How to Figure the Square Footage of a Shop

Outdoor shop

Having a shop in your backyard can be a wonderful addition to your property. You could use it for storage or as a place to work or practice a hobby, such as woodworking or working on cars. When a property is for sale, owners usually list the square footage of the house but may not give information concerning the area of a shop in the yard. In order to determine if a shop will be big enough for your needs, you can figure the square footage fairly quickly and easily.

Things You'll Need

• Tape measure
• Calculator
• Graph paper
• Pencil

Instructions

1. Measure the length and width of the shop with a tape measure if the shop is rectangular.

2. Measure all of the dimensions of a shop that is not rectangular.

3. Transfer the dimensions of the shop to graph paper. Set one inch or one section of the graph paper's grid as equal to one foot so that the sketch is to scale.

4. Divide the sketch into geometric shapes. If the shop is a rectangle or square, you won't have to do this. If it is irregularly shaped, divide the drawing into rectangles, squares and triangles.

5. Calculate the area of each geometric shape on the sketch. For rectangles and squares, simply multiply the length times the width. For triangles, multiply the height by the base and then divide by two.

6. Add the areas of all the shapes in your sketch to find the total square footage of the shop.

References

• Laminates Floors Cheap: How to Calculate Square Feet
• Math: Area Formulas