see if anyone you know has access to a laser measuring device you can borrow--very good for solo measuring though it won't work so well on a bright day.

always take overall measurements and then specifics (corner-to-window, window-to-window, along an entire wall.) then you can check them against each other.

set a datum for vertical measurements, so that you can account for any changes in grade.

take lots of photos so you can check things later.

if there is brick involved, 3 bricks vertically = 8". That might help if you have to measure off the photos...

make sure to measure ext. and int. wall thicknesses.

i know you can get idp credit for a site visit w/your mentor....maybe this counts as something like that?

see if anyone you know has access to a laser measuring device you can borrow--very good for solo measuring though it won't work so well on a bright day.

always take overall measurements and then specifics (corner-to-window, window-to-window, along an entire wall.) then you can check them against each other.

set a datum for vertical measurements, so that you can account for any changes in grade.

take lots of photos so you can check things later.

if there is brick involved, 3 bricks vertically = 8". That might help if you have to measure off the photos...

make sure to measure ext. and int. wall thicknesses.

i know you can get idp credit for a site visit w/your mentor....maybe this counts as something like that?

geez, sorry for all the double posts...my connection's acting up....

Try and find help - it will be dramatically easier if you have someone to hold one end of the tape.

I like to write measurements in inches - seems to take up less room on the page.

Take photos that include the tape measure.

Kiki-

good luck!
use running measurements that all from one starting point - less overall error. Make sure that all dimension strings tie together, though this usually takes at least two site visits. don't mix units. it's also worth checking to see if the building is square or not - don't assume that any two walls are perpendicular or parallel (especially in older buildings and buildings with multiple additions/renovations and in older cities).

I measure alot of old houses. First thing I do is rough sketch of t each room plan. Then I put in my dimension string lines marking every door opening and window opening for a dimension unit. I also
mark SH________(sill height) WH _______ (window height) for all of the windows CH ______(ceiling height) I also note the Base Trim configuration and measurement and the door window Trim configurations. I also indicate where North is on each plan so when I have to come back to the drawing in three weeks I'm not scratching my head.

When pulling dimensions if your using a Steel Tape Measure I would recommend a Stanley Fat Max tape (35'-0) It is heavy to carry around but it leaves you with less chance of making a measuring or addition error.

I always try to pull measurements so they are relatively close to level.
I use the Harry Eye Ball method...just look at the end of your tape and be sure your not headed up hill or down hill. I have seen this happen alot when I have watched contractors pull measurements and home owners. It will really screw your drawings up.

When pulling measurements on windows always measure from inside of window casing to inside of window casing. It gives you a good control point. Same goes for doors. Vertical window heights on the inside of the building from top of sill plate to bottom face of window casing.

I always take a digital Camera and take lots and lots and lots of pictures. They do come in handy.

When you pulling outside measurements the same rules apply.

If the building is stick built and clap board sided or shingle measure the vertical exposed face of the siding. It is easy to figure out how tall something is by counting clapboards or shingles in your digital photo.

Oh ya when you think you have taken enough pictures go ahead and take a few more. I usually figure my first trip to a house is going to be for photos and sketching out rooms. The second trip is for measuring.

Not that it has alot to do with field measuring but after the measuring, be sure to not design something so damm precise that there is no way in hell it is going to fit if a measurement is off by and inch or so.

I was talking to a contractor just the other day and they were talking about building a concrete bunker for a liner accelerator x-ray machine. When all said and done the Architect made everything so fricking tight that it created all kinds of turmoil because of the little do-das that are attached to the unit along with those pesky electrical junction boxes..... When it would have been easier to oversize the room by a couple of feet so eveyrone had room to work.

I also use colored pens, room outline (black) string lines (green) dimensions (red) Notes (purple)....I do change the colors up from time to time. For a long time I had a pink pen which was wonderful cause no one would steal it.

