How do you determine how much official square feet in a house?

Question

How do you determine how much official square feet in a house?

Answer 1

both spamand steve are correct but it all depends on costruction of the home. If for example it is two sories with a cathedral ceiling in a graet room then you have tomake adjustments for that as well. Liveable space must be heated space

I am amortgage banker in TN & KY

Answer 2

The official area of a house is the gross square feet of all liveable (conditioned) space.  That means the measurement is taken to the outside of the wall.

Answer 3

If you simply take a tape measure and check the width and depth of each floor.  Include and cutouts but exclude any unfinished space (if you are looking for finished square feet, or course include the unfinished if you want total square feet) and areas where the walls are indented into the house.  You could measure each room/ closet but you are allowed to include interior walls in the calculation so don't short change yourself.

Answer 4

Contact your local assessors office. They can be found where

you pay taxes.

Answer 5

If you don't want to do all the measuring yourself, you may be able to find out the information from the tax assessor's office.

Answer 6

Official square feet in a house usually refers to livable space.  So an unfinished basement would not count.  In a rectangular/square house, the square footage is just length times width times number of floors.  If the house is not square/rectangular, you would just break the house down into square/rectangular non-overlapping parts, find the square footage of each part and add the parts together.

Answer 7

If you don't believe what the assesor's office has... measure the OUTSIDE of the house (yes you do get credit for the thickness of the walls). I used a reel-type 100' tape measure that used inches AND tenths of a foot.

Subtract the area that is NOT heated/cooled (garage, basement, screened patio). Measure the inside dimension of the garage if you need to. Count the stairways only once.

The house WILL be the same width on both sides... that is to say if you get a back width measurement of 65.5' and a front width measurement of 66.5', remeasure.

Simple arithmetic from there (area = length X width) breaking down the rectangles that form the various walls, etc.

Best of luck!