Measuring a building

[MontcoRealEstate]

How do you guys measure buildings? I have a laser measurer and noticed my numbers are significantly different when i measure inside vs outside. I add for walls as well. How do you guys accurately measure ?

 

[Deleted member 152047]

What type of building? Residential, Office, Industrial, Apartment, Retail......any building in NYC?

I used to measure every building that I appraised on the commercial side. This is fairly easy when you are working on a rectangular industrial building or mom and pop retail or office. However, when you get into apartment buildings, multi-story office, and shopping centers, you likely are not qualified.

I don't say that lightly, I have worked on hundreds of multistory medical buildings over the past few years and measured none of them. We have a client that contracts with a company and all they do is measure office buildings. They use a LIDAR machine that costs big $$. I spoke with the owner of the company and he explained that there are many ways to calculate RBA and a few different ways to calculate GBA, it really depends on what measurement one wants to use. In order to be qualified, you must be intimately familiar with BOMA (which changes fairly regularly) and the local markets.

For example, in NYC the RA of office and mixed use buildings often well exceed their actual physical size. The RA's are actually more than the physical GBA, which is a bit mind boggling, but it is what it is.

If you are asking about residential homes, ill defer to the resi folks here and you can ignore the preceding.

 

[Artemis Fowl]

Define accurate.

For my purpose and intended use, round to nearest 6inches. Some communities do more or less but more important is that it is the same for all within a community. Assessor FYI.

I do not believe fretting over 0.25 of an inch is reasonable for the purpose and use of most appraisals. Nice to be perfect but...

(queue the dissenters' choir)

 

[RCA]

I use a Hilti PD 20 Laser that is now 15 years old. It still works fine. https://www.econline.com/doc/pd-20-laser-range-meter-0001.

But I also carry along a tape measure - which is easier to use around certain exterior extrusions. All measurements are captured on a rough paper drawing of exterior and interior and made to at least 1" accuracy. I make double measurements of the interior where possible, by flashing the laser from one end through doors to the other end if possible, and also one way or another get the exterior and interior wall thickness. Might as well measure roof and ceiling height. Have to be fast, so the drawings are very rough and just serve to take down the measurements for transfer into Chief Architect (or Home Designer Pro).

Then back in the office, the measurements are loaded into Chief Architect or Home Designer Pro to make a real architectural floor plan.

My philosophy is that if you are going to appraise anything -then it should be absolutely clear what you are appraising. I've seen too many appraisals, where anyone reading the report will have only a rather poor idea of the real estate being appraised. US appraisers, even the best, are very poor in this area, as a rule.

I like their new PD-CS - which has a camera with cross-hairs that will allow you to see where the laser is pointed, even if there is too much light to otherwise see it:

https://www.hilti.com/c/CLS_MEA_TOOL_INSERT_7127/CLS_LASER_METERS_7127/r6793546

- and it records pictures of what you have measured. That is also very nice when you get back to the office to transcribe the measurements into a floorplan.

 

[Bobby Bucks]

I do not believe fretting over 0.25 of an inch is reasonable for the purpose and use of most appraisals. Nice to be perfect but...
(queue the dissenters' choir)

I do not disagree, however, I sense there are bonfires being prepared elsewhere in the forum. Tread carefully.

 

[Fernando]

When I was a younging, I tried to measure the house as accurately as possible.
When you calculate the measurements, hopefully it comes close to the assessors records.
If not you have to explain the differences which usually has an explanation. Like assessor included the enclosed patio or garage.
If there's too much of discrepancy, I add a disclaimer regarding measurements are believed to be accurate but not guarantee to protect my as*.

 

[RCA]

When I was a younging, I tried to measure the house as accurately as possible.
When you calculate the measurements, hopefully it comes close to the assessors records.
If not you have to explain the differences which usually has an explanation. Like assessor included the enclosed patio or garage.
If there's too much of discrepancy, I add a disclaimer regarding measurements are believed to be accurate but not guarantee to protect my as*.

Another common problem is that the assessor uses plans that are later massively updated without notifying the building dept/planning -- or possibly it happens because the planning department, in a new area, simply gets behind with the work and/or screwed up with new personnel that don't know what they are doing. E.g. I remember doing houses in the Fairfield/Vacaville area around 2003-6 that had 400-500 less square feet than on the assessor records because the owner asked the contractor to remove part of the upper floor over the living room/entrance and put in skylights. Well, I don't know for sure, but that explained the difference perfectly, so I assumed that was the case. At that time these were relatively new homes, as I recall maybe 5 years old. That made a big difference in value. I don't know how many other homes in the area suffered the same fate, which probably threw off my comps somewhat. But you do what you can do. Sometimes the subject comes out better sometimes worse. Of course, the owner of a comp is not going to let you come into his house and measure how much less GLA it really has than what is published in the assessor records. No way. --- You might think it would help with property tax. In CA that would be risky, especially with rising home prices. It might be possible to get the property tax lower. Although, the County Assessor would probably blame the owner for not reporting the update to the approved building plans, unless of course it could be proven to be the fault of the planning department. As an appraiser, I don't have time to deal with such issues, I just report the facts.

 

[TMG]

Old School here. Works like a charm. Hooks on any corner, on Condo interiors, it hooks on window frames, door jambs, etc, etc

 

[Tim The Enchanter]

Most residential properties have all 90 degree angles and are not too hard to measure. Bushes and stuff be damned.

Until you find that house shaped like a W.
That house on a hill with no right angles and every room is on a different level, with lots of stairs.
The one that was all curves and on a steep downslope. How do you measure stuff like that?

OK, I figured out the W house, but the other 2 were Mission Impossible.
Ended up assuming the public records GLA were good for the multi level one, and the architects plans figures were used for the curvy one, which was under construction.

 

[RCA]

Most residential properties have all 90 degree angles and are not too hard to measure. Bushes and stuff be damned.

Until you find that house shaped like a W.
That house on a hill with no right angles and every room is on a different level, with lots of stairs.
The one that was all curves and on a steep downslope. How do you measure stuff like that?

OK, I figured out the W house, but the other 2 were Mission Impossible.
Ended up assuming the public records GLA were good for the multi level one, and the architects plans figures were used for the curvy one, which was under construction.

Clearly you haven't appraised in San Francisco, e.g. a modified 120+ year-old Victorian triplex. Most everything is in fact rectagular, but just drive through the city and you can see what I mean. They also have a number of triangular houses squeezed into triangular lots where the streets intersect at less than a 90 degree angle.

But to be exact, tape measures are easiest to use for external measurements of convex corners and lasers for the occasional concave corners. For non 90 degree angles you will need an angle measure, at least at times (often you can assume the angle from the style, e.g. 45 degrees.) For interior measurements, use laser only if you want to be fast and accurate. I've seen videos of guys going completely around the exterior of a house with lasers, but I'm pretty sure that either (1) the measurements are not exact or (2) it's too time-consuming.

Don't' forget the bushes, thorns, tall fences on slopes, drop-offs where you can fall to your death, 2nd floor stuff with overhangs and the like, ... and so on.