I have one of those electronic measuring things but I have never been happy with it. I use it when I go to a site with a client and look at a building to shoot overall room dimensions for discussions with the client. It impresses the client, but when your looking across a 60' room and that lil beam of light isn't hitting a point exactly across the room from you at exactly the same height off the floor and off the side wall they you are looking at a pretty good error factor.

Oh by the way most buildings are not square no matter what contractors will tell you. If your working in a dense older community most likely the front of the building follows the same angle as the front property line. So if it is at and angle...well it makes everything a bit of a pain in the ashe!

Old buildings which have additions might be hidding alot more than you can possibly think. I can tell you some wild stories about buildings I have been in over the years. Starting with those in The Boston Fanuell Hall area which were filled with garbage up to your waste.

Oh by the way, I hate measuring with someone else....I don't even take the Mrs with me when I'm measuring...cause I get into a place in my head. I guess it is from doing so much measuring over the years. It is one of those, "Get er Done" places where I go.

Thanks a lot for all of your replies. They are really helpful!!
Btw, i am going to ask one stupid question..
how do you know which way is north?

also, when the building is not square, how do you go about measuring? you can get the correct measurements but the overall shape of the house might be wrong..

Got to Google Earth, put in the address and well you should be able to figure out which way is General North. You can get magnetic north by using a compass. There are some nice ones made which the unit is rectangular with the compass floating in the middle of the unit. You can align it with the wall of the house and calculate how many degrees it is off of magnetic north. Be away magnetic north is not true north. It can be calculated by knowing where you are doing the project and looking the magnetic pull up in a reference table.

And to check for non-right angles, measure the diagonals of a couple of rooms - should be equal if the room is rectilinear.

measure twice...cut once

Like snook_dude I've done a ton of measuring over the years...probably over 50 spaces or buildings over the last 20 years. Here's my long boring list of things that lead to happy measuring:

One thing to be careful of is trying to be too accurate (and I'm normally very ocd about getting everything perfect).

You should be trying to get things to +/- 1/8", and it's actually extremely difficult to do any better than that. You have to accept that existing buildings are filled w/ construction that's out of plumb, out of level, walls that undulate slightly instead of being flat, etec. You can't possibly account for all these inconsistencies and in my opinion it's foolish to try (that's not the same as being sloppy or careless).

So, for example, unless a room's significantly out of square, I wouldn't bother checking diagonals. If a wall's got some minor wiggle to it, don't worry about it.

S_d's recommendation to draw it up first is spot on. I also recommend that you lay out all dimension strings before measuring...do this in a different color than you've sketched up the walls and other building info, it's just easier to read things later. Before you actually measure, walk through your dimension strings and verify that you're actually going to get all the info you need. There's nothing worse than sitting in your office drawing up your field measurements, only to realize that you missed a critical dimension.

If you've got a laptop, use it. Measure up a room, then put it right in cad on site. Inconsistencies/errors are inevitable, and they're not evident until you're drawing the plan. Much better to discover them on site right as you're measuring.

Always measure the overall room/building dimensions first, and then use running dimensions back to the same origin, for incremental dims w/in the room. When you can't have all dims go back to the same origin (and often you can't), then leave out the lease important increment, because w/out running dims, the increments NEVER add up to the overall, no matter how careful you are, and you'll drive yourself insane trying to get rid of the inconsistencies.

Bring a hammer, small nails, painters tape, laser, and a good level. You often have to be creative to get some dimensions, and may have to mark the walls (writing on the tape), or create something to hook the end of your measuring tape to (nail).

Make sure you use measuring tapes that allow you to take measurements in inches, not feet and inches. It's much faster in CAD to enter 147 instead of 12'3". I know it's only a second's different, but as you enter hundreds of measurements, it really adds up.

If you work with someone else while measuring, if your colleague is calling out measurements while you jot them down or put them in cad, ALWAYS repeat the measurement back to each other. It's very easy to hear 119" as 190", or 6'1" as 61". Repeating it back will eliminate these errors.

