Accuracy of floor space?

T1T2T3T4

AdrianC said:

This isn't 1843. Can we please use square metres instead of square feet?

The UK first passed metrication legislation in the mid 60s... Metric has been the legally-required measurement system for decades now.

I prefer to stick to square feet, even in 2020

davidmcn

Doozergirl said:

AdrianC said:

This isn't 1843. Can we please use square metres instead of square feet?

The UK first passed metrication legislation in the mid 60s... Metric has been the legally-required measurement system for decades now.

Estate agents should give up putting imperial measurements on floor plans.  You will not find a construction related person to talk to you in imperial.

Unless Brexit takes us back?!  

In the world of commercial property, it's still the norm to talk about rent etc per square foot. So everything ends up being converted back into square feet so the surveyors can figure out the yield etc.

Salemicus

And yet we speak frequently of pints, fluid ounces, acres, stones, etc.

How many kilometres does your car get to the litre? The right units to use depends on context.

Estate agents put imperial measurements on floor plans because they are trying to communicate to potential housebuyers, to whom those measurements may be more meaningful. If they were plotting out a construction job you would use different units, yes, but it is quite normal to use different measurements in different contexts. If you think you would have a competitive advantage as an estate agent by quoting only metric units, why don't you put your theory to the test?

There is no harm in people using whatever units they find most convenient for a particular purpose.

Suseka97

When I was looking at houses I did notice that some EAs included what I refer to as 'circulation space' (landings, stairs, hallways etc.) in their total m2 measurement.  That was clear by simply adding up the actual m2 per room.  Some also included the garage space, whereas others didn't.  Some didn't give the dimension of an en-suite or bathroom, so I just used a rough estimate based on its comparable size to other rooms in the house.

I set up a simple spreadsheet to capture the room sizes for each property so I could compare rooms and the total m2 of what I consider as useable / living space.  For me that excluded the garage and conservatory (some had one, some didn't) - but I made a sub note of those.  I took that around we me when I viewed to get s sense of how the numbers on paper matched reality in terms of how I viewed that space in my head (if that makes sense).

I could then compare them against each other and against my current property - but nothing beats an actual viewing.  And I agree with an earlier post that also mentions room layout, very important.

AdrianC

Doozergirl said:

Unless Brexit takes us back?! 

There is precisely one country worldwide that does not use metric measurements. Many of theirs are not the same as the dibnah ones as the UK used to use.

Salemicus said:

And yet we speak frequently of pints, fluid ounces, acres, stones, etc.

You might. I don't - because I'm below retirement age, so have long used metric measurements as my primary units. I understand some of the old ones, but have to convert them mentally into something useful.
 
The pint is a legal measure for one purpose only - draught beer - and is defined in law as 568ml. None of the rest are legal measures for any purpose at all, nor have they been for decades.

How many kilometres does your car get to the litre?

It's ridiculous to cling to miles per gallon... when did you last buy fuel by the gallon?
I remember my parents having one of these Shell stickers in the window of their cars 35-odd years ago, when pumps were changed...

That was not much over a decade after decimalisation - do you still mentally convert prices back to shillings?

If you see a "gallon" quoted online, you have no way of knowing whether it's the US or UK gallon without extra context - and they are 20% different.

BTW, the usual metric unit is litres per 100km. Apart from the units themselves, working the consumption that way round makes a lot more sense than distance per volume - because surely you want to know how much fuel you're going to use to do a specific journey, rather than having a finite amount and wondering how far it'll take you...?

T1T2T3T4

Suseka97 said:

When I was looking at houses I did notice that some EAs included what I refer to as 'circulation space' (landings, stairs, hallways etc.) in their total m2 measurement.  That was clear by simply adding up the actual m2 per room.  Some also included the garage space, whereas others didn't.  Some didn't give the dimension of an en-suite or bathroom, so I just used a rough estimate based on its comparable size to other rooms in the house.

I set up a simple spreadsheet to capture the room sizes for each property so I could compare rooms and the total m2 of what I consider as useable / living space.  For me that excluded the garage and conservatory (some had one, some didn't) - but I made a sub note of those.  I took that around we me when I viewed to get s sense of how the numbers on paper matched reality in terms of how I viewed that space in my head (if that makes sense).

I could then compare them against each other and against my current property - but nothing beats an actual viewing.  And I agree with an earlier post that also mentions room layout, very important.

Yes I was going to do this. But then sometimes it just ends up being the right feeling rather than numbers. Like this house, I don't know how it stacks up to previous houses but certainly best we've seen so far.

davidmcn

AdrianC said:

BTW, the usual metric unit is litres per 100km. Apart from the units themselves, working the consumption that way round makes a lot more sense than distance per volume - because surely you want to know how much fuel you're going to use to do a specific journey, rather than having a finite amount and wondering how far it'll take you...?

How often are people using it for that purpose though? I'm invariably using mpg just as a comparator between different vehicles or styles of driving - the actual units aren't all that relevant (I'd have trouble visualising what a gallon actually looks like).

Alan2020

T1T2T3T4 said:

Hi guys. Is the sizes given for the total square foot of the property typically accurate (found with floor plan)? And does it include everything, including an integrated garage? We're using this to compare sizes of properties/to see what we're getting for our money. 

The square footage is not used in England as a primary measure of property prices, only in London this is used to appease foreign buyers.

I would say the number of bed rooms are a better indicator of value and their layout.

For instance 4 beds can be in 2 floors or one, say each floor is 45sqm and a town house of three floors having 135sqm and 4beds will be less valuable than a 2 floor 4bedder with 4 beds on one floor with each floor at 55sqm giving 110sqm.

sqm is pointless, what are you going to do with a massive bedroom? Vast majority of people will want a king size bed, walking space around it, drawers and wardrobe. And maybe an en-suite. Anything else is just dead space. 

T1T2T3T4

Alan2020 said:

T1T2T3T4 said:

Hi guys. Is the sizes given for the total square foot of the property typically accurate (found with floor plan)? And does it include everything, including an integrated garage? We're using this to compare sizes of properties/to see what we're getting for our money. 

The square footage is not used in England as a primary measure of property prices, only in London this is used to appease foreign buyers.

I would say the number of bed rooms are a better indicator of value and their layout.

For instance 4 beds can be in 2 floors or one, say each floor is 45sqm and a town house of three floors having 135sqm and 4beds will be less valuable than a 2 floor 4bedder with 4 beds on one floor with each floor at 55sqm giving 110sqm.

sqm is pointless, what are you going to do with a massive bedroom? Vast majority of people will want a king size bed, walking space around it, drawers and wardrobe. And maybe an en-suite. Anything else is just dead space. 

Thank you 

Suseka97

Again, I go with the above poster.  It irks me when I've read a property description as, say, 4 bedroom house - but when you look at the floorpan it's actually a 3-bed.  It's just the current owners have listed a downstairs room as a bedroom/study/dining room or something like that.  I wish they wouldn't do that - a marketing ploy obvs.