measurements as that's what I've always used. How many people even know how many yards in mile?

Imperial is just ridiculous. Last month an elderly librarian asked me for a shelf that was 23.2 inches. Is that 23 and 2 tenths? 23and 2 eighths? 23 and 2 sixteenths? When I phoned her, even she didn't know!

The whole imperial thing can just get in the sea, along with Rees Mogg.

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/giving-dimensions/#post-12281548

I have a tape measure from 1972, which is in metric. And no, there isn't imperial on the reverse side 🙂 Been using it quite a lot recently.

I only revert to imperial for speed, cos we are a luddite nation who should've changed years back, although I've converted to km for the bike because I want to see my elevation in metric

Metric all the way here. Would prefer us to drop imperial completely and start using km's for distance as well.

Imperial is for old people and people who don't know how to use a ruler.

m & mm's only. cm are for school kids.  I was shocked when a site engineer sent me some dims in cm's yesterday!

Ordering timber; length X width X depth in order of size. So 2400m X 100mm X 50mm for 8'x 4" X 2" equivalent.

I'm 52 and default to feet and inches (also pounds etc) unless I need to use metric.

Most of us where schooled in metric  - ie the lessons dealt with maths and measurement in metric and decimal but these things were mostly paper exercises - dealing with volume there was rarely a physical litre in front of you, let alone 20 litres or 1000 litres. And physical measuring of things rarely dealt with items longer than 30cm.. But the world around us was still in pints, gallons feet and miles and so on so I certainly never really made a link between the work I was doing in the class room and the sizes and shapes of the things around me else where. So people tend to visualise and estimate in those units even if they'd use metric if they actually had to measure it.

Being in the market for a house at the moment and it seems most estate agents are still illustrating room sizes in either both feet and meters -  or even in feet only. Not seen anything recently with the particulars in meters only which is frustrating to me as I work with a tape measure every day, in metric, devising and making things that are approximately room shaped and sized.

Even working in metric most materials are still sold in imperial proportions so they divide up in imperial sized chunks - so while working in metric - on a furniture to room sized scale  I tend to visualise is multiples of 310mm 🙂

The youngest designers I work with at present have a tendency to give me drawings where heights are at 2.5m and we have to have a little chat about how expensive and time consuming 60mm of that 2.5m can be 🙂

Try working with Americans - oh, how we laughed when they’d wrongly translated our metric dimensions into inches and made the tooling the wrong size…
Happy to work in feet and inches if I need to do something roughly, but anything needing done accurately is in mm. I’m 57 and always schooled and worked in metric.
I did work in a business that still made some stuff from original drawings done during WW2 where there was a paper shortage, so everything was drawn on tiny sheets of paper akin to Izal bog roll with imperial dimensions.

Try working with Americans

Which takes us back to the actual OP - The US also tend to give sizes in a different order to us. Timbers are 2x4s rather than 4x2s. Sheets are 4x8s rather than 8x4s and so on

I was born in 1964 and was never taught anything other than the metric system at school.  But because many things outside school were sold in pounds, pints, gallons and and measured in feet and inches, I'm perfectly at home with both systems.  Given a choice though I would always default to metric because the mental arithmetic is easier and it just makes sense.

193cm 80kgs, see that was easy wasn't it.

Imperial is awful, especially when you have to start converting forces. Mogg is clearly an idiot and a few slugs short of a pound.

Dimensions are usually length x height x depth but I always specify.  Sometimes I will mix them up with plan dimensions in mm and depth in metres, usually foundations, and I have no idea why or where I got this from.

I had some moments of panic when working with Greek site engineers who used cms for everything. Took me a while to realise the concrete slab they had poured wasn't super thin!

Millimetres for me. And I need to know what tolerance people are working to. If they ask for a metre, is it plus or minus 10mm or plus or minus half a mil?
I've got a bunch of metric only tape measures and rules, much nicer than mixed metric/imperial ones.
68, by the way.
Oh, the 501s I bought yesterday were 34x32 but that's different

Aircraft manufacture. Anything american and drawings are imperial. Tornado, typhoon etc are metric. Before Digital measuring gear if you could only find an imperial micrometer you'd convert in your head. Young lads here wouldn't have a clue. Mm never cm. Was taught at junior school in the 70's imperial by an old school teacher as well as metric.