Measuring is pretty boring. I find that after 3-4 hours, my mind starts to wander, and mistakes start to happen, or my productivity plummets. When you hit the wall, stop for the day, do some other work, and come back in the morning to continue.

I've measured hundreds of buildings/spaces and there has been some really good advice so far. Make sure you know what this is being used for. If they are going to demo the back half of the building you don't need to nail down the exact dimension of the interior door of that space. If they are putting in new kitchen cabinets in an existing space you need to have that kitchen window exact.

jcarch mentioned don't be too accurate, but then said +/- 1/8". I think that's ridiculously too accurate for most things. Not only will a wall have at least that much variation but the contractor will fudge dimensions like that anyway. 1/8" isn't a practical dimension in the field, I use 1/2" at the most and will go to 1" in many circumstances.
When you use 1/8" is figuring out the wall construction. a 2x4 wall with one layer of 5/8" gyp on each side is 4-3/4". In this case the accuracy is warranted, not when measuring overall room dimensions.
It is understood (and should be a general note) that these are field dimensions and the contractor needs to verify important dimensions in the field.

When you enter a building you should walk around it and sketch it, like has been said. When doing this look at the structure, find the logic in the layout. If you see a column line you can use this to measure off. It's going to line up (90% of the time). Structure should fall on top of more structure. Certain things need to happen for this building to stand. Older buildings tend to follow logical layouts. Windows line up, walls stack. They also sometimes have CRAZY variations so keep an eye out for that.

In order to do this you need to make redundant measurements. Measure the overall building length, then the overall rooms, then locate the windows/doors/ect on a string of dimensions. At some point you will be drawing this and read a dimension that makes no sense. This lets you double check yourself. If the building is two rooms don't only measure one and assume the other is the leftover amount. You WILL regret this at some point.

Going back to an earlier point, don't just measure to the walls and floor to ceiling like it was a line on a drawing. Figure out how this building is built. Whats the floor system, the wall types? Once you know the overall building dimensions you are just inserting these pieces into the box. It all works together, figure out how and it will make much more sense when figuring out how it all relates to draw it.

If you can get a laser measurer do, but a good one will cost a few hundred. Even with a laser you'll still probably need a 100' tape and 20' tape. If you can bring a laptop and draw as you go that's great too, but sometimes you have limited access and only enough time to measure.

In summation:
Figure out what this will be used for. Look around the whole building first. Actually figure out how it is built and laid out in your head. THEN draw it on paper. Make your measurements redundant. Use multiple colors to help you organize your measuring. Take tons of pictures, especially where things change or intersect to see the relation of one to another.

Bonus tip. Pens can freeze if you are in a cold climate this time of year make sure you have a pencil too.

All good advice.
I actually enjoy measuring a building. I can only guess that I have measured several hundred or even more. I bring a laser level to help with changes in elevation and establising a baseline for heights.
The level mounts on a tripod so I can rotate it as I go around a room.

You can never take enough pictures. I keep investing in better cameras every couple of years. A DSLR with a 10-22 lens is perfect for interior shots in small spaces . But the newer point and shoots are getting real good and are 60 or 70 bucks. Nice and small and can save hours of time.

When I measure projects I go back to the office and draft it right away to get some critical item on paper just from memory while it's fresh in my head. Usually some quirky item that was too difficult to measure accuratly.

Wall thickness is often overlooked as being some standard. Renovated buildings can have layers of hidden construction that can real throw off a overall plan. I measure the exterior footprint even if it isn't part of the required space to help avoid the issue. If I working on a project that is just one room I might measure the rest of the spaces around for context and avoid having to come back. Especilly when it might be a two hour drive away. Better to spend an extra hour measuring more than I need

Never had much faith in the laser measuring devices. A 35 dollar Stanley 35 foot tape is really the best.

I use a sharpie to layout the space and .5mm pencil to write the measurement. So I can erase a measurement or notes that are tough to read. Usually happens when trying to cram lots of in on small drawing

Thank you guys all for such detailed replies. I am so grateful!!
By the way, I have one last question. I will have to draw an elevation of the house and was wondering how you would measure the roof. I guess you would need to use a ladder to do that?

