Estimating siding square footage and costs requires only two basic formulas.
Figuring out the square footage of your house for siding purposes is as simple as using a couple basic geometry equations. While siding installation costs take into account other variables---fascia, soffits, window and door openings, and any custom work you may choose to do---the majority of the cost will be the actual square footage of siding plus installation costs. Estimating your square footage and siding costs is just that---a ballpark figure. You'll have to contact a siding company to get an actual cost prediction. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Draw sketches of each side of the exterior of your house that will receive siding. This generally will include the wall and any gables or triangular sections between the slopes of the roof. Don't worry about using rulers or otherwise making the sketch perfect. It's just a general diagram of the sides to which you can ascribe width and height numbers.
2. Measure the areas that will be sided. Measure the width of each wall from corner to corner and the height of each wall up to the roof or slope of the roof. For the triangular shapes formed by the sloping roof, measure the width at the low end (the base) and the height from the center of the base to the roof peak.
3. Calculate the areas using the following formulas:
For rectangles, the surface area of each side is width multiplied by height. For example, a side of your house that is 40 feet wide by 10 feet high is 400 square feet (a x b, or 40 x 10). For triangles, the area is calculated by multiplying the base (say 40 feet) by the height from base center to peak (say 10 feet) and dividing by two. Therefore, b x h = 40 x 10 = 400, divided by 2 = 200 square feet of area.
4. Add all the rectangles and triangles for which you made measuresments. Using the above examples, you would have four sides of rectangles at 400 square feet each that total 1,600 square feet. The two triangles formed at each side of your house equal 400 square feet (200 x 2). The total is 2,000 square feet--1,600 + 400 = 2,000.
5. Multiply the area (2,000 square feet) by the cost of the siding (say $3 per square foot). The cost is $6,000 (2,000 x 3).
Tags: square feet, square footage, your house, each side, each wall, feet triangles