Timber is length x width x thickness when you buy it and also if you work with it and use cutting lists, where dimensions are listed greatest first.

L/W/T

A neighbour has just given me a drawing for a simple unit for their kitchen, all in inches 🙄
It means that I have to go and double check everything and re-measure now as I find that folks that use inches generally don't appreciate the importance of accuracy.

In my previous role as a workshop technician, I would frequently get students come to me asking me to make stuff in inches.
That's 17-18 year olds.

I still ride my bike in miles and feet of elevation, and buy plywood in 8x4s.

Funny old world.

Big stuff is measured in imperial, small stuff in metric for me (though can muddle through the other way round). I’m 37.

Bikes are weighed in lbs, bike parts are weighed in grams.

Oh, the 501s I bought yesterday were 34×32 but that’s different

Have you actually measured them?

I'm 53. Taught metric at school but used imperial at home as my dad was quite a keen DIYer.

I can visualise up to a metre in metric, after I'm better in imperial. No idea how tall I am in metric, but know I'm 5'9". Only just started weighing myself in kg, makes me feel less overweight.

To be fair, I've never needed to measure anything for work or got into DIY so I've not had to get into proper habits

walk before you fly. so Width before height.

If I give dimensions to my wife in mm and m she doesn't understand them. Give them in cm and she is quite happy. My MIL is another story on its own.

phil5556
If it’s critical I’d always label each

W100 x H250 x L75896

Just to make sure.

this but I'd add the units have seen people use mm for H (thickness?) and then cm or m for width and length
early 60's and remember being "converted" at school to cm, metres, Kgs but also learning inches, yards, miles....in my working life used both imperial and metric, many old designs in imperial and back in end of last century many metric sizes were simply converted imperial sizes...reckon I can picture both but as never had to use I have no idea of hectares and acres though I can visualise sq m based on sizing up properties...worked for an american co for a while and though UK employees had to understand US imperial metric was deemed too complicated for US employees and needed to be spoon fed
had to be careful to make sure no one confused pounds sterling with pounds (#) weight or metric tonnes with long or short tons....

fluent in SWG for steel sheet thickness as well...standard wire gauges though saying that gauge can be confusing as there are variants eg BWG Birmingham wire gauge

live in Aus took me about 2years to go pure km on distance and m on ascent...people talk about 6 footers but height in m....waist sizes often in inches but then labelled with cm as well...youngest antigee is an apprentice construction carpenter and college specified metric only rules and tapes

My wife only works in cm I only use mm you think it would be easy.
Although timber is imperial all day long when brought as stock after that it's mm when I use it. Still buy a pint of milk

Label and confirm as said. I’m metric as in cm, joiners I work with go mm and the plumbers inches! We all just confirm we know what we’re talking about and our happy little gang haven’t f@@@@@ up yet in 6 years.
Distance on bikes is miles just to confirm.

My wife only works in cm I only use mm

There's a joke in there somewhere.....

British people gauge dimension in feet and inches. So when they pick a bit of furniture, sofa etc, and the measurement is in millimeters, they prefer it converted to feet and inches because they can picture it better in their heads. True fact.

No we don't.

I also learned in metric. in the design studio i trained in, we were taught in the UK people gauge based on what they understand best, as i shall explain to you.

You were taught wrong.

Ive had a number of customers ask for bookcases at about 5′ or sometimes 6′ high. Not one has ever asked me to make them something 5′ as 1524mm, or 6′ as 1828mm

People ask for coffee tables 4’wide. They’ve yet to ask me to make them a coffee table oh about 1219mm 🙄

Of course not, that's far too fine for general measurements. More likely they would ask for 1.2, 1.5 or 1.8m

How tall are you ?. Oh all of a sudden its ‘about 5’10″(or whatever) and ask anyone here that and i doubt many will give this height in M/CM/MM they will answer you in feet and inches. In fact im sure theres been the odd thread where people’s height came up and i dont remember anyone giving the metric equivalent.

175cm, 67kg thanks.

