When constructing a building, you need to pay attention to its corner angles. If you may not be aware, any rectangular building, whether large or small needs to be square at the corners. Making the corners square goes a long way in making the building easy to build and makes it more durable too.
You don’t want to be fitting, let’s say tiles, then get to a point where they’re overlapping simply because the walls were not squared when the building was being constructed. This is embarrassing, right? So to avoid this, you need to consider having your building squared at the time of construction.
This may sound like a hard task to accomplish, but with the basic knowledge and skills, it is quite simple. So, how do you square a rectangular building? If this is your concern, then the following guide is for you.
Finding the Square of a Rectangular Building
Using the 3-4-5 Method
This method of making a rectangular building square uses the triangular rule. It applies a right triangle which has 3 units on one side, 4 units as the width, and 5 units as its hypotenuse. The angle between the shorter sides is a right angle.
You can find the diagonal any time using a formula of the short sides. The formula is a2+b2=c2 in which case a and b are the shorter sides while c is the longest side of the hypotenuse. It is a math’s based and also called the Pythogarous theorem.
The method is easy to apply as it can take the format 3-4-5 i.e. 32+42=52 (9+16=25.) Are these the only figures that can only be used? Maybe you may ask yourself. The good part is that with the triangular rule, you can have any multiplied all through by the formula 3-4-5 and still get the same desired results. This means you can work with 3-4-5, 6-8-10, 9-12-15, or even 30-40-50. It is more reliable and accurate in giving the square of a rectangular building when you work with bigger numbers than small ones.
This method is simple to use and it is also accurate. However, you need to understand what it means and how it works before you can apply and get the expected results for your building. This means you should understand what is the right triangle in the first place. A right triangle has three sides with two short sides, and one long side referred to as the hypotenuse or diagonal.
The two short sides intersect at a right angle of 90 degrees while the diagonal is perpendicular to the right angle. The short sides could be categorically termed to as the length and the width of the right triangle while the hypotenuse is simply the diagonal. From the formula a2+b2=c2, therefore, we can deduce the length of either side as long as the length of any two sides is known.
For instance, in this method when you decide the distance of the length and the width of your building, finding the diagonal is easy and makes the whole process simple to comprehend.
So, to find the square of a building using this method, you can follow the following easy steps:
- Identify one point that will be one of the corners of the building. Let’s call this the width. From this point, measure along one side 3 units. Remember, for big rooms you can measure big figures like 9 or 30 units. You can multiply the formula by one factor depending on your requirements and achieve uniform results each time you do that.
- From the same point, measure 4 units along the other side of the field. This is now the length of the building. Always use the format 3-4-5 or a multiplier of it which should be uniform. This can be 9-12-15 or 30-40-50. Measure this bearing in mind it should be 90 degrees at the angle between it and the other side you already measured.
- Now, you need to measure the diagonal distance between the two lengths which should be 5 units or an equivalent as per the triangle formula application used in measuring the first and the second measurements. If, for instance, you measured 3 and 4 units for the first and second lengths respectively, and got 5 units for the diagonal, this becomes an automatic right triangle.
It means that it is square and the right angle so formed is 90 degrees. However, this may not always be the case. If the distance is more than 5 units, then it means the angle at the center is larger than 90 degrees. You’ll need to adjust the two lengths inwards to make the diagonal 5 units. However, if the diagonal distance is less than 5 units, the angle is less than 90 degrees, and what you should do is adjust the other two lengths outwards until the diagonal is exactly 5 units.
- Mark the points where the three different sides meet and the diagonal is 5 units. Then do the same for the opposite corner to form a complete rectangle with two equal opposite sides and four right angles. Having done that it means you have squared your rectangle building and construction can begin without any fear.
The Equal Diagonal Method
After the site preparation, you need to measure the outside of the building. The use of a tape measure does this. The measurement should be done from the outside to the outside and not inside.
Then what follows is the squaring of the building foundation. This is a process of making sure the rectangular layout has square corners. To achieve this, use a tape measure and establish the distance of the diagonal. From the left front corner of the building, measure its distance up to the rear right corner.
Mark the endpoint then measure the distance from the rear left corner to the front right corner. You now need to compare the two distances measured. If the two diagonals are equal, then the building is square, and the angles are right angles.
However, if the two diagonals are not equal, then the four corners are not right. Also, the opposite sides are not equal. You’ll be required to readjust the measurements of each of the two opposite sides to be equal. Then recheck if the diagonals are equal. Equal diagonals mean square corners.
Using a Rectangle That Is Not Square
Here you’ll be making a rectangle that is not ‘square’. This may sound hard, but if you do it right, it is quite easy.
On the site of the building, measure a straight line using a tape measure. This should be the baseline or the length of your building. Choose and mark a certain point along this line to be the first corner. From this point, measure a perpendicular line and at a right angle to the baseline.
This is the first corner of the building. You can mark it using a wood stake. After this measure, mark the other three corners of the building. From the first stake, use a string to mark the length of the building and have the four corners marked out.
You now have the foundation of the building marked out but is not yet square. The result is like a parallelogram. For your building to be square, not only the angles should be right, but the opposite sides should be equal as well. To square this, you can use the triangle rule.
Use the Pythagoras theorem to make sure the angle between the two lines is a right angle. At the first corner marked out, use the triangle 3-4-5 which can translate to bigger numbers like 9-12-15 units. Measure 3 units or equivalent and corresponding 4 units and then diagonal distance should be 5 units.
This process gives you the right angle of 90 degrees at the first corner. Repeat the same process with the second, third, and fourth corners of the building. After finishing this, you’ve four right angles for your building foundation. There you go, you’ve squared the foundation of your building and good to go.
When you think of constructing any structure, having a square building is very critical. This should start right from the layout. When the foundation is square, the resulting building is sturdy, attractive, and most important, easy to construct. If you start with a square foundation, other tasks will be easy to implement and also will save you time and money. For instance, tiles will be smooth to fit and lay them on the floor of the building as well as fitting the rafter for the roof.
Setting a rectangular building to have square corners may be hard, but with a few techniques, this makes all the process easy.
The triangular rule and the equal diagonal methods are some of the best to use to square a rectangle building. If applied well, these methods will give you some useful insights on how to square your rectangle building, and if done well, the results are amazing.