Measured base plans
Dimensioned floor plans captured at ±10mm, showing the wall lines and boundaries the area calculation depends on.
Area Measurement · Metro Vancouver
BOMA Area Measurement
Rent is charged on an area figure, which makes that figure worth getting right. We produce the measured base plans and area breakdowns a BOMA calculation is built on, at ±10mm rather than from a drawing of uncertain age.
- ±10mm measured
- Usable, rentable, gross
- Office, industrial & retail
Why the number matters more than it looks
Square footage is not a description in a commercial lease. It is a multiplier. It sets the rent, it sets the operating cost recoveries, and it usually sets several other charges that are calculated per square foot. An error in that number does not happen once, it repeats every month for the length of the term.
It is also one of the easier numbers to get wrong. Areas are commonly carried forward from an old marketing brochure or an original construction drawing, then repeated through successive leases without anyone re-measuring the space. Meanwhile the building has been renovated, demised differently, and had its common areas reconfigured.
A measured survey replaces an inherited assumption with a figure that can be shown to be true.
Confirming a suite's area before the lease is signed
The cheapest time to find out that an area figure is wrong is before anyone has signed anything. Once a lease is executed, the number is in the document, the rent is calculated from it, and changing it means reopening an agreement both sides thought was settled. Before signing, it is a correction to a draft.
A remeasure at that point is a small, specific job. We measure the suite, plus the common areas its share is calculated from when the scope includes them, produce a dimensioned base plan, and calculate rentable and usable area from the measured wall positions to the standard the lease names. The result is a figure with a stated standard, a stated date and a breakdown behind it, rather than a number carried forward from the previous tenancy.
For a landlord or property manager, the value is less about the figure going up or down and more about being able to stand behind it. If the incoming tenant's broker, designer or advisor asks how the number was arrived at, the answer is a plan and a derivation they can check for themselves. That is a much shorter conversation than one that starts with nobody being sure where the old figure came from.
It also tends to happen at a convenient moment. A suite between tenants is usually empty, which makes it the quickest kind of space to measure, and the same visit can capture the plan and walkable 3D tour that leasing needs to market the space.
What a remeasure answers before signing
The questions that come up between a draft lease and a signed one, what the measured survey gives you for each, and who makes the call.
| The question | What the remeasure gives you | Whose call it is |
|---|---|---|
| The questionIs the area in the draft lease right? | What the remeasure gives youRentable and usable area calculated from measured wall positions, to a stated standard and date. | Whose call it isThe owner, with leasing counsel or the broker, decides what the lease says. |
| The questionDoes the demising line on the exhibit match the walls? | What the remeasure gives youA measured plan showing where the demising walls actually sit today. | Whose call it isThe parties and their counsel decide how the premises are described. |
| The questionCan someone else check the figure? | What the remeasure gives youAn area breakdown space by space, and layered CAD with the boundaries on their own layers. | Whose call it isThe tenant's advisor reviews it; we show the working rather than vouch for the outcome. |
| The questionDoes the rest of the floor still add up? | What the remeasure gives youEvery suite and common area on the floor measured in the same visit, on the same basis. | Whose call it isThe owner or manager decides how far the remeasure extends. |
| The questionWhich standard should the figure use? | What the remeasure gives youA calculation to the standard the lease names, or BOMA 2017 by default, stated on the deliverable. | Whose call it isThe lease decides, which means the parties and their counsel. |
We measure and calculate. We do not advise on what a lease should say, what a discrepancy means contractually, or which standard a building ought to use.
What BOMA is
BOMA is the Building Owners and Managers Association, and the BOMA standards are the most widely used method in North America for calculating floor area in commercial buildings. They exist to make the number consistent: without an agreed standard, two people measuring the same floor can honestly arrive at very different totals depending on where they decide the boundaries sit.