But you find it utterly wrong that people dont gauge the type of thing they know. how tall are you and equate that to something they want me to build. they look at where the top shelf will sit, usually at eye level, and make an approximate guess, i would say based upon their own height because they project the measurement they are most familiar with.

And that's exactly why I equate 1lb as 500g, 1cwt as 50kg, 1" as 2.5cm, 1' as 30cm, 1 mile as 1.6km, gravity as 10m/s/s and pi as 3. All wrong but for back of a fag packet calculations perfectly fine.

“Cobblers” ?. Naw dont think so mate. I think I know what my customers are talking about and how they gauge the sizes of the furniture we make them.

Customers are idiots. I'd never trust any dimensions supplied by someone who wasn't competent, that's how expensive mistakes happen that are always your fault.

As a final thought exercise could you give me that sheet dimensions, in mm, for an 8x4 sheet of OSB. What are the standard distances between centres used in the construction industry? Now remind me how nobody in the UK thinks in metric

I work in the signage industry and have done for 20 years. I often talk in feet & inches because I just get a blank look otherwise 😂 People [I]know[/I] what metres & millimetres are, but I'd agree that unless they're in the construction industry most people would find feet & inches easier to gauge. I know I do, and I'm only 41! Wouldn't have a clue what my height or weight was in metric without actually working it out!

I've had all sorts though, one customer often quotes one dimension in metres and the other in inches 😃 Another confidently placed an order in centimetres, when he came to collect was horrified as he'd actually meant millimetres & everything was 10 times too big 🤣 so...

Customers are idiots

as for the OP question

There’s no question it’s always width by height. Right?

“Cobblers” ?. Naw dont think so mate. I think I know what my customers are talking about and how they gauge the sizes of the furniture we make them.

What would you say is the average age range of your customers? Get many 20-year olds in asking for bespoke bookcases, do you?

What you're saying may be true for most people of a certain age but asserting that it's "people in the UK" is a rash generalisation. If I were to ask my former apprentice his height and weight I'd get it in metric. (I have a meeting with him later, I'll ask.)

The UK officially went metric (for some value of) in the mid-60s. I was born in the early 70s, I was exclusively taught metric at school yet my parents and grandparents had been using Imperial all their lives. As a result I reckon I'm around the cusp of the changeover, I use both fairly interchangeably. People much younger than me will likely be more fully metric, much older will be less likely to have ever bothered to learn it.

dealing with volume there was rarely a physical litre in front of you

We had one at junior school, a green perspex cube 10cm^3.

I just kinda assumed w x h was a widespread convention. Navel scratching about it last night I was going to say much like reading from left to right (for Western languages). But it isn't that much of a convention. So maybe like HH:MM:SS or DD:MM:YY*, but that usually requires clarification too. So I guess it's not a widespread convention like I thought.

I like my height in cm. Its a nice number, a multiple of [redacted] just like my year of birth and my age at the turn of the century. Who says numerology is dead!?

Oh and w x h x d not w x h x l 😉

* prefer YY:MM:DD as more in keeping with how numbers in general work, reading from left to right.

I was born in the 50s, so primary school was imperial, secondary metric. Like many others on this thread, if I'm building something I'll use metric, but people's height and weight are imperial, although I have learnt that I'm 170cm and 70kg. For a long time many materials (fabric, plywood, metal sheet) were imperial width and metric length, because the width was determined by the machines used to produce them and the length was just a matter of where you made the cut. You see less of that these days.

And yeah, for approximation if you want to visualise something rather than need to accurately measure it, it's really not hard.

A yard is 3" short of a metre, for most practical purposes "100 yards away" and "100 metres away" is the same thing.

A kilo is 2.2lbs. For approximation, halve or double. 50 kilos ~= 100 pounds. (You can even do this accurately pretty trivially, shift the decimal point and add them together; 100 + 10 = 110lbs. 9kg = 18+1.8 = 19.8lbs.)

3 miles is roughly 5 km. Someone lives 100km away? That's 60 miles. (It's actually a smidge over 62 but does it matter at that distance?)

A pint is 568ml - roughly half a litre. A 5 litre pan? 10 pints. Hell, that makes a litre a quart.

Anyone (outside of America) still claiming that they "don't understand metric" after having had half a century to get used to it wilfully doesn't want to understand it and probably longs for the return of shillings.

prefer YY:MM:DD as more in keeping with how numbers in general work, reading from left to right.

