In this paper the effective dose in the age-dependent ORNL phantoms series, due to naturally occurring radionuclides in building materials, was calculated. The absorbed doses for various organs or human tissues have been calculated. The MCNP-4B computer code was used for this purpose. The effective dose was calculated according to ICRP Publication 74. The obtained values of dose conversion factors for a standard room are: 1.033, 0.752 and 0.0538 nSv h-1 per Bq kg-1 for elements of the U and Th decay series and for the K isotope, respectively. The values of effective dose agreed generally with those found in the literature, although the values estimated here for elements of the U series were higher in some cases.