Guide
How to measure your home's direction with a phone
A reliable degree for your home's facing, ready for setting polarity and checking feng shui. A few degrees can