How to Calculate Square Feet of an Irregular Lot
Calculating the square footage of your lot is important if you want to sell your home or land because the buyer will want to have this information. And if you plan to landscape, square footage allows you to estimate how much of a certain type of material is required. Some people run into a roadblock when trying to perform this calculation if their lot has an irregular shape. Luckily, there is a way to figure square footage for this common occurrence. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Measure each outer boundary of your lot using a tape measure. A steel tape, which is commonly used by surveyors and extends up to 100 feet, works best.
-
2
Draw a diagram of your lot on a smaller scale. For instance, if the edges of your lot are 20 feet, 50 feet, 30 feet and 45 feet, scale each foot down to an inch. Therefore, your drawing would have sides of 2 inches, 5 inches, 3 inches and 4.5 inches. Use a ruler to make sure your drawing is accurate.
-
-
3
Use a pencil to divide your drawing into rectangles and triangles.
-
4
Using the lot measurements, figure the area of the rectangles by multiplying base times height.
-
5
Figure the area of the triangles by multiplying base times height and then dividing by two.
-
6
Add all of the individual areas together for the total square footage.
-
1
