AboutRichard Taylor, AIA Expertise Ask me about all aspects of house, remodeling. , and room addition design and construction. Ask me about historic homes, renovation, and restoration. Ask me about materials and techniques, and about how you can get the best value for your design and construction dollar. Ask me how you can make your home a very special place. I can't, however, answer specific structural engineering questions in this forum - that's something you'll need on-site observation for.
Experience I own a five-person residential architectural firm, and have been designing custom homes, remodelings, and room additions across the country since 1983. Check us out at Richard Taylor Architects and RTA Plans. I have written and been published extensively on the subject of residential architecture. .
Organizations American Institute of Architects, City of Dublin Architectural Review Board, Past Editor of SPLASH (a CAD program), Past Editor of Open Directory Project, Boy Scouts of America
Education/Credentials Bachelor of Environmental Design (Architecture) Miami University 1983
For more about home design, check out my blog at Richard Taylor Architects Looking for great Luxury Home House Plans? Try ours at RTA Plans.
Question I am engaged in a question as it relates to the definition of a building footprint. My past experience and expertise as a General Contractor has always related a builing foot print to encompass the square footage contained with-in the outside foundation and walls.
Concrete flat work including walks, porches, and patios have always been considered ancillary if not enclosed by a structure.
What is the American Institute of Architectures definition of a build or structural footprint? Thanks for the help!
Answer Good afternoon Richard - thanks for your question!
A "footprint" is defined as the entire area of ground covered by permittable structure; in other words almost everything except pavement. Attached porches are still part of the footprint.
The "area" of the house is a different thing however, and there are many definition of what it includes. Generally, the entire heated and cooled area of a house, measured to the face of the structural sheathing on the exterior walls, is the "area". Covered porches may or may not count, depending on who's doing the counting...uncovered porches don't count. Two-story spaces only count once...stairs only count once...garages don't count at all.
How you define area (and maybe, footprint) should depend on the use you're going to make of the information. Most people try to maximize the area to increase the tax value, decrease the cost-per-square-foot, or compare the house to smaller ones for the same cost.
I express a home's area as the gross heated area to the face of sheathing on the first two floors, not including the upper part of two-story spaces and counting the stair only once. I then show - as separate numbers - the area of screened porches, open porches, balconies, garages, finished basements, patios, decks, etc. I think that's the only way to let everyone know exactly what you're talking about. Anything else raises my suspicions as to the intent!
A contractor we work with will state that he can build a 5,000 SF high-end custom house for $140/psf, for example, but he's including the finished basement in that. To my eye, it's a 4,000 SF house at $159/psf with a 1,000 SF finished basement at $65/psf. That information is much more useful and much less misleading.
Buildings are generally too complex to express their areas in a single number, and the way the information is used varies from profession to profession. Best to break it up as much as reasonably possible and let everyone recombine it as they need for their own purpose!
Hope this helps,
Richard Taylor, AIA
www.rtastudio.com
www.rtaplans.com
