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This help desk is a free resource intended for discussion purposes only. Neither BOMA, its chapters, affiliates, or Extreme Measures Inc.® are responsible for the information, comments or opinions expressed herein. For complete information, refer to the official publications of the standards themselves.

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Crawl spaces

Tony Cicco
city of winnipeg
May 14, 2014

Under which Measurements Standard(s) would a crawl space have to be included
in the total square footage of a building ?

Under what conditions would one exclude the crawl space when applying any measurement standard?

For appraisal, valuation, replacement, and construction costing purposes, would the crawl space not have to be included, regardless of measurement standard?

please do not share my name/contact info

David Fingret
Extreme Measures Inc.
May 15, 2014

A crawl space is never considered its own floor under the BOMA standards.

In BOMA 2010 office, Crawl spaces are excluded. A Restricted Headroom Area is considered part of occupant area but must be disclosed.

In BOMA Retail, A Crawl space is specifically excluded from the Construction Gross Area (CGA), Exterior Gross Area (EGA) and Gross Leasable Area (GLA) but Restricted Headroom is included in CGA, EGA and GLA (but must be disclosed).

The BOMA Industrial standard is much the same. Crawl spaces are specifically excluded from the Drip Line Area (DLA) and Exterior Gross Area (EGA) but restricted headroom is included in the occupied area but must be disclosed.

There is no specific definition for crawl space in the BOMA standards, but Restricted Headroom is a portion of an occupant area that does not meet the building code requirement for ceiling heights.

Crawl spaces are therefore not included in any of the popular standards. I'm not familiar with any other standard that even mentions crawl spaces.

It may be reasonable to include crawl spaces for appraisal, valuation, replacement and construction costing purposes but none of the major standards include crawl spaces in Gross Building Area, Construction Gross Area, Exterior Gross Area, etc.

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