Cost Per Square Foot Definition Use our Cost Per Square Foot Calculator to compare real estate deals, or to more accurately determine and advertise your own carpentry, construction and repair costs to others. The following are some helpful instructions on how use this calculator:
Determine the Cost of Materials for a Job A cost per square foot calculation will help you clearly understand the exact amount of materials you will need to get a job done. Suppose, for example, you need to paint a room. You could guess at the amount of paint needed, thereby guessing at the overall cost of paint required, and then tack on a profit margin and bill your customer. However, this can be problematic. If you need more paint than you anticipated, you face the uncomfortable situation of either redrafting the bill, or swallowing up your own profit with extra materials. With a Cost Per Square Foot Calculator, you simply fill in the following:
Width
Height
Total Cost
Do not enter inches into the online calculator. Be sure to convert to feet. For example, 10ft 3in = 10.25 ft. Enter the width and height dimensions in feet for your job, as well as your guess at what the materials will cost you. The calculator will tell you the exact cost per square foot, given the cost you’d like to spend. With this handy tool, it is easy to see if you are overestimating or underestimating your material costs. After seeing your results, you can adjust your cost estimate accordingly.
Create a Price per Square Foot to Share With Customers You can create a price per square foot bill or quote for your customers in a similar way. Once you’ve accurately determined your overall cost, enter the width and height in feet for your job. In the total cost box, enter the price you’ve decided to charge for the entire job. As a result, you will get the price per square foot, which can help your customer understand your pricing better.
Shop Comparatively for Real-Estate As a customer looking to buy housing, it can often be difficult to compare the pricing of houses that are dramatically different. The cost per square foot calculator can help compare these houses by accurately showing you how much houses cost relative to their sizes. Since most houses advertise size using square footage, the following instructions will help you use this free calculator to determine the price per square foot of a house based on its square footage.
Divide the square footage by 2. You will get a number as your answer that we will call X for convenience.
Enter the number 2 in the space designated for “WIDTH” .
Enter X in the space designated for “HEIGHT”.
Finally, enter the price in the “TOTAL COST” space.
Your result is the cost per square foot of the house. Now, it’s easy to compare the prices of two differently sized homes and see which one costs more per square foot.
How to Calculate Cost Per Square Foot Let's be honest - sometimes the best cost per square foot calculator is the one that is easy to use and doesn't require us to even know what the cost per square foot formula is in the first place! But if you want to know the exact formula for calculating cost per square foot then please check out the "Formula" box above.