Wenatchee Home Inspector- Do I measure up?

Square footage is a funny subject and can be interpreted in different ways. As home and structural pest inspectors we only usually generalize this measurement for our reporting purposes.

I have been asked can I give an accurate square footage of a home. The answer is yes based on some defining criteria. Is it for a real estate living space calculation? Or is it for overall square footage of home (including garage and other "non-finished" spaces)? This will define how the measurement will be used.

 There may be a small percentage of instances where misrepresentation (knowingly giving incorrect information) have occurred but most of the time it is simply because someone may not know how to measure a home's square footage.

 When it comes to homes- size matters!

There are a few groups that have standards for measuring-

•·        American National Standards Institute, also known as ANSI. However, the ANSI standard is only a set of suggested guidelines.

•·        The FHA/VA (Federal Housing Administration/Department of Veteran Affairs) standard.

•·        Real Estate Commission standard.

While the ANSI standard is the commonly used, you may want to ask how the square footage of a house was determined.

Many states real estate commissions may have established square footage guidelines.

The following guidelines are based on generally accepted standards for real estate.

Measuring the House

Start at an exterior corner, measure the length of all walls (Round your measurements to the nearest inch).

Make a sketch of the home's perimeter, recording all dimensions.  If you measure some areas from inside, add six inches for an exterior wall and four inches for an interior wall.

Defining Finished Living Areas

It must be space intended for human occupancy. It must be heated by a conventional, permanent heating system. It must have walls, floors and ceilings of materials generally accepted for interior construction. It must be directly accessible from another finished area.

This means a finished room accessed through any unfinished space it should not be counted as finished square feet!

Determining whether an area is considered living area can sometimes be confusing. Finished rooms used for general living are normally included in living area. Other areas in the home it may not be so easy.

Examples of areas that are considered living area if they meet the criteria (i.e., heated, finished, directly accessible from living area):

Attic- (If ceiling is sloped you must use the sloped ceiling height criteria of 5 feet or more for the calculation),

Bay Window- if it has a floor, a ceiling height of at least seven feet,  

Bonus Room (eg., Finished Room over Garage),

Breezeway (If it is enclosed),

Chimney, if the chimney base is inside living area. If the chimney base is outside the living area but the hearth is in the living area, include the hearth in the living area but not the chimney base.

Closets, (if they are a functional part of the living area)

Dormers  

Furnace (Mechanical) Room (If it is located in a small closet in the living area)

Hallways

Laundry Room/Area

Stairs, Include the stairway with the area from which it descends.

Storage Room

Record all unfinished areas on your sketch.

Calculation Information

Some shapes are not squares!

Area of a square or rectangle = Width x Length

Area of a triangle = ½ (Base x Height)

Area of a circle = 3.14 x radius²

Now that you have all your measurements for the different areas you will simply add them up and this will give you your overall square footage.

A+B+C+D= E

Wenatchee Home Inspector- Do I measure up?

NCW Home Inspections, LLC  is located in Wenatchee Washington serving Chelan County, Douglas County, Okanogan County and Grant County Washington.

NCW Home Inspections LLC-509-670-9572