All square feet are not created equal

All square feet are not created equal (part 1 of 2)  It may come as a surprise to you that there is no universal method for calculating a home's square footage. Discrepancies occur when including (or omitting) porches and screened-in decks, lower levels, attic spaces and garages. Should the square footage occupied by a staircase be counted once or twice, since it occupies space on both levels? Then there's the question of where the measurement is taken from. Some homes may only include the space inside the walls. More often, the calculation is based on taking measurements from outside of the exterior wall framing (which adds the square footage represented in the wall thickness.) Further increasing square footage calculations, some homes are measured from outside of exterior finish materials. If the home has brick siding, for example, measuring to the outside of the brick may add 50 or even 100 square feet to the home's overall size. This is one reason homes should not be compared solely on the basis of cost-per-square-foot.

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