Understanding, Measuring, and Classifying Self-Storage Facilities

Understanding, Measuring, and Classifying Self-Storage Facilities

TractIQ classifies facilities into Drive Up and Indoor (or Indoor Multistory). Many facilities will include both drive up and indoor storage and so can contain multiple labels. 

This page will go through:

1. What characteristics are used to classify facilities and buildings within a facility
2. How to measure square footage of a facility
3. Converting between Gross and Net Rentable Square Footage

Classifying Facilities

When classifying a property, the following workflow ensures accuracy:

1.     Check the facility’s website for descriptions, unit access details, and photos.
2.     Use Aerial and street-level imagery to identify building shape, size, and access type.
3.     Apply assumptions cautiously if information is incomplete.

Drive-Up Facilities/Buildings

Typically consist of rows of single-story buildings resembling garage structures. Units are accessible directly by vehicle. 

Usually not climate controlled and easily identifiable through aerial and street imagery with visible rows of exterior doors along long, narrow buildings.

Indoor Facilities/Buildings

Located inside a main building with no direct vehicle access to individual units. Customers access units via interior hallways. These units are often (but not always) climate controlled, providing regulated temperature and humidity.

Multistory Facilities/Buildings

Multistory facilities are a subset of indoor facilities but feature multiple floors above ground level. Accessed by stairs or elevators, usually stated on facility websites as 'elevator access' or 'stair access'. Frequently climate controlled due to enclosed design. Floor count and building type is verified through Google Street View and site websites.

Climate Control

Determine climate control by reviewing official websites or third-party listings. To be considered climate control, a facility must either state on its website that it has climate control or show pricing on its website (or a third party website) for climate controlled units. Note: Climate Control classification is done at the facility level only, not at the building level. This is because it’s impossible to verify independently if a building has operational climate control. 

Measuring Square footage

All square footage is measured by trained human reviewers. Accuracy and data quality are the priority.

Each eligible building is individually reviewed and measured using high‑resolution satellite imagery. Reviewers are careful and conservative, with a strong bias toward excluding anything that does not clearly qualify as self‑storage under our definitions.

TractIQ only includes true self‑storage facilities and buildings as defined in our article on self storage definitions. Within an eligible facility, only buildings that clearly function as storage are measured.

Measurement Process

1. Identify each storage-eligible building on the property 
2. Self storage buildings are each individually classified based on available aerial and street imagery.
   1. As described above, individual buildings are not classified as climate control and we do not measure for “climate controlled square footage.” Rather we measure drive up, indoor, and multistory square footage. This is because we are intensely focused on data quality and believe making an assumption of climate or non-climate on the building level will be too error-prone and difficult to verify. 
3. Each building is measured independently for gross square footage
4. A conversion is applied based on the building type to get net rentable square footage
   1. Drive‑up buildings typically have minimal shared space. Most of the structure is unit space, with only wall thickness separating units. We assume 2% of gross square footage is non-rentable.
   2. Indoor buildings buildings include interior hallways and circulation space that reduce rentable area. Based on observed layouts, we assume 15% of gross square footage is non-rentable.
   3. Multistory buildings require additional space for hallways, stairwells, and elevator shafts. We assume 25% of gross square footage of gross square footage is non-rentable.
5. The total gross and net rentable square footages are compared to any additional data points we can find about the building including past listings, past development plans, investment websites, and user/owner inputs to help identify discrepancies and further increase accuracy.

We highly encourage users to provide feedback if they believe square footage is incorrect for any facilities and our team will review any provided information and re-measure a facility on demand. To provide input or request a facility be re-measured, simply click the pencil icon next to the facility in the map. More details on submitting a data request available here.