Feet to meters:
convert room, plot and building sizes

How many metres are in a foot?

One foot is exactly 0.3048 metres. The value was fixed by the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, so it is a definition rather than a rounded measurement.

For a fast answer, multiply the feet by 0.3048. Ten feet is 3.048 m and 100 feet is 30.48 m. A rough mental shortcut is to multiply by 0.3, which comes out about 1.6% low.

Property listings, plot sizes and ceiling heights in India are usually quoted in feet, while architectural drawings, approvals and imported fittings use metres. The conversion itself is easy, but a careless slip can move a wall or a wardrobe by several centimetres.

This guide looks at the sizes people actually convert from feet: rooms, plots, ceilings, doors and building heights. If you are converting the other way, the article on metres to feet covers that direction.

Feet to meters formula and steps

When a length is given in feet and inches, turn the inches into a fraction of a foot first. A foot has 12 inches, so 6 inches is 0.5 ft and 9 inches is 0.75 ft.

1. 1Write the length as feet and inches, for example 10 ft 6 in.
2. 2Divide the inches by 12: 6 ÷ 12 = 0.5.
3. 3Add that to the whole feet: 10 + 0.5 = 10.5 ft.
4. 4Multiply by 0.3048: 10.5 × 0.3048 = 3.2004 m.

There is a one-step alternative. Count the total inches (10 ft 6 in is 126 in) and multiply by 0.0254, the metres in one inch. You get 126 × 0.0254 = 3.2004 m again.

Check the result by converting back. Divide 3.2004 m by 0.3048 and you should recover 10.5 ft. A round trip that does not return to the starting number points to a slip in the arithmetic, not a problem with the factor.

Worked example: a 12 ft by 10 ft 6 in bedroom

A builder quotes a bedroom as 12 ft by 10 ft 6 in, and the interior designer's drawing needs metres.

On a drawing you would round to the nearest centimetre and write 3.66 m × 3.20 m. Keep the unrounded figures while you calculate and round once, at the end.

Skirting and curtain rails are bought by length, so the perimeter matters too. The room's perimeter is 2 × (12 + 10.5) = 45 ft, or 13.716 m. If the skirting comes in 8 ft lengths, you need 45 ÷ 8 = 5.6, so buy 6 lengths.

Furniture works the same way. A 6 ft sofa is 1.8288 m long and a 3 ft wardrobe is 0.9144 m wide, so together they take 9 ft of the 12 ft wall and leave 3 ft (0.9144 m) to spare.

Common sizes in feet and metres

Parking bays are another good test. A bay of 15 ft by 8 ft is 4.572 m by 2.4384 m, so a 4.5 m car fits with only 7 cm to spare at the end.

A 30 ft × 40 ft plot is 9.144 m × 12.192 m, which is about 111.5 m² of land. Many approvals and setback rules are written in metres, so the conversion is worth doing before you plan the layout.

Land is also sold in local units. A gunta is 1,089 sq ft (about 101.2 m²) and a cent is 435.6 sq ft (about 40.5 m²). Convert those to square feet first, then to square metres with the area factor below.

Building heights and a mental shortcut

Tower heights are often advertised in feet. A building quoted at 450 ft is 450 × 0.3048 = 137.16 m. If each floor is 10 ft from slab to slab, a 12-floor block is 120 ft, or 36.576 m.

For a quick sanity check, treat every 10 feet as roughly 3 metres. That gets you within about 2% of the exact figure and is enough for a conversation on site.

If you want centimetre accuracy without a calculator, multiply the feet by 3, move the decimal point one place left, then add 1.6%. The 0.3048 factor is exactly 0.3 × 1.016, so this works every time.

• 20 ft: 20 × 0.3 = 6.0, plus 1.6% = 6.096 m.
• 25 ft: 25 × 0.3 = 7.5, plus 1.6% = 7.62 m.
• 40 ft: 40 × 0.3 = 12.0, plus 1.6% = 12.192 m.

Once you can do that, you can read a plan, a listing or a site conversation in either unit and spot any figure that looks off.

Square feet are not square metres

Area needs the factor squared. One square foot is 0.3048 × 0.3048 = 0.09290304 m², so you cannot reuse 0.3048 on a carpet-area figure.

A 1,200 sq ft flat is 1,200 × 0.09290304 = 111.48 m². Going the other way, one square metre is about 10.764 sq ft. Cubic feet follow the same logic with 0.3048³ ≈ 0.0283168 m³.

Tiles show why this matters. A 2 ft × 2 ft tile covers 4 sq ft, or 0.3716 m². The 126 sq ft bedroom above therefore needs 31.5 tiles before wastage, so you would buy 32 plus a margin for cuts.

Mistakes that spoil a feet to metres conversion

• Reading 5.10 ft as 5 ft 10 in. The decimal means one tenth of a foot, so 5.10 ft is 1.5545 m, while 5 ft 10 in is 1.7780 m.
• Using 0.3 for everything. On a 30 ft plot side it gives 9.0 m instead of 9.144 m, a 14 cm gap that can matter for a setback or a wardrobe.
• Applying 0.3048 to square or cubic feet instead of squaring or cubing it first.
• Rounding each side before multiplying for area. Round only the final figure.
• Treating 3 ft as a metre when ordering cable or pipe by the metre. Three feet is 0.9144 m, about 8.6 cm short.

For fabrication or carpentry, keep three decimals of a metre (millimetres). For drawings, two decimals is enough, and for rough planning one decimal will do.