Avery wrote:
On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 06:15:35 GMT, "ODB" wrote:

Hi all,

I have been looking at a house, they are quoting it as 20 metres/or 20
sqaures.

I always get confused how this is calculated for the purposes of changing
the floor.

It is a decent size single storey house, lounge room is 5m x 5m, 3 bedrooms
3x3, kitchen plus 2 bathrooms.

Are the hallways and bathroom/kitchen included in that 20?

Can anyone shed light on how these realtors work?

Thanks!



In Australia before the 1960s it was common to quote the size of a
house in "squares" . I thought that this definition had long ago
disappeared.

One "square" was equivalent to 100 square feet. A house of 20
"squares" was 2000 square feet.

Since this country converted to the metric system of measurement a
long, long time ago, the area should be quoted in square meters.

To convert square feet to square metres multiply by .093

20 "squares" = 2000 square feet = 186 square metres. A reasonably
sized 3 bedroom house.

The average size house in Australia has gone from 130 sq metres in
1970 to about 220 sq metres today.

I suggest that you get your real estate people to quote in square
meters only. If you need to get any tradesmen in to do any work, or
you need to get the place surveyed, or you need to inform your bank to
secure a mortgage, they will all work in square meters.

Yeah, that sounds a _lot_ more likely that my idea of it being
equivalent to 400 square meters and which seems far more likely for a
3-bedroom house. Funny thing is that this "square" measure is still used
in the US for exactly one purpose that I can think of: measuring the
area of a roof for materials (X bundles of shingles covers a square). I
just went through the trouble and expense of re-roofing my house this
spring and that definition should have stayed with me considering the
amount of financial pain involved.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com