How to measure your house for floor plans

What you'll need

Before you start, get these together:

• A tape measure — ideally 5m or longer. A laser measure works too if you have one.
• Several sheets of plain paper — one per floor
• A pencil and pen
• A phone to take photos as you go

That's it. You don't need graph paper, a ruler, or anything to scale. What matters is that every measurement is written down clearly — not that the sketch looks neat.

Step 1 — Draw a rough sketch first

Before you measure anything, walk around each floor and draw a rough outline of the layout from above — like a bird's eye view. Mark every room, corridor, staircase, and built-in cupboard. Don't worry about scale or straight lines. This is just a map you'll add numbers to.

Do one sketch per floor. Label each room — Kitchen, Living Room, Bed 1, Bathroom, and so on. If there's a loft or cellar, do a separate sketch for those too.

Taking a photo of your sketch at the end of each room is a good habit — it means you always have a backup if the paper gets lost.

Step 2 — Measure each room

For each room, you need the following measurements written on your sketch:

Room length and width

Measure wall to wall at floor level. Write the measurement on the sketch between the two walls it refers to. If the room is not a simple rectangle — for example, it has a chimney breast, bay window, or an alcove — measure each section separately.

For an L-shaped room, measure both lengths and both widths and mark them clearly. Measure the inset or projection of any chimney breasts and alcoves too.

Wall thicknesses

This one is often forgotten. Measure the thickness of external walls (usually at a window or doorway where you can see the full depth) and internal walls (usually visible at doorways). Write these on your sketch. For a typical UK house, external walls are usually 270–350mm and internal walls 100–120mm, but it varies — so always measure rather than assume.

Door positions and widths

For every door, measure and record:

• The width of the door opening
• The distance from the door opening to the nearest corner of the room
• Which way the door swings (into or out of the room, and to the left or right)

You can mark the swing direction on your sketch with a small arc.

Window positions and widths

For every window, measure and record:

• The width of the window opening
• The distance from the window to the nearest corner of the wall it's on
• The height of the windowsill from the floor (called the cill height)
• The height of the window opening itself

If there are multiple windows on the same wall, measure the gap between them too.

Step 3 — Measure the staircase

Stairs are often the trickiest part. What we need:

• The overall width of the staircase
• The overall length of the staircase footprint on the floor below
• Whether the stairs are straight, quarter-turn, or half-turn (dog-leg)
• The number of steps
• The position of the staircase relative to the surrounding walls

A photo from above looking down the stairs is very helpful here — take one if you can.

Step 4 — Ceiling heights

Measure the ceiling height in each room. Most rooms in a UK house will be the same height on the same floor, but always check — older properties in particular can vary. If there are sloping ceilings in a loft room, measure the height at the highest point and the height where the slope starts (the knee wall height).

Step 5 — External measurements

If your project involves elevations or a site plan, you'll also need external measurements. Walk around the outside of the building and measure:

• The overall width and depth of the building footprint
• The position and width of all external windows and doors from the corners
• The overall height of the building — from ground level to the eaves, and from eaves to the ridge if you can safely estimate it
• The distance from the building to any boundaries (fences, walls, hedges)

For external heights, a photo standing back from the building with something of a known height in the frame (like a person or a door) can help us estimate if you can't safely measure.

Step 6 — Take photos

Photos don't replace measurements, but they are very useful alongside them. Take:

• One photo of each room from the doorway looking in
• One photo of each external elevation (front, rear, both sides)
• Close-up photos of anything unusual — bay windows, chimney breasts, built-in cupboards, awkward corners
• A photo of your completed sketch for each floor

If you have a smartphone, the photos will be geotagged and time-stamped which can help us cross-reference them with your sketches.

Common measuring mistakes to avoid

• Measuring from skirting board to skirting board — always measure wall to wall, not skirting to skirting. Skirting boards add 15–20mm each side which adds up.
• Forgetting wall thicknesses — they matter when we're drawing internal walls accurately.
• Only measuring one dimension of an irregular room — if a room isn't a rectangle, we need all the dimensions of every section.
• Not noting which way doors swing — this affects the layout of the room significantly in the drawing.
• Illegible numbers — write measurements clearly in mm or metres, whichever you prefer, and stick to one unit throughout.

What to send us

Once you've measured up, email us:

• Your sketches — one per floor, with all measurements written on
• Your photos — of each room, each elevation, and your sketches
• A brief description of what you need — floor plans only, elevations too, site plan, or a full planning package

We'll review everything you've sent and come back with a fixed-price quote within 24 hours. If anything is unclear or we need an additional measurement, we'll ask — but for most standard projects, a careful set of sketches and photos is everything we need.

Summary

Measuring your house well takes about an hour for a typical two-storey property. The key things are: measure wall to wall, record every door and window position and size, note wall thicknesses, and take photos as you go. You don't need to be a professional — you just need to be methodical.

If you're unsure about anything, send us what you have and we'll tell you exactly what else we need. We work from rough sketches every day and are used to helping clients get the information right.