This practice can be used to facilitate comparison of areas that have been measured but it does not specify what measurements must be conducted.

This practice can be used in space programming and forecasting of space requirements.

This practice can be used to classify areas for internal cost accounting purposes.

This practice can be used to compare space use between organizations.

1.1 This practice provides a definitive procedure for measuring and classifying floor area in buildings for use in facility management, specifying occupant requirements, space planning, and for strategic facility planning.

1.2 This practice specifies the sequence in which to measure floor area.

1.3 This practice is applicable to owned, rented, and leased buildings.

1.4 Use Annex A1 to measure floor area in office facilities. The measurement practice in Annex A1 may also be suitable for use in other functional types of building which include offices, such as research, laboratory, or manufacturing buildings and building-related facilities.

1.5 The practice in Annex A1 is not intended for use in lease negotiations with owners of commercial office buildings or related properties. For that purpose, refer to the American National Standard published by the American National Standards Institute under the designation ANSI/BOMA Z65.1–1996 and commonly known as the ANSI-BOMA standard.

1.6 This practice is not intended for and not suitable for use for regulatory purposes, fire hazard assessment, and fire risk assessment.

1.7 This practice was developed for use within North America and includes some rules comparable to ISO 9836 Performance Standards in Building—Definition and Calculation of Area and Space Indicators.

1.8 The values stated in either SI units or inch-pound units are to be regarded separately as standard. The values stated in each system may not be exact equivalents; therefore, each system shall be used independently of the other. Combining values from the two systems may result in non-conformance with the standard.

1.9 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.