Expert: Sherman D. - 2/27/2005

Question
hi, i hope this isn't a confusing question for you.  my family is moving.  we have a home that's about 2000 sq. ft.  of course not every sq. ft. in the home is covered with furniture.

my wife is getting a truck for us.  i told her to ask them how much sq. ft. of room the truck holds.  they told her that it holds 1350 cubic ft.

i realize that sq, ft, is measuring the area of the floor only, and cubic ft is measuring the floor and stacking on the floor from top to bottom.  so i'm assuming that cubic feet will be more room to store things in the truck compared to sq. ft.  is this correct?

if there's any other tip you can give me to give me an idea of how much space that's equal to in sq. ft. that would help me too.

thanks.

Answer
If you are speaking space in the house compared to the space in the truck. The space in the house isn't necessarily smaller than the space in the truck. Here is what i mean.

When you are talking about how much AREA the house takes up, it is talking about how much AREA the house takes up on the land, not how much space is in the house. So if you are talking about find room in the house, it depends on how tall your house is and how much space of the house is being taken up.

Like if you have an acre and the house takes up 2000 sq.ft. then that is how much area that house takes up, not how much room you have.

Lets say for ex: the house takes up 2000 sq.ft. and the house is 12 to 15 feet tall, which means its 2 stores tall, then that house would have 24000 cubic feet to 30000 cubic feet of space, then you subtract the amount of space that is already being occupied. For ex: there is 12000 cubic feet of space being taken up, then you would have 12000 cubic feet to 18000 cubic feet of space in the house, and if only 2700 cubic feet of that is being taken up, then you will have to make 2 trips to possibly carry all of the stuff that you have in the house.

So when you are comparing the space in the house and the truck, here are the formulas you have to use

Space in House = L3W3H3 - L2W2H2 = L1W1H1
(L,W,H)3 = Space the House takes up
(L,W,H)2 = Space that takes up the house
(L,W,H)1 = Free Space

Space in Truck = LWH

If you wanna figure out how many times you may have to take, then use this formula

(L1W1H1)/(LWH) = Trips You Will Probably Have To Take

If you have a house with a roof, the dimensions will be a lot different, because then you have 2 different dimensions.

Space of Room = (L5W5H5)/3
Space Taken Up Inside Roof = (L4W4H4)/3
Space of House = L3W3H3
Space Taken Up Inside House = L2W2H2
Free Space = (L1W1H1)

(L3W3H3 + ((L5W5H5)/3))) - (((L4W4H4)/3) - L2W2H2) = (L1W1H1)

Same Trips Taken formula.

I hope that wasn't a confusing answer.