Is there a way to do this properly??

Thank you !!

go up to the attic, measure the high point from the inside, plus the ridge beam, joist depth and roof assembly (estimate based on roof type).

this plus the building width should do it.

any suggestions on measuring a round building?

As Builts should be a part of the curriculum at every architecture school.

sgnt.....get yourself a round tape....it should do the trick!

Laser measure = invaluable for solo measures. Go for Leica or Bosch. Most others I've found to be inaccurate. Get one that saves up to 10 dimensions and you can tear through a room in no time.

Learn how to "double-bend" a tape measure in order to measure items you can't quite reach/access like a soffit above. Hold the tape end in one hand and the case in the other, then create slack in the tape.

Strap a miner's light to your head. Absolutely irreplaceable for dark areas and basements. You need both your hands freed.

Use the biggest clipboard and paper pad you can find. You need a hard surface to write on. Your measurements will start to overlap fast.

Shoot overalls, overalls, overalls.

Don't forget to shoot hallway widths and ceiling heights in every room.

Measure wall to wall. If you have to lay the tape down to measure, make sure you account for the thickness of the base trim.

When you draw it up and it doesn't quite fit, remember the tape or laser measurement typically errs to the long side. If I come across measurements that don't fit, I typically knock a quarter to a half inch off every dimension in a string and usually it works. They add up.

GET IN THAT ATTIC! Don't forget the roof structure and slope. Photograph the rafter/top plate connection. Measure the ridge height above ceiling joist.

Document the furnace size and efficiency, water service size and material, and electrical service size. Half of the time they are outdated/ undersized. Note where the electrical line runs from house to pole/transformer.

Also, elinor, I've always counted bricks at 3" tall each, or 9" for 3 (2-5/8" tall each + 3/8" grout). This can occasionally vary so take a photo of the brick dimensions.

I measure windows & doors inside jamb to inside jamb, both horizontally and vertically, like this ex.: 24x36 @ 44 (btm. sill abv. fin. flr.), wd dh, tdl 3w2h, upper sash only, 3-1/4" col. (trim), s&a (sill & apron).

Different colored pens: black for building, blue for dims, red for elec., green for mech. You NEED this color coding, your recordings will overlap like crazy.

Measure stairs by taking floor to floor measurements, including floor to landing. Divide the height by the number of risers. In other words, don't measure a single riser then multiply (or all of them individually). Very inaccurate.

Don't forget the height of the 1st floor off grade/porch/whatever. You need this to determine grade level on your elevations.

If there's a garage, get its distance from the house. A survey may have this but it's good to record it anyway. Addition designs can easily intrude on the required clearance when you ignore where it is.

Locate all trunklines and chase walls, location of water service, location of gas line, furnaces & water heaters, all plumbing & fixtures, waste lines & stacks, ejector & sump pits, buffalo box in the front yard, floor drains, catch basins, especially active ones. Having to modify these can be a big money issue for a H/O.

The only reason to have another person with you on a measure is a) the building is huge and can't be completed in a day solo or b) to record measurements by paper or laptop or c) occasionally hold the tape end (totally unnecessary if you have a laser). Personally I use a pad & paper as I find it too time consuming to be constantly running back and forth between measuring and a laptop. Rarely do I find I need to verify a measurement as I typically have another measurement on the other side of the room to verify from. And if I do miss something critical, which is virtually never, a go back is usually not in the slightest unreasonable.

Don't wear clothes you care about, you'll be on the floor and musty basements and filthy attics. Wear boots. Wear a hat, under the brim is a convenient place to hold all your different colored pens.

Bring a bottle of water and maybe even a sandwich if you're running late and need to skip lunch. Unknown neighborhoods can take forever to find a place for lunch.

And out of square buildings suck. That is all.

Word of the Wise: "Every Building is out of Square."