BOMA publishes separate standards for different building types, including office, industrial and retail, because the way space is used and let differs across them. The office standard has several editions in use: we calculate to the 2017 edition, ANSI/BOMA Z65.1-2017, by default, and BOMA released a newer 2024 edition in March 2024. Our guide to BOMA 2017 explains what each edition changed.
One detail that catches people out: the standard permits more than one approach to the calculation, and the same building can produce different rentable figures depending on which is applied. That is why the method used should be stated on the deliverable rather than left implied.
The terms that show up in a lease
Three figures get quoted for the same space, and they are not interchangeable.
| Term | Roughly what it covers | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Usable area | Roughly what it coversThe space the tenant actually occupies and can put desks and equipment in. | Why it matters to youThis is what you can plan and build in. It is the number that determines whether a layout fits. |
| Rentable area | Roughly what it coversUsable area plus the tenant's proportional share of building common areas. | Why it matters to youThis is normally what rent is charged on, so it is larger than the space you occupy. |
| Gross area | Roughly what it coversThe overall building area measured to its outer boundaries. | Why it matters to youUsed for building-level analysis, valuation and comparison rather than for a single tenancy. |
The relationship between usable and rentable area is the load factor, sometimes called the add-on factor. A tenant paying on rentable area should understand what that factor is and how it was derived.
What we deliver
We are the measurement layer. We produce the drawings and the area breakdown that the calculation rests on.
Area breakdown
Areas broken out by space so the totals can be traced back to the parts they came from, rather than presented as a single unexplained number.
Layered CAD
AutoCAD .dwg with the boundaries on their own layers, so the calculation can be checked, adjusted and reproduced by anyone reviewing it.
Demising verification
Where the demising walls actually sit, which is the boundary that most often turns out to differ from the lease exhibit.
iGUIDE 3D tour
A walkable record of the space, so a figure can be sense-checked later without another site visit.
Multi-suite consistency
For a whole building, every suite measured the same way in the same visit, so the numbers are consistent across the rent roll.
When it is worth re-measuring
Re-measurement pays for itself most clearly around a change: a lease renewal or renegotiation, a suite being demised or combined, a building changing hands, a major renovation, or a portfolio where the areas came from several sources over several decades and nobody is confident they were produced the same way.
It is also worth doing when the existing figure cannot be traced. If nobody can say who measured the space, when, or to which standard, then the number is not defensible, and finding that out during a negotiation is worse than finding it out beforehand.
Common questions
It is worth doing whenever nobody can say who measured the suite, when, or to which standard, and especially if the space has been demised, combined or renovated since the figure was produced. Before signing is the cheapest point to correct a number. Whether a remeasure is needed for a particular lease is the owner's decision with their leasing counsel or broker; what we provide is the measured plan and area calculation to base that decision on.
A dimensioned base plan of the suite, rentable and usable area calculated from measured wall positions to the standard the lease names (BOMA 2017 by default), an area breakdown showing where the totals come from, and layered CAD with the boundaries on their own layers. A walkable 3D tour of the space is captured on the same visit.
We provide the measured drawings and area breakdown that the calculation is performed from, at ±10mm. Which standard and method apply to your building, and the judgement calls involved in applying them, sit with the owner, the property manager and their advisors. If your project needs a formally certified measurement, tell us when you book and we will be clear about what we do and do not cover.
Because rentable area includes a proportional share of the building's common areas, such as lobbies, corridors and washrooms, on top of the space inside your suite. The ratio between the two is the load factor, and it varies considerably between buildings.
Yes, and that is a common reason to call. A measured survey establishes what is actually there. Whether a discrepancy has any contractual consequence depends on your lease, which is a question for your lawyer, but you cannot have that conversation without a reliable measurement first.
Yes. Measuring a full building in one engagement is usually the better option, because every suite is captured the same way at the same time, and the resulting figures are consistent with each other across the rent roll.
Yes. We work across commercial and industrial property, including warehouse, flex and retail space. BOMA publishes standards for different building types, and the measured base data we provide supports whichever one applies.
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