Video:How to Measure Square Footage

Transcript:How to Measure Square Footage

Hi I'm Nick Jaynes for About.com and this is how to correctly measure the square footage of your home. I'll be using information found on About.com's Home Buying Guide site.

Information About Measuring Square Footage

Inaccurately reported square footage is the subject of numerous complaints made each year to state real estate commissions. A small percentage of cases involve willful misrepresentation, but a larger number of complaints occur simply because agents and sellers don't know how to measure a home's square footage.

Instructions for How to Measure Square Footage

Measure the House:

1.Starting at an exterior corner, measure the length of all walls. Round measurements to the nearest inch.

2.Make a sketch of the home's perimeter, recording all dimensions.

3.If you must measure some areas from inside, add six inches for an exterior wall and four inches for an interior wall.

More Tips for How to Measure Square Footage

• Determine Finished Living Areas
• Must be space intended for human occupancy
• Must be heated by a conventional, permanent heating system
• Must have walls, floors and ceilings of materials generally accepted for interior construction
• Must be directly accessible from another finished area. That means a finished room accessed through any unfinished space cannot be counted as finished square feet.
• Mark all unfinished areas on your sketch.
• Rooms With Sloped Ceilings: Such as the loft found in an A-Frame home. If you measure room dimensions where the sloped walls meet the floor, you are including space that isn't truly usable. Include only the portion of the room where ceiling height is at least five feet. To be included at all, a minimum of one half of the finished area of the room must have ceilings at least seven feet high.
• Hallways & Closets: These areas are counted if they are a functional part of the living space.
• Open Foyer & Other Open Space: Do not include open space as part of the square footage for an upper level. This may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised how many agents forget to deduct it.
• Squares and Rectangles: Multiply length times width to find the number of square feet in a square or rectangular room. Remember to calculate unfinished areas and deduct them from the total.
• To calculate the area of a triangle, multiply its base length by its height and divide that figure by two.

Hopefully you will now be able to measure any house with accuracy and precision.

Thanks for watching. If you'd like to learn more, please find us on the web at About.com.