How to Calculate & Measure Square Footage of Any Room

There are many reasons why you would want to learn how to calculate and measure the square footage of your home, it could be that you’re looking to sell your house, buy a new home, or just do renovations and additions to increase the value of your home. Regardless of the reasoning, it’s always a good thing to have knowledge on how to correctly and accurately measure square footage of any room.

Follow these steps to learn how to correctly calculate square footage of a room. Once you have the rooms sq. ft., you can move to the next room and then add them all together to get the total square footage of your entire home.

Starting with one room, you first take a measuring tape and measure one wall to its adjacent wall. It will probably help to have another person helping you to hold the other end of the measuring tape to ensure you’re capturing the right numbers. Measure to the nearest 0.5 linear foot (every 6 inches). Make sure you write the numbers for each of the adjacent walls in the room, so you do not forget.

Second, take the measurements of the two touching walls (not adjacent) and multiply the length by the width of the room together. This is best done with a calculator as you want to ensure the math is correct and you remove any human error from the calculation.

Keep in mind that if you’re are trying to measure a room that is not exactly square or rectangular, you will have to take multiple measurements from wall to wall to break up the sections of the room. Once you have all the sections' lengths and widths, go ahead and multiply Length x Width again for those smaller wall sections, and then add up the total square footage.

If you’ve been going from room to room in your house to ensure the right square footage is listed when selling your home, it is wise to measure twice and write once (taken from the measure twice, cut once reference). You want to make sure all measurements are as exact as possible to ensure you get the most out of your property when you put it up for sale. Keep in mind that the garage space or carport is not included within a home’s square footage as it is not considered ‘living space’.

If you are more of a visual person, eHow published a video a few years ago covering this same topic; feel free to click and view on your mobile device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd4s9aUG8lc