How Do You Measure Your House?

To measure your house for square footage, you typically measure the dimensions of each individual room and calculate its area.

Based on standard methods, including information from our reference, the process involves measuring the length and width, in feet, of each room.

Once you have these two measurements for a room, you multiply the length by the width to calculate that room's square footage.

Steps to Measure Rooms for Square Footage

Measuring your home room by room helps you understand the usable space within its walls. Here are the basic steps:

1. Identify the rooms: Make a list or sketch of all the rooms you intend to measure.
2. Measure Length: Using a tape measure, find the length of the room in feet. Measure wall-to-wall.
3. Measure Width: Measure the width of the room in feet, wall-to-wall.
4. Calculate Square Footage: Multiply the length by the width measurement for that room.
5. Record: Note down the calculated square footage for each room. Our reference suggests writing it in the corresponding space on a sketch.
6. Sum Total: Add the square footage of all measured rooms together to get a total living area square footage (though standard calculations often exclude areas like garages or unfinished basements; focus here is on the room method).

Calculating Room Area: An Example

Let's use the example provided in our reference to illustrate the calculation:

• If a bedroom is 12 feet long by 20 feet wide, you would calculate its square footage by multiplying 12 by 20.

  • Calculation: 12 feet (length) * 20 feet (width) = 240 square feet.

Therefore, that bedroom is 240 square feet. This calculation (Length x Width) is the fundamental way to find the area of a rectangular space.

Room Measurement Table

Using the Length x Width method, here's how calculations would look for a few sample rooms:

By following this process for each enclosed space you wish to measure, you can determine the square footage of individual rooms and, by adding them up, estimate the total area of your house.