Understanding ALTA Table A Item 7(a): Exterior Dimensions and Building Footprints

ALTA Table A lists optional items a client can request on top of the baseline land title survey. Item 7(a) is one of those items. It covers the exterior dimensions of buildings at ground level. Item 7(a) often gets confused with Item 7(b)(1), which covers building footprint square footage. The two items work together, but a surveyor can complete one without the other. If a client wants both the dimensions and the calculated area, both items need to be checked on the survey request. Knowing the difference between these two items ahead of time saves a round of questions once the survey order goes in.

What Does ALTA Table A Item 7(a) Actually Require?

Under the 2026 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements, Item 7(a) calls for the surveyor to measure and show the exterior dimensions of all buildings on the property, at ground level. This means the surveyor records the length of each exterior wall as it exists on the ground floor.

The word exterior matters here. Item 7(a) does not ask for interior room sizes or usable floor area inside the building. It asks for the outside measurements only, the dimensions a person would get by walking around the building with a tape measure or a total station.

This distinction keeps Item 7(a) narrow. A surveyor completing this item is not calculating square footage, checking zoning setbacks or verifying interior layouts. The scope stays limited to the physical outline of the structure at ground level, nothing more.

Reading a Building Footprint From Its Exterior Dimensions

Exterior dimensions describe the shape a building makes when viewed from above, at ground level. For a simple rectangular building, this might be as short as two numbers, the length and the width of each side.

Most buildings are not perfect rectangles though. A building with an attached garage, a covered porch or a bump-out addition needs more than two measurements to describe accurately. The surveyor records each straight run of the exterior wall so the reader can reconstruct the outline on paper.

When you look at a survey with Item 7(a) completed, you are looking at a set of measured segments that trace the building’s ground-level perimeter. Put those segments together and you get the footprint shape.

Square footage of that footprint falls under Item 7(b)(1), a separate optional item. A survey can show exterior dimensions without calculating the area, and it can calculate the area without listing every individual dimension. Requesting both items gives a fuller picture of the structure.

When a Building Shape Is More Complicated Than a Rectangle

Additions, wings, offsets and attached structures change how a building reads on paper. A single length and width pair works fine for a plain rectangular building. It falls short once the structure has an L-shape, a U-shape or any kind of jog in the wall line.

Each offset or attached section needs its own measurement. A wing added to the back of a house, a garage set at an angle or a porch that extends past the main wall line all show up as separate segments on the survey.

This is why a listed building size from a tax record or a real estate listing rarely lines up exactly with a surveyed footprint. Tax records often round numbers or estimates based on assessor formulas. A surveyed footprint reflects the outline as it actually stands, measured segment by segment. For any project involving construction, additions or building placement, this ground level outline gives a clearer starting point than an estimated figure from another source.

What “At Ground Level” Means for Item 7(a)

The standard specifies ground level, and that phrase carries weight. Item 7(a) measures the building’s footprint at the point where it meets the ground. It does not extend to upper floors, roof overhangs or any part of the structure that projects out above the first level.

A two-story building with a smaller footprint on the second floor still gets measured based on its ground-level walls under Item 7(a). If the upper floor overhangs the lower floor, that overhang is not part of this measurement. Some buildings step back or cantilever as they rise, and those upper-level shapes fall outside the scope of Item 7(a).

Item 7(a) also does not cover building height. Height falls under Item 7(c), a separate optional item a client can request if that information matters for the project. Requesting Item 7(a) alone gives you the ground-level outline, not the building’s full vertical shape. A reader who wants the footprint and the height together needs to request both items in the same order.

How to Use Item 7(a) Information When Reviewing an ALTA Survey

When reviewing a completed survey, look at the building outline drawn on the plat and the dimension labels along its walls. Each number represents a measured segment of the exterior wall at ground level. Trace those segments around the building to confirm the shape matches what stands on the property.

A buyer can use this to compare the surveyed building outline against renovation plans or an existing floor plan. A lender can use it to confirm the structure’s footprint before financing a project involving the building’s placement. A title professional can use it alongside other survey information to understand where the building sits within the boundary lines.

Whatever your reason for reviewing the survey, work from the drawn outline and measured dimensions rather than a number pulled from a listing sheet or public record. Those sources describe the building in general terms. Item 7(a) describes it based on measurements taken in the field, on the day of the survey.

If the dimensions on the survey don’t match what you expected from another source, ask the surveyor about it rather than assuming one number is wrong. A gap between a tax record and a field measurement is common, and the field measurement is the one tied to the actual structure standing on the ground.