Acres and Pains

Over the last 30 years of working in the property industry I have honed a few skills.

I know the names of the brick bonding patterns found on older buildings, I can identify types of damp proof courses and can spot a king post trussed roof across the murkiest of loft voids.

I have a good perception of the physical size of all types of houses and can estimate quite closely the floor area before carrying out the prescribed form of measuring for more formal purposes, ie calculation of insurance and for comparable database entries.

These are all issues within the four walls and more of a house.

I can also mentally perceive the size of a garden plot or larger landed area which is something that many seem to have problems with.

I am often asked how big is an acre, that iconic quantity of land, by those who cannot visualise it.

In its original definition an acre was the amount of land that a farmer could put to the plough in one days work using an ox. There are some variations to this interpretation in, for example, the United States.

One acre extends to 43,560 square feet or roughly an area some 70 yards square. I do refer to metric units in my professional workload but only after having referenced it in good old inches, feet and yards. This may not mean much to some because they may not have an opportunity to mark out such an area.

This is where it is easier to use common examples to help.

The media, if seeking to explain the size of something such as the aftermath of an explosion, pollution outbreak or champion sized omelette always use the analogy of a football pitch. Being the alleged national sport of the UK there is a very good availability of actual pitches and stadia on which individuals can pin their perceptions.

A competition sized pitch is about one and a half acres and so an acre would be two thirds the area. Of course the Football Association in the UK has guidelines for the minimum and maximum size of pitches and so there can be some inconsistency across the range.

What other things can be used to help in the gauging of what an acre looks like?

Followers of tournament tennis may be interested to know that an acre would be represented by around fifteen and a half full tennis courts.

Nationalistic interests, if to be considered could be used. Wales, part of the United Kingdom, has a land area of about five million acres and so logically an acre is one five millionth of the Principality. This may not be very helpful unless you are Welsh.

The trendier urbanites could use an example of an allotment with around 16 traditional plots to an acre. Chances are that most allotments have been built upon to meet the demand for new housing. Taking a typical executive property of around 2400 square feet the said former cultivated land could accommodate 18 units. Other greenbelt or brownfield land may be occupied by an out of town supermarket. Although the covered part of a large retail store is only about 0.6 acres if you had space to park 150 cars then this would make up an acre.

This rough guide to visualising an acre may have been helpful.

An acre is an acre but dependant upon its location and physical attributes there could be a vast difference in what it is worth. I may talk about this as a separate topic at some time in the future.

Incidentally, you could, if with limited finances just opt to buy an acre on the surface of the Moon currently retailing at around £20 all in but then you would have to take this in good faith and with a bit of justified scepticism.