How to Measure a Home’s Square Footage

Many people don’t understand how a home’s square footage is determined, which leads to some confusion in the whole buying and selling process.  Recently, however, The Denver Post ran an article to help Colorado homebuyers, sellers, and homeowners better understand how to measure a house’s square footage.

Here are some little-known facts about measuring square footage that you may not be aware of:

• Houses are measured from the outside, which includes wall thickness in the final square footage.  According to the article, this is because county appraisals are the basis for determining property taxes, and most of the time all the county appraisers have to go by is the exterior measurements.

• Finished basements can be included in the total square footage.  Although many people assume that a home’s square footage excludes the basement, in fact it includes any finished space in the home.  However, above-grade square footage – space where the floor is above the ground – is typically more valuable than even finished basement space, so appraisals will note the difference.

• Unfinished space must be excluded from the home’s square footage.  In other words, unfinished space in the basement – a utility room, unfinished laundry area, etc. – cannot be counted in the total square footage, although it can be listed elsewhere.  Likewise, an enclosed porch and an attached garage would also be excluded from the square footage.

• Sloping roofs in an upper story room may exclude that space from the total square footage.  Unless at least half of the room has a ceiling height of at least seven feet high, the room doesn’t count toward the total square footage.  And even if it does count, you will have to exclude any space where the ceiling dips lower than five feet high.

However, as the article notes, there can be a lot of variance in how real estate agents and even professional appraisers interpret these standards.  Sellers need to make sure that they can trust their agent or appraiser to measure accurately.  As a buyer, your best plan of action is to ask questions, compare the square footage in the listing with the county’s appraisal (available online in most of the Denver Metro area), and if there are any discrepancies, go with the more conservative value to prevent feeling let down or misled if the higher number turns out to be wrong.

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