BC 2011 10 17 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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October 17, 2011 (Regular Meeting) Pa ge 714 Sometimes, you will have to take measurements to appraise improvements. If you have to measure the whole house, just explain to the owner you are collecting and verifying building measurements. There are a few aids to measuring that make it a little quicker and easier. A screwdriver or long nail serves as a good anchor for the tape end when you cannot get to the wall because of fences or shrubs. Despite logic, sometimes measurements will not produce a square or even sided house. Be sure to check for this before turning in the appraisal card. It is also essential that the measurements produce an even sided structure. A simple method of checking for closure is to add all the front measurements (bottom horizontal) and add all the back measurements (top horizontal) to see if the two are equal. The same should be done for the sides of the house (left and right verticals). This is known as checking for closure. Another way to insure the proper length is to measure the length without any offsets to get the overall length. The same can be done for the width. There are three basic steps to this process: 1. Measure each side of the structure accurately. 2. Make a diagram placing dimensions (rounded to the nearest foot) beside each line they represent. 3. Label structural variations with appropriate abbreviations (FEP, FSP, FCP, etc.). Lettering and numbers are to be neatly made with measurements written so as to read from the bottom of the card looking up. TO CHECK FOR CLOSURE: The basic rule is the sums of the lengths of the opposite sides must be equal to each other as follows: The sum of the top horizontal lines, (the back of the house) should equal the sum of the bottom horizontal lines, (the front of the house). The sum of the left vertical lines, (the left side of the house) should equal the sum of the right vertical lines, (the right side of the house), in the same manner. The following are examples depicting various types of improvements and how they should be drawn, labeled and checked for closure. STANDARDIZED METHOD OF DRAWING STRUCTURES A uniform method of drawing and labeling structures must be adopted. The following method is to be employed in preparing documents for use by the system. Orient your drawing so that the front of the structure is towards the bottom of the card. All labeling should be oriented in this same direction. It is essential in drawing the structures to delineate the auxiliary areas properly in order that they can easily be distinguished from the base area. Familiarity with auxiliary area abbreviations is essential along with an understanding of the visual indications of these areas. For example: an enclosed porch which may have windows different from the base, a lower foundation than the base, or different roof cover. If you are confronted with an exceptionally large property with many sides, a piece of graph paper used in drawing the sketch can be invaluable in preventing errors.