I was given a price per square foot for my new custom home. How do you measure square footage?

Q:

I was given a price per square foot for my new custom home. How do you measure square footage?

A:

Measuring square footage (sqft) at its basic level is fairly easy; you measure the length of the room and multiply it by the width of the room. Do that for every room in the house and then add up the total and that will give you a rough square foot measurement.

Where the debate starts is what do you include and what don't you include when you are measuring for square footage.

Most builders when they are quoting price per square footage do not include the garage in the square footage calculation. Other parts of the house that they do not include in the calculations are attic space, decks, patios, covered porches and basements. This doesn't mean that they aren't including these areas in their price, it means that they are added into the price per square foot of the rest of the home.

So if a builder quotes you 200 dollars a sqft with an unfinished basement then the price for the job would rise to say 250 dollars a sqft if you wanted the basement finished. That would mean that the builder would be adding 50 dollars a sqft to finish the basement of your new home.

The confusion over this is one of the reasons that we at Village Builders do not quote per sqft. The only time I ever give someone a square footage price is when I'm asked for an "off the cuff" price on what a house would cost to build. This isn't a quote, this just helps someone understand what price range they will end up in if they do have us quote their new home.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders