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I am faced with the task of measuring a room that has no right angles. The room has the following layout (this sketch in not scaled, there is also a window in the right wall which I omitted here):

Sketch of the room and the measurements

I want to measure the room as accurately as possible, because I want to create a plan for a friend who is a carpenter to cut some plates for a subceiling, and I would like for them to fit.

My current plan is to measure the diagonals shown in the sketch as well as all the individual wall-segments. This should give me the information to construct an accurate plan without actually having to measure the angles of the corners.

The measuring is complicated by the fact that I cannot measure on the ground, because there is furniture in the way that I cannot move. Also, since the walls are really crooked, I want to take the measurements at the hight at which the subceiling will be built. The longest diagonal is about 6 meters.

How do I measure this room accurately? Is my approach sound? How can I measure these diagonals accurately (preferably without having to buy a laser-measuring-device)?

Björn Pollex
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  • What material are the plates made of? Is there some reason that they can't be cut onsite? I'm in agreement with @shirlock here, pre-measuring/cutting is really difficult when the room is built perfectly; it's impossible if it's not true. – gregmac Dec 12 '11 at 23:10
  • @gregmac: I'm not sure about the material yet, probably OSB. It is of course possible to cut them on site, I was just thinking I could save some time this way - guess I thought wrong. – Björn Pollex Dec 13 '11 at 16:03

1 Answers1

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Forget it!!!! Trying to measure an untrue room for prefabrication of parts is nearly impossible. Your carpenter will have to come in, establish a center line in both axis and divide the differences on the edges. This application is no different than doing a suspended ceiling, and must be done on site. There will be a bit of adjustment in all directions, I'm sure.

shirlock homes
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