How to Measure Your Balcony Square Footage

How to measure balcony square footage is length times depth, in feet, of the floor you can walk. Ignore the air. A balcony ten feet along the rail and eight feet out is eighty square feet. At $2 per square foot that wash is $160, screens and track included, with no minimum.

How do you measure your balcony?

Stand at the slider. Pace or tape the rail from left to right. That is length. Then the distance from the slider track to the inside of the outer rail. That is depth. Multiply. Do not measure to the outside face of the glass. You cannot walk there, and we do not bill it.

If you have no tape, a stride is close to three feet. Four strides along the rail is about 12 feet. It is close enough for a price. We still confirm from a photo, because a stride on a crowded balcony runs short.

Length: along the rail, inside face to inside face.
Depth: slider to the inside of the outer rail.
Multiply. An L-shape is two rectangles, added.

Where are the dimensions if you cannot measure?

The condo survey or the floor plan in your closing packet often prints the balcony as a rectangle with dimensions. Use those if you trust them, and still send a photo. Plans sometimes include a column or a notch the drawing smoothed over. A photo catches the notch. A number on a plan does not.

We do not need the association's approval to measure. We need the floor. If you would rather not pace it, the photo is the measurement. That is also how the cost guide says to start.

What does each size cost?

Six by ten comes to $120. Eight by ten comes to $160. Ten by twelve comes to $240. A wrap that is really two rectangles gets added, not guessed. There is no trip fee and no charge for "heavy soil" on top of the rate.

That number is the wash, not a repair. If you are deciding whether to do it yourself, the hire-or-do-it page is the other half of the decision. If you want it on a schedule, recurring plans use the same rate. Tower constraints stay the same either way: no hose, and nothing over the rail.

Send the two numbers or the photo. We reply with the price before we book, so the measurement is a starting point, not a surprise on the day.

In downtown St. Petersburg and downtown Tampa the rectangle is usually obvious from the slider. A Beach Drive corner and a Channelside notch are the shapes that need two measurements. Hillsborough and Pinellas floor plans use the same idea: bill the floor you can stand on.

Text the two numbers if you want the price before you pace it off.

Text the numbers

Frequently asked questions

Do I include the planter or the air-conditioning pad?

Include the floor you want cleaned. A planter you will move is floor. A pad the building owns and you cannot wash is not. When you are unsure, send the photo and we will mark the rectangle.

What if the balcony is L-shaped?

Measure it as two rectangles and add them. Do not average. A notch you skip is square feet you still want clean, or square feet you should not be billed for.

Is there a minimum charge?

The price is $2 per square foot of the floor, with no trip fee and no small-balcony minimum. A short Juliet still gets a real number, not a made-up floor.

Sources

Bay Balcony. Published rate, $2 per square foot, on the cost guide. baybalcony.com