How to Measure for Siding Step-by-Step

Measure twice, side once

White siding and green window shutters installed on a suburban house
Photo: Comstock / Stockbyte / Getty Images
White siding and green window shutters installed on a suburban house
Photo: Comstock / Stockbyte / Getty Images
SKILL LEVEL
Easy
COMPLETION TIME
1 hour
COST
$0
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What you'll need:
TOOLS
  • Ladder
  • Tape measure
  • Calculator

Most homeowners want to know what their home improvement projects will cost before they start reaching out to professionals. Luckily, if you know how to measure a house for siding, you can get an accurate siding installation cost that you can then use to budget properly. Measuring for siding is a simple process you can do yourself with tools that you probably already have lying around.

  1. Sketch Your Home

    Woman sketching the exterior of her house
    Photo: Westend61 / Westend61 / Getty Images

    It’s a good idea to start the process by sketching the exterior of your home. Start with the front and draw a rough sketch of all of the faces you plan to cover with siding. Be sure to include faces on doghouse dormers and other bump-outs. Label each face with a number on the sketch, and then make a list of each number below the drawing. Be sure to exclude the faces you won’t be refinishing if you’re doing a partial siding replacement.

    Next, head to the sides and rear of your home and repeat the process. By the end, you should have a complete list of every surface you plan on siding.

  2. Section Off Irregular Shapes

    Use your sketch to section off portions of the faces of your home. The easiest way to do this is to break down the faces into simple geometric shapes. For example, homes with gable roofs have pentagonal sides. Section these off in your sketch into a rectangle for the bottom portion and a triangle above it. More irregular shapes may require that you break up each face even further.

  3. Measure the Surfaces You Plan on Siding

    Man using a measuring tape to measure house siding
    Photo: Olga Rolenko / Moment / Getty Images

    Next, get your ladder and tape measure and begin working through your list of faces that will get new siding. Your goal is to measure and record the square footage of each face you marked down in the previous steps. You can use the strategies below to get accurate area measurements. If your numbers are in non-whole feet, you can round up to the nearest half-foot.

    • For rectangular areas, take the measurements in feet and multiply the length by the width.

    • For triangular areas, measure the base and the height in feet. Multiply them together, and then divide by 2.

    • For areas with round edges, measure them as if they were rectangular. Take the height at the highest point and the width at the widest point in feet and multiply them together.

  4. Measure Wall Openings

    Now, you’ll need to measure wall openings, like doors and windows, on each face of your home. Take the measurements in feet, rounded down to the nearest half-foot, and multiply them together. For round windows or arched doorways, you can take length and width measurements at the tallest or widest parts and multiply.

  5. Calculate Square Footage

    Woman in the living room using a calculator and taking notes
    Photo: Images By Tang Ming Tung / DigitalVision / Getty Images

    You should now have a comprehensive list of measurements for all areas of your home that you need to install siding over. Add up all of the areas you calculated in step 3 (the complete faces) and subtract all of the areas you calculated in step four (the wall openings that don’t need siding). This will give you the actual square footage of siding you need, not accounting for waste.

  6. Account for Waste

    In all cases, your siding installer—which could be you if you’re DIYing siding installation—will do what they can to make the most of the siding material they purchase for your project. However, there will be areas they’ll need to cut off that are too small to use elsewhere. To ensure you have enough material to cover your home, add 10% to the figure you calculated in step five. This will give you your total siding area plus extra to account for mistakes and wasted material.

Mistakes to Avoid

Measuring for siding is a relatively straightforward process, but it’s still easy to make minor mistakes that can make a big difference once you go to order material or get quotes from siding contractors.

  • Underestimating siding needs: At several steps throughout the process, you’ll either have to overestimate or underestimate the square footage of your exterior walls. It’s always best to round up for areas that your contractor will side and round down when measuring wall openings. This helps ensure you don’t end up with a shortage of material.

  • Not accounting for trim costs: Since you’re taking measurements of all of your wall openings while measuring for siding, you should calculate the linear feet of exterior trim you’ll need to create a finished look. This saves you from having to remeasure and recalculate down the road.

When to Measure for Siding

Always measure for siding when the ground is dry and there’s no risk of rain. Being up on a ladder is inherently dangerous, but adding water into the mix elevates that risk.

Aside from staying safe, it’s a good idea to measure for siding before you buy any materials or before you hire a siding contractor. The measurements can help you avoid over-buying or under-buying siding, and they can give you an estimate of what the siding should cost when interviewing siding professionals.

DIY vs. Hiring a Pro

Measuring for siding is simple enough that even beginner DIYers can tackle it with ease, but if you’re planning on hiring a pro to install the siding, you may not need to. All siding professionals should take detailed measurements of your home before providing you with a free estimate, which means you can have a pro handle the measuring at no extra cost.

It may still be helpful to have a reference point to see how far above or below your estimate their quotes are, but if you’re hiring a reliable siding professional in your area, you can safely leave the measuring to them. Get multiple quotes and see how the square footage calculations compare if you’re concerned about a contractor’s accuracy.

Frequently Asked Questions

The living space of a home doesn’t correlate directly with how many square feet of siding you’ll need, but on average, a 2,000-square-foot home will need 1,700 square feet of siding or 17 squares of siding. Your siding measurements will vary depending on the layout of your home, the number of stories, the size of your doors and windows, and even your roof style.

The average cost to replace siding on a home is $11,600, and most homeowners pay between $5,600 and $17,700. Your total will depend mostly on the type of siding you choose, but also on the size and layout of your home. Siding costs will be up to 10% higher for two-story houses and those with many windows, doors, and bump-outs that require special measurements and cuts.

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