A curious Irish length unit (2.2m), or???

[Chris Nellist]

I am house-hunting in Ireland, and an agent has sent me floor-plans of a house that looks interesting.

But all the measurements are wrong, in that "1m" seems to represent a distance of about 2.2 metres.

I asked the agent and he said this was for "reference" only. Which is, of course, not a proper answer.

My first thought (cynic that I am) was that there'd been some sort of planning scam. But this doesn't seem to be so, because the overall floor area appears to be stated accurately. (Obviously being in discrepancy with the stated linear measures).

Is some weird unit being used???

If so, I don't know what it might be. A 1/14 of a second of latitude doesn't sound right. Or maybe measurements are altered by a factor of sqrt

5 so that rooms appear to have 1/5 of their actual area? But that doesn't sound right either! I mean, why on earth do it?

So what's the reason for the curious measurements?

I can't quite suss this one out!

Cheers,

Chris

[Matt Beard]

Perhaps they are using a drawing package that does all the measurements for them, but they did the drawing the wrong size and only noticed part way through. Then they thought "well, it doesn't need to be exact because it's only showing layout"

[Des Higgins]

"Chris Nellist" wrote in message news:Xns9712675DC2FD4pnellist@195.92.193.157...

It sounds like a simple mistake. Units were always given in feet up recently but now will often be given in metres. I lived in Germany for a while and am used to both units but for house buying, I tend to have all my mental bench marks for room and house sizes in feet (for lengths and areas). In Ireland, we are in transition. My kids barely know what a foot or inch is but estate agents are a conservative lot. I bought a house 2.5 years ago (International Standard years) and I think the brochure units were imperial OR a mixture/both were given.

I have absolutely no idea what your units are.

[C.M.German]

Close! Perhaps it's a drawing that was done to a certain scale and then reduced to fit a smaller page. The computer generated distances then adjusted themselves accordingly to the new size. just a thought.......

[nightjar]

"Chris Nellist" wrote in message news:Xns9712675DC2FD4pnellist@195.92.193.157...

Could it be 0.1 chain = 6.6 feet?

Colin Bignell

[PC Paul]

is the 'm' in '1m' for Michael?

That would be Michael O'Donnell, the 7'2" bloke they sent round to measure it, who forgot his tape measure and measured it out by lying on the floor?

Living Room: 4 michaels by two and a head, begorrah...

[Andy]

A, well sure, you see a metre in Ireland is not the same like a normal metre course it has to be different sure this is Ireland. Just like when something is supposed to start at 10pm sharp and it starts at 2 in the morning instead or someone is due to call around to ye one day but don't turn up until 4 months later or just don't turn up at all. Or something that was budgeted for 4 million that turns out in the end to cost 30 million! - sure this is Ireland when all things are flexible including measurements. ;-)

[Chris Nellist]

"Andy" wrote in news:dlnbng$ea$ [e-mail]:

:)

The over-budgeting thing sounds like Britain too - especially anything involving publicly-funded big construction projects such as bridges, motorways, sports stadiums, tunnels, government buildings, etc. At least people in Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Bolivia, the United States (and come to think of it, everywhere else in the world) are more aware of the all- pervasive corruption :)

I thought at first maybe it was a planning scam - get planning permission for a doll's house and then build something really huge and flog it to someone (e.g. an incomer from Britain) who won't have any problem buying it but might well have to pay someone off before he can sell it. BUT, nope - as my wife pointed out, even in Ireland the local authority will send someone to inspect a new building and it's not very likely that he'll say "hmm, yes, nice doll's house" about a mansion on a hillside. I'm sure he WOULD if he was paid enough, but there are other ways of doing it than something as ridiculous as this.

Probably a software mix-up!

Chris

[JohnC]

He did say it was for reference only, so I assume he means that it is the proper design, it's just that the measurements are incorrect.