What is the procedure for accurately measuring square-footage on a tri-level home?

Question

When the house is a split-level, not three levels directly on top of each other.

Answer 1

Let's start with something simple: I have a loft which is a big room with a very high ceiling. My bedroom is up on a raised platform, accessible by a stairway. What's the square footage of my abode? It's the sum of the ground floor and my bedroom. What matters to the Department of Building and Safety is USABLE floor space.

A tri-level home is amendable to the same kind of analysis. Go through the whole place room by room, and sum up the square footage. Forget about the outside dimensions of the house, it won't help you. This is the figure that the County is going to base the property tax on, the same as what the Department of Building and Safety is going to base their permit fees on as well. Real estate brokers want to use this figure as well when selling.

You want to make an estimate on the cost of building it? Well, that's different now, using this square footage to compute building costs could be misleading. It could be cheaper, or it could be more expensive, than a comparable one-story home of same footage. Why so? A split level floor could save on walls you don't have to build, but at the same time, how are you doing the split level? Foundations or structure could be more complicated, thus more costly. As a rule of thumb, split level homes are more expensive than conventional homes, so going by the total usable floor space could still give you a better estimate.

Answer 2

You're kidding right?
The same as it is for a single level home.
Length x Width
Tell me you're kidding. . .

Answer 3

Room by room? lol That should make for a fun weekend project.