How to Find or Calculate Square Feet in a Room or Yard
- 1). Gather the needed tools for finding square feet and understand how to use them. The tape measure ideally should be long enough to go all the way across the area to be measured. A shorter tape measure can be used and the multiple lengths added together to get a total length but that will increase the chances for mistakes and inaccuracies. Learn to read the tape measure to insure working with the right numbers. Tape measures are often marked in both inches and centimeters. For finding square feet, use the side marked in inches and feet. Each inch is marked off in fractional parts of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16. When calculating square footage of large areas it is ok to round to the nearest inch when measuring for things like floorcoverings, fertilizer amounts, or lawn chemicals amounts. If the square foot measurement has to be more exact, change the odd inch amounts to fractions. Since there are 12 inches in a foot, the fractional parts of a foot are expressed as the number of inches in 12ths. Three inches equals 3/12 or reduces down to 1/4 of a foot, 4 inches equals 4/12 or 1/3 of a foot, and 8 inches equals 8/12 or 2/3 of a foot. When measuring, if the length is 10 foot and 9 inches then that is equal to 10 and 9/12, which is equal to 3/4, for a measurement of 10 3/4 ft. Another way to work with the inches is to place any inch amounts over 12 and divide to get a decimal amount to work with. In that case 10 ft. and 9 inches would work out to 10.75 feet. as 9 divided by 12 equals .75 of a foot.
- 2). Measure the dimensions of the room, wall, or yard. Use the tape measure to measure the length and then the width of the area. Write down all the measurements as they are made. The formula for finding square footage of a rectangular area is length times width. If the area is not made up of one rectangular shape such as a room that has an "L" shape or an offset area connected to it, then it is necessary to find square footage of each separate area and add them together. For oddly shaped rooms or yards it is a good idea to make a drawing of the area and divide it up into separate regions that are more or less rectangular.
- 3). Figure the square foot amounts for each area, write them down and then add them up. For a room that measures 12 foot by 20 foot the total square foot amounts would be 240 square feet or 12 times 20. For one that measures 10 3/4 ft. by 12 1/2 ft. the number of square feet would be 10 3/4 times 12 1/2 or 134 3/8 sq.ft. Changing the fractions to decimals to get 10.75 and 12.5 and multiply them together will give 134.375 which is equal to 134 3/8 square feet. For triangular areas where two sides come together to form a right angle, measure these two sides. Multiply the two lengths together and divide the total by 2 to get the square foot amount. If the triangle does not have a right angle then multiply the length of longest side times the height and divide by 2. The height is the distance from the longest side to the opposite angle. For circular areas the formula for surface area is 2 times 3.14 times the distance from the center of the circle to the outer edge.
- 4). Always round answers up to the next higher whole foot when measuring for floor coverings. Consider any pattern in the floor covering to allow for matching at any seams. Also consider where the seams will be placed and the width of the covering material. For example, if covering a room that is 16 foot wide and 20 foot long with a floor covering that only comes in 12 foot widths, then the seam should go across the shorter width rather than down the total length of the room. This will mean that two 16 foot long runs of the 12 foot wide material will be needed with a waste strip measuring 4 ft. by 16 ft. being left over. If the seam had been run down the length of the room the waste strip would have been 8 ft. by 20 ft. in size.
- 5). For calculating square feet in a yard, be sure to take out for any areas that don't need to be treated, such as driveways, patios, pools, and the like. Simply figure the surface area of each of these untreated areas and subtract them from the total square foot area figured for the yard.
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