Estimating Abbreviations: SF, LF, SY, SQ, PF, WC and More

On a repair or restoration estimate, SF is square feet, LF is linear feet, SY is square yards (9 SF), SQ is a roofing square (100 SF), CF is cubic feet and EA is each. The room measurements are F for the floor area, C for the ceiling area, W for the wall area less doors and windows, WC for walls and ceiling together, PF for the floor perimeter, PC for the ceiling perimeter and H for the ceiling height. A line's quantity is usually one of these, or a simple formula over them, such as PF × 2 for drywall 2 ft up the walls.

If you write estimates in Xactimate or a similar estimating platform, you will recognise most of these. This guide explains what each one measures, works through a real room, and lists the mistakes that most often throw a quantity off.

Units: SF, LF, SY, SQ, CF, EA and DA

SF (square feet) is for anything that covers a surface: drywall, paint, flooring, insulation, cleaning. LF (linear feet) is for anything that runs along an edge: baseboard, crown, flood cuts priced per foot, countertop edges. SY (square yards) is how carpet and some flooring are sold; one square yard is 9 square feet, so divide SF by 9. SQ (a roofing square) is 100 square feet of roof surface.

CF (cubic feet) is for volume, which matters for air scrubbers and drying calculations. EA (each) counts items: a door, a fixture, a fan. Time-based lines use HR (hour), DA (day) and MO (month), mostly for labour and equipment rental. Count units are whole numbers, so a part-day of equipment rounds up to a full day.

Room Measurements: F, C, W, WC, PF, PC and H

F is the floor area of the room. C is the ceiling area; on a flat ceiling it matches the floor, less any opening to the floor above. W is the wall area: the room's perimeter times its ceiling height, less the area of doors, windows and cased openings. WC is W plus C, the usual quantity for painting a room's walls and ceiling together.

PF is the floor perimeter, the length all the way around the room's outline, including open sides and doorways. PC is the ceiling perimeter, which matches PF unless the ceiling slopes, and is used for crown moulding. H is the ceiling height, used on its own for things like a containment barrier sized to the height of the room.

All of these are measured from the inside face of the walls, because that is the surface the work is done on. That's one reason a room-by-room repair estimate never adds up to the exterior square footage of the house.

A Worked Example: One 12 × 14 Room

Take a bedroom 12 ft by 14 ft with an 8 ft ceiling, one 3 ft × 6 ft 8 in door (20 SF) and one 3 ft × 4 ft window (12 SF).

F = 12 × 14 = 168 SF, and C is also 168 SF. PF = 2 × (12 + 14) = 52 LF. H = 8 LF. The gross wall area is 52 × 8 = 416 SF, so W = 416 − 20 − 12 = 384 SF, and WC = 384 + 168 = 552 SF. In square yards the floor is 168 ÷ 9 = 18.67 SY, and the room's volume is 168 × 8 = 1,344 CF.

A 2 ft flood cut is PF × 2 = 104 SF of drywall. That includes the 3 ft doorway, which has no drywall at the bottom; if you want it out, write (PF − 3) × 2 = 98 SF. Baseboard is 52 LF by PF, or 49 LF without the doorway.

For a quick check without an estimating tool, the free drywall calculator handles flood cuts with the doorways taken off, and the paint calculator and baseboard calculator do the rest from room sizes.

Writing Quantities as Formulas

Writing a quantity as a formula instead of a typed number means it updates when the room changes, and anyone reading the estimate can see how it was reached. Common examples: PF × 2 or PF × 4 for drywall at a 2 ft or 4 ft flood cut, 1/2W for half the walls, F + PF × 2 for antimicrobial on the floor and the lower 2 ft of the walls, and WC for painting walls and ceiling.

Equipment lines work the same way, with one extra step: round each unit up before multiplying by the days. Air movers are often placed at one per so many feet of wall, so CEIL(PF ÷ 14) × 3 gives air-mover days for three days at one per 14 LF. For the example room that is 52 ÷ 14 = 3.7, rounded up to 4 air movers, times 3 days = 12 DA. Dehumidifiers are sized from the room volume: divide the cubic feet by the chart factor for the class of water (50 for Class 2 with an LGR unit) to get the pints a day to remove, then by the unit's AHAM rating. The example room's 1,344 CF needs about 27 pints a day, so one LGR unit of any size, for 3 DA. The free air mover and dehumidifier calculator does both for several rooms at once.

Keep the units consistent: areas add to areas and lengths to lengths. PF + W mixes a length with an area and means nothing, while PF × 2 turns a length into an area by multiplying it by a height in feet.

Common Mistakes

Forgetting the openings: using gross wall area for paint or drywall overstates both, by 32 SF in the example room. Forgetting that PF runs across doorways: baseboard and flood cuts priced on PF include a few feet that don't exist.

Mixing units: carpet priced per SY with an SF quantity is nine times too high; roofing priced per SQ with an SF quantity is a hundred times too high. Ceilings that aren't flat: a vaulted or sloped ceiling has more area than the floor below it, so C and F are no longer the same.

Rounding too early: round the final quantity, not each measurement, and round counts up, not down.

Using Formulas in vPlan AR

In vPlan AR, every scanned or drawn room already has these measurements, so a scope line's quantity can be a formula over them: F, C, W (less doors and windows), WC, PF, PC, H, SY, SQ and V for volume. Lines come from your own items or the starter packs (water mitigation, general repair and adjuster), are priced from your rate card, and update when the plan changes. The estimate exports as a PDF, or as CSV or Excel with each line's code, formula, quantity, unit and rate. Scope lines and estimates are on the Pro and Business plans (compare plans).

The room-by-room Measurement Sheets list the same numbers for every room if you key quantities into another estimating platform; our guide to getting LiDAR room measurements into Xactimate shows the workflow, and the repair cost estimate guide covers pricing. See how it fits a whole job on the restoration contractors page. Xactimate is a trademark of its owner; vPlan AR isn't affiliated with it.