This is ISO 8601.

Date formats are crazy. It's the only measurement I can think of which is little-endian. We criticise the US for using month-date but they're actually right, they just put the year in the wrong place.

A kilo is 2.2lbs. For approximation, halve or double. 50 kilos ~= 100 pounds. (You can even do this accurately pretty trivially, shift the decimal point and add them together; 100 + 10 = 110lbs. 9kg = 18+1.8 = 19.8lbs.)

A yard is 3″ short of a metre, for most practical purposes “100 yards away” and “100 metres away” is the same thing.

I remember the government propaganda rhymes at the time we allegedly went metric:

"A metre measures three foot three, it's longer than a yard, you see"

"A litre of water's a pint and three-quarters"

"Two and a quarter pounds of jam weigh about a kilogram"

Easy!

Another industry that refuses to go metric on certain things is the height plates inside trucks, they're all in imperial. Fine when most bridges have signs that show both, although the road signs beforehand seem to mainly be in imperial. What makes it properly annoying is that most petrol stations have the height of their roofs in metric!

I am 43, and I was taught the metric system from day one of my education. Everyone else of my generation was too.

I can work in feet and inches, but my ‘default’ is cm, m etc.

I'm 47, entirely schooled in metric. For actual measurement of stuff, I use metric. For estimation, I use imperial ("I reckon that's about 30feet away", "I need a piece of wood about a foot long"). For height, I use imperial (I'm 6'1"). For weight I use metric (I'm 83kg)

For riding, I use km for distance and feet for ascent, cos it's more, innit? 🙂

People, eh?

As a final thought exercise could you give me that sheet dimensions, in mm, for an 8×4 sheet of OSB.

2440 x 1220

Try working with Americans – oh, how we laughed when they’d wrongly translated our metric dimensions into inches and made the tooling the wrong size.

Aircraft manufacture. Anything american and drawings are imperial.

I had both of these come together at the same time. Still have flashbacks to my manager looking a little peeved.
Thankfully not my mistake.

phil5556
If it’s critical I’d always label each

W100 x H250 x L75896

Just to make sure.

It's important to get Putin's desk right.

As a final thought exercise could you give me that sheet dimensions, in mm, for an 8×4 sheet of OSB.

are the sheets 12mm or 18mm thick?

😉

I have half a memory that unlike most of the rest of the US, NASA works in Metric and has to be really mindful to convert construction plans etc when dealing with domestic contracts.

Am I right in thinking that Imperial timber measurements are for freshly cut wood? So a length of say 2x4 is actually less than 2"x4" due to shrinkage as it dries out?

Also, don't they mix units? Eg, 2"x4"x2m?

Or have I made both of those 'facts' up at some point?

Only work in mm on site work but often measure in inches (if tape measure is knackered or it’s a bit dark ) remember still being taught in imperial then metric ever since 1971? Recommend me fully metric tape measure with large text
61 tomorrow! Eye test this afternoon 😵

Double post again

Thought timber measurements were before planing etc.

As a final thought exercise could you give me that sheet dimensions, in mm, for an 8×4 sheet of OSB.

Looking at Wickes and B&Q for sheet stock all the measurements are metric. That's what I've always used, I had no idea how many yards or furlongs or whatever it is.

My grandad was a farmer though and he used chains for measuring distance.

Me: "How far is it to that tree Grandad?"
Him: "About 6 chain, laddy"
Me: ????????

Sort of relevant, I very much enjoy this quote.

In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade—which is 1 percent of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. An amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to ‘How much energy does it take to boil a room-temperature gallon of water?’ is ‘Go **** yourself,’ because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.

Number of comments dissing Imperial tickles me

Just think what size wheel do you ride

pound to a pinch of salt you quote that in " Imperial " ( possibly without even realising it)

Thought timber measurements were before planing etc.

When you buy timber form a sawmill, oak boards for example. They come in 1" (and 2,3 etc)

1" actually measures 30mm. So you can plane down to 1". No idea why, thats just how you order timber in those sizes. 2" is like 60mm, but i think 3"(cant usually afford 3" oak) it is 80mm

Number of comments dissing Imperial tickles me

Just think what size wheel do you ride

pound to a pinch of salt you quote that in ” Imperial ” ( possibly without even realising it)

Wheel and frame sizes are essentially a naming convention for sizing, not a measurement.

Even the metric measurements aren't that meaningful.
(FWIW i'm probably riding 622x54 tonight.)

I have half a memory that unlike most of the rest of the US, NASA works in Metric and has to be really mindful to convert construction plans etc when dealing with domestic contracts.

Didn't they smash a probe/rover into mars due to that?

exactly one mole of atoms

Come again?

Come again?

A mole is defined as 6.02214076 × 10 to the power of 23 of some chemical unit, be it atoms, molecules, ions, or others.

I assume that clears things up?

I always smile when these sorts of discussions come up. I can use both systems just as well (I’m 45). Neither system is better, saying one system is rubbish just shows your ignorance of how it works.
Watching USA folk use imperial is quite impressive, it’s perfectly normal and it does have some advantages as you can sometimes deal with fractions of inches very swiftly, especially with wood/metal work stuff.

I used to work in builders customers service and was given dimensions in all sorts of mixed standards. Didn’t matter, all it did was confirm the sizes and show them on a tape measure how long it was so they could visualise what they asked for so there wasn’t any confusion. It’s not a big deal and I never got any mistakes.

I worked in a company that used 'metric feet' for its systems.  So 3'-7" would be 3.58 ft. Similarly 1m was 3.28 ft.

Completly mad as the company sold stuff rounded up to the nearest cm.

Just think what size wheel do you ride

pound to a pinch of salt you quote that in ” Imperial ” ( possibly without even realising it)

700mm on my gravel bike, 650b on my MTB. 😜

Presumably we have 26" (etc) MTB wheels because it's an American standard which made its way here? Calling it 660.2mm would be a bit weird.

Some things just lend themselves to native units, or have legacy baggage which isn't easy to shift. You wouldn't (well, shouldn't) use a 13mm spanner on a half inch bolt. We don't buy 568ml of beer when one pint is a nice round unit, and to metricise that would mean switching to half-litre servings which would cause riots. We measure TV sizes in inches because Marketing, everyone does it because everyone else does it; it's also better for manufacturing as being less accurate it requires a lower tolerance.

Didn’t they smash a probe/rover into mars due to that?

Yeah, I think so, pretty recently too. I nearly said as much but wasn't certain.

I've half a memory that it's not the first time, something to do with NASA converting Imperial to Metric when one of their suppliers had 'helpfully' already converted if for them (this was maybe Space Shuttle era)?

8×4 sheet of OSB.

2440 ish mm x 1220 ish

We don’t buy 568ml of beer

Due to being off work I'm watching trash TV.
They were taking 3 and 3/4 total length out an axle so 1 and 7/8 out of each side. Just an odd way to work but good for numerical skills

8×4 sheet of OSB.

2440 ish mm x 1220 ish

Is that measured or quoted? Because quite often it'll be 2400 x 1200 since that fits nicely with 400mm and 600mm centres.

Neither system is better, saying one system is rubbish just shows your ignorance of how it works.

Maybe better is the wrong word but metric is a lot simpler to convert between values as per tomhowards's example. It's not like you can't have fractions of metric units either.

Just think what size wheel do you ride

pound to a pinch of salt you quote that in ” Imperial ” ( possibly without even realising it)

Don't even open that Pandora's box or we'll have to explain why a 27 1/4" wheel is larger than 700C, 28" is bigger than 700C unless it's German in which case it's the same size and that there are at least three different 24" standards.

I'm a strong believer in ISO sizing, it keeps things simple and easy to calculate.

Recommend me fully metric tape measure with large text

I believe the solution was to buy them from the continent, Axminster may have one.

I use an Advent Vice Versa, just having both sides metric is a lot easier to work with rather than trying to do things by eye from the wrong side.

For an object that can be viewed from many angles and doesn't have both a "front" and "top", stating dimensions for width, depth and height is not much use.

Is that measured or quoted?

TRhats the imperial 8x4 size in metric units.  Metric sizing is I believe 2400 x 1200

8'x4' = 2440mmx1220mm(approx)