Heated Square Feet

[Jerry Simon]

Is this a regional term? My sister is building a house in South Carolina, and her builder uses this term (heated square feet) to describe what us Yankee's would call living areas.

[Nolan Kienitz]

In Texas I believe I'm accustomed to "livable" square footage. Down here beyond that the additional s.f. is porch, garage (attached or not attached).

[Marc]

I call it 'conditioned' area.

Marc

[Steven Hockstein]

In NJ, the building code defines habitable space, the local Land Use Ordinances have a way to define the size of a building, the real estate industry has their way of advertising the size of the building, the builders have another way that they like to define the square footage, and then the landlords use another system. Yikes.

[Jim Baird]

Around here it makes a diff when permitting a bldg, with different fees for heated or no. BTW the building code still does not require cooling for dwelling, just heating. I have met realtors on site who refuse to discuss square footage because they claim it can be a bone of contention.

[John Kogel]

He's probably tired of the blank look when he says 'conditioned space', so now it is 'heated space'. And good point, AC does not come in to the equation, but it should.

But what about the crawlspace? That area is required to be conditioned here. Double the square footage, minus the garage. [:-magnify

[Jim Baird]

"...That area is required to be conditioned here..."

Come on, John, you are in Canada, not the live free or die usa.