If you’re selling your home or looking to buy, one concept that’s crucial to understand is how to calculate square feet. Having to do a square footage calculation may be giving you panicked thoughts about being late to homeroom, but there’s a huge difference between a home that’s 400 square feet (tiny) and one that’s 4,000 (McMansion), and not just in terms of how much space you’ve got to stretch your legs.
A home’s square footage is a crucial element in determining the price of a home you’re trying to buy or sell, how much you’ll pay in taxes if you live there, and what kinds of renovations are possible in your future. Plus, a home’s square footage can be surprisingly subjective. So, if you’re asking yourself, “how to calculate square feet of a house?” here’s what you need to know.
Since most people don’t have a square foot calculator in their back pocket, here’s what you need to know to ace any square footage calculations that crop up in your future.
You probably know how to calculate the square footage of a simple room without any funny shapes. Just break out your measuring tape—or a laser measure—to get its length and width. Multiply the width by the length and voila! You have the square footage. Say a room is 20 feet wide by 13 feet long, then 20 x 13 = 260 square feet.
(realtor.com)
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While measuring a single room is no big deal, people get kind of intimidated when it comes to calculating the square footage of an entire home. While homes can initially seem “daunting to measure, they’re just a collection of small boxes,” says Mario Mazzamuto of SF Bay Appraisal. Don’t sweat it if a room has an outcropping. Simply break that area down into a smaller box, and measure each box individually. Add up each box’s square footage to get the room’s total area. So if your living room, bedroom, bathroom, and hallway are 500, 400, 200, and 100 square feet respectively, that means the total is 500 + 400 + 200 + 100 = 1,200 square feet total.
Even complicated floor plans are just a series of rectangles you can add up.(realtor.com)
If you have a round kitchen and a triangular rumpus room, fear not. Just check out vCalc’s handy calculator that will tell you how to calculate square feet no matter what polygon’s thrown your way. Once you choose a shape, the calculator will prompt you for the measurements needed to compute square footage.
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Now that you know how to calculate the square footage of a home, it’s time to bust your bubble with a big caveat: A square footage calculation is surprisingly subjective based on who’s doing the measuring. For instance, you measured the actual, livable square footage between the interior walls. But many architects use their own square foot calculation method, measuring the square footage from the exterior walls.
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This explains why there are often discrepancies between your square foot calculations and those of a real estate agent, builder, or other sources. (looking for an agent? Here’s how to find a real estate agent in your area.)
“Many MLS services require a listing’s square footage to come from a specific source,” says Robin Kencel of Connecticut’s Stevens Kencel Group. So while you can make your own estimate, you may need to hire a certain professional to come up with a number that can be used on your listing; check with your Realtor or town’s building department to determine who that is.
As a general rule, “the square footage extends through the Sheetrock and framing to the exterior of the wall,” says Mazzamuto. Generally, to do the same for your measurements, add 6 inches per measurement, he says.
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Watch: The Features That Help a Home Sell Fastest
How to Calculate Square Footage - Step by Step
| Last update: 09 October 2022
How to calculate the square footage of a room
Measure the length and width of the room in feet. Next, multiply the length and width together to get the square footage. Example: For a room measuring 10 feet wide by 14 feet long, your calculation is 10 × 14 = 140 square feet.
Whether you're shopping for carpet, or planning a landscaping or home improvement project, one essential concept is calculating square footage. Join us as we discuss the steps involved in the process.
- Article sections
- How to measure your room/space
- The square footage formula
- How to calculate irregular shapes
- Use the square ft calculator
- Adding a surplus
Having to work out a square footage calculation might give you panicky flashbacks of being late for school! But don't worry, our guide will show you to calculate square footage accurately. We also explain the formula for square footage, so you'll be able to ace any calculations that come up in your future projects, and we look at square feet calculations for irregular-shaped areas. And, as an extra-helpful bonus, we include a square footage calculator to help you check your calculations. Let's begin with step 1...
1 How to measure your room/space
To calculate the square feet of a rectangular area, you first need to measure two dimensions: the length and the width (note that we discuss irregular shaped areas further down).
- First, measure the longest side to find the length. Take a tape measure and fix one end of it to one end of the longest side. Note the measurement.
- Next, measure the width - the shortest side of the area to be calculated. Repeat the process above and note down that measurement.
2 Square footage formula
For step 2, you're going to use the square footage formula:
Length × Width = Area (in square feet)
Note that the same formula applies if you measure in metric. In this case, the area will be expressed in square metres.
Insert your measurements into the formula. You're going to multiply the length measurement (in feet) by the width measurement. This gives you the area of the space in square feet.
You can also use this formula to calculate smaller areas when the area will be expressed in square inches and larger areas in square yards.
As an example, suppose you want to know how much flooring you might need to renovate a room that's 15 feet long × 10 feet wide. Multiply these dimensions:
15 ft × 10 ft = 150 sq. ft
3 Calculate irregular shapes
Sometimes, you might need to calculate a space that's an addition to the main area or a room that isn't evenly shaped. In these situations, think of the space as separate areas. You may find it helpful to sketch out a quick floor-plan to divide the space into more regular shapes.
- Measure the length and width of each separate area and calculate the area of each in square feet.
- Add your calculations to give you the total area in square feet.
Let's look at an example
Suppose you have a rectangular living room with a narrower dining area attached. Think of the space as being made up of a larger rectangle and a smaller rectangle.
First measure the length and width of the larger section labelled A, then do the same for the smaller section labelled B.
A: 14ft × 10 ft = 140 sq. ft
B: 6 ft × 5 ft = 30 sq. ft.
Now, add both values to calculate the square footage of the room:
140 sq.ft. + 30 sq.ft = 170 sq. ft
So you'll need 170 sq. ft. of flooring materials for this room.
Triangular and circular shapes
It may be that the area you're measuring isn't square or rectangular, but triangular or circular. If this is the case we have a calculator for square footage that includes multiple room and area shapes. We also have instructions for calculating the square footage of a triangle and a circle. These include details of the measurements you will need to take.
Measuring the area of a property
If you're selling a property yourself, you can measure the floor space of an entire home in the same way. Take the measurements of each room in turn, calculate the square footage of each, and then add all the values together to give the total square footage.
4 Use the square ft calculator
Check your calculations using our square footage calculator below.
Calculation results will appear here.
5 Add 10% surplus
Once you've calculated the square footage of the area, and know how much material you need to order for your project, adjust it to allow for waste. It's best to order 10% more than you think you'll need rather than the exact square footage.
Mistakes can happen, and if you only have the exact amount you need, you might not be able to source matching materials. If you find that you don't need the extra materials, suppliers are usually happy to refund unused tins of paint or unopened packs of tiles. And if you have space, it can be handy to store the surplus materials for any touch-up repairs that are needed in the future.
If you need to calculate the cost of materials for your project, simply multiply your total square feet figure by the price per square foot of the materials you're going to be using.
Once you've learned how to calculate the square footage of an area, you have a skill that will assist you in all your future renovation, landscaping and construction projects. And if time's short, you can use our handy online square footage calculator.
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