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How big is that house? How to Understand Square Footages.

How big is that house? How to Understand Square Footages.

When it comes to home searches it is often hard to understand how much square feet you need.

Here we break down some numbers for you to give you a better idea.

  • 100 sq ft

    It’s the size of a medium sized bedroom, not including the space the inside the closet. If you are renting a 10x10 (100 square feet) bedroom, you will have plenty of space for a bed, side table and dresser… but not much else. Most second bedrooms are between 100 feet and 144 feet (12x12).

  • 200 sq ft

    The primary bedroom in the house might be around this size. Another way to look at it is the size of a one car garage. Its about a 14x14 square foot bedroom.

  • 300 sq ft

    A small studio apartment. You might have to sacrifice the couch for a chair, but you will have room for a closet, kitchen, and bathroom. Depending on how its laid out you might find it to have all the amenities of a normal apartment.

  • 400 sq ft

    A two-car garage is about 400 square feet. Many people are converting garages into granny flats complete with kitchens and bathrooms.

  • 500 sq ft.

    This is a generously sized studio.

  • 700 sq ft

    Many one-bedroom condos or apartments are about 700 square feet maybe just a little over.

  • 900 sq ft

    You can find many 900 square feet sized two-bedroom, two-bath, apartments.

  • 1100 sq ft

    A large two-bedroom apartment or a small three-bedroom house. Many homes in San Diego are around this size. If its three bedrooms it might be tight, or you might not have a dinning room.

  • 1400 sq ft

    This size home might have a formal dining room or a fourth bedroom. This is not including the garage which is excluded when calculating the square feet of a home.

Of course, not all places you look it will have the size of each room or maybe not even the total square footage and when you walk into an unfurnished home it might be hard to tell how large it is.

Here are some tips to understand what will fit in a bedroom and how to measure it.

First, let’s break down bed sizes. Here is a chart:

SizeWidthLength
Twin3.25ft6.25ft
Full4.5ft6.25ft
Queen5ft6.7ft
King6.3ft6.7ft
Cal King6ft7ft

Ways to find out the square feet of a room.

You might not always have a tap measure with you when looking at homes. Did you know your iPhone has a measure app? Its very handy and easy to use. The other way us property managers often measure out space is by walking it.

I know it sounds inaccurate but trust us, you get this down and it can useful. A long human step is about 3 feet. That’s a long step for someone 5-foot 9 inches. Its might be a little reaching for someone shorter. Knowing this, place your heel at the wall and walk using long steps from there, counting each step. When you are done just multiply by three.

Here is an example:

A room walks in 4 steps lengthwise. That 4 X 3 = 12.

Widthwise it walks only 3 steps. That’s 3 X 3 = 9. That means the room is roughly 108 square feet.

If this is a bedroom, and we look at the chart, a queen size bed should fit along the 9-foot wall with about 4 feet to spare or 2 feet on either side.

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