calculationg sq footage

16 years ago

what is the best way to calculate the square footage of my yard? is there some kind of calculator that i can use to punch in some numbers?

then i guess after i get the entire number, i would just subtract the sq footage of my house and driveway.

btw, my plot of land is a bit of an odd shape. instead of having 4 sides, i actually have 5 because the back border is not perfectly straight across. dont know if that matters.

thanks for any help.

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Comments (14)

decklap
16 years ago
Its just length x width.
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whip1 Zone 5 NE Ohio
16 years ago
Measure the front, and the side, and multiply those two numbers. Subtract the house and driveway. For organics, it will get you close enough. If you're applying chems, you might want a more accurate number.
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Your total expected cost is based up the materials and labor for: the design; the structure; the appliances; HVAC; and the non-structural finishes. It's easiest to control costs with the initial design. Every corner, bay, alcove, and dormer adds a highly disproportionate percentage to the structural cost. The basic square or rectangle floorplan is the least expensive to build. However, you like the design as is; and I'm in agreement with others that cutting 300 sf will not be of much benefit to the total cost unless they were cut in such a way as to eliminate some of the many corners designed. Unlikely. The non-sturctural portions are the most effective areas in which to control or cut costs. That is, the appliances, counters, toilets/showers/tubs, and window treatments can most easily be "downgraded" at the time of build, and in the future replaced with more expensive elements. Most floors may be considered non-structural... shocking though it may seem, builder's grade carpet over padding over moisture-proof OSB is quite acceptable until one wants to pay for the desired hickory or whatever. I know one guy who put down nice but inexpensive vinyl tiles in a parquet pattern, topped them with several layers of polyurethane and is still waiting for them to wear out. Low cost is not necessarily low value. However, ceramic and glass tiles should be considered structural as they require special installation. Design and plan the kitchen for the cabinets you want, but install Ikea or similar ready-made ones until the budget can afford the fancy doors and knobs (this can save thousands of dollars). Also, check with the trim carpenter -- quite often they can build shelves for ready-made "custom" doors for considerably less cost than buying the cabinets that are usually sold with those doors. Custom kitchen design centers make their profit on selling you their cabinets, and boyoboy what a profit! Shop carefully for the countertops; in-depth shopping may find the granite [or whatever] you want at a competitive price to standard tops; or you may find that finishing butcher blocks with tung oil is less expensive. And there is no question but that sharp shopping for standard kitchen appliances can save many thousands of dollars, more if your original plans included such things as an 8-burner BigName stove. Save big bucks on luxury items in the plumbing and electrical departments. Faucets and chandeliers can be easily replaced down the road so do a lot of price comparisons to buy low-cost now, again they can be easily replaced in the future. Also peer carefully at the cost of different finishes; it is possible to buy top-of-the-line items in a finish that is not presently popular for little more than the cost of the ElCheapo brands. BTW, well-designed toilets have little variance in cost so shop to get the best-recommended ones at a reasonable cost. Doors are a non-structural item which are often overlooked when computing the budget. If your builder has carpenters capable of properly hanging a door (and not all are capable so honesty is required), this is one area where I'd highly recommend shopping at the local recyclers and junk dealers. Time spent with paint remover, sanders, and refinishing can rescue a solid wooden door of far better quality than most commercially available, for an astoundingly lower cost. As you may have noticed, I constantly said "shop" ~~ this is the big secret to saving money.
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bpgreen
16 years ago
I have an oddly shaped lot, also. I basically cut it into rectangles and triangles. I then calculate the square footage of each piece and add them up. I just calculate the square footage of the grassy area rather than calculate the entire lot and subtract the house.

To calculate the area of a rectangle, multiply two sides that are perpendicular to each other.

To calculate the area of a right triangle, multiply two perpendicular sides and divide by two. If the triangular pieces aren't right triangles, cut the triangle into two right triangles and add the sq footage together.
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garett
Original Author
16 years ago
right, its just l x w if your lot is square or rectangle. i have a pie shaped lot with 5 sides. the front being much shorter than the back because the sides taper.

but i guess i will have to get creative like bp suggests. thanks.
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darius_07
16 years ago
Yes, just divide it into rectangles and triangles. It's the easiest way. You could get fancy with trapezoids and such, but let's keep it simple.
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soccer_dad
16 years ago
If your like me, it might be harder to find the paperwork than to just step it off, but in my area there is a plot drawing in the closing paperwork. Having the surveyed dimensions is the most accurate.
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garett
Original Author
16 years ago
actually, calculating a trapezoid doesnt sound so bad, lol.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.aaamath.com/geo78-area-trapezoid.html
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decklap
16 years ago
If there is an organic lawn product retailing in America that doesn't give app rates to the nearest 1000 sq. ft. then I've never seen it. Under/over by a few hundred feet isn't going to make one bit of difference. If you're buying seed/sod your going to want to go over regardless. It doesn't need to be so fine.
That's part of the beauty of organics.
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grayentropy
16 years ago
Guestimate it.

I have a 35,000 ft^3 lot. My forest is about 10,000 ft^2 (in a triangle [SOH CAH TOA]), the house about 2000 ft^2, driveway about 500 ft^2, beds about 300 ft^2, wood pile about 32 ft^2, etc. All in all I say I have about 20,000 ft^2 of lawn. Get it within 5000 ft^2 and you should be Ok.

If the lawn is on the small side, error to the lesser and add accordingly.
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User
16 years ago
Guesstimation would work just fine, really. Particularly for organics, as long as you aren't seriously low on the guess.

A Pi...er, pie-shaped segment can be calculated by:

Measure one of the straight lines to the point of the pie. Assuming it's actually a pie shape, which one doesn't matter. If it's not and one side is longer than the other, choose the one closest to the average by eyeballing it.

A0 = 3.14 * r * r

(A-sub-zero because this is the first estimate for an entire circle, not the pie itself).

Estimate how much of a circle the pie covers...is it a quarter-pie or a third or a half? Then multiply A0 by that amount, represented by C below

A = A0 * C

That's your base area.

Subtract out the house footprint, plus any gardens and your driveway (S below) and you're good to go.

Afinal = A - S

So, if you live on a quarter pie where the edge from the pie curve to the point is 100 feet...

A0 = 3.14 * 100 * 100 = 31,400 square feet

A = 31,400 * 0.25 (quarter circle from above) = 7,850

Let's say your house and driveway and gardens eat up 2,000 of that...

Afinal = 7,850 - 2000 = 5,850.

5,850 is your total square footage of lawn. Round that to 6,000 to make the math easier (organics not requiring an exact answer...synthetics I'd still use 6 K, though).

If you want to put it all together using the terms above:

Afinal = (3.14 * r2 * C) - S

This ends today's geometry and algebra lesson. :-)
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User
16 years ago
choose the one closest to the average by eyeballing it.

As I think about it, instead of this I'd use the area of an ellipse if it's noticeably squashed on one side (noticeably elliptical, in other words):

In the above, substitute 3.14 * r2 with the following:

Aellipse = 3.14 * A * B

Where A is the longest axis measurement and B is the shortest.
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terilynn07_aol_com
13 years ago
I have a triangle property with sides of 23', 25', 31' what is the square footage?
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dogwind
13 years ago
The area of any triangle can be determined by the formula:
base x height / 2
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greengrass_grower
13 years ago
Here is an awsome calculator that can be used for any lawn. It will calculate any shape and any form of measurent, It will even allow for flower beds!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Fresh Turf Calculator
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calculationg sq footage

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decklap

whip1 Zone 5 NE Ohio

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calculationg sq footage

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