How square footage works
Square footage is length times width, both measured in feet. A room 12 feet long and 10 feet wide is 120 square feet. This number drives almost every home project: paint, flooring, tile, carpet, drywall and even home appraisals are priced or specified in square feet.
For a perfectly rectangular room, one multiplication is enough. For L-shaped or irregular rooms, split the floor plan into rectangles, measure each one and add the sections together. Always round up to the nearest square foot — underestimating means buying a little more material later.
Unit conversions
- 1 square yard = 9 square feet
- 1 square meter = 10.764 square feet
- 1 square foot = 0.0929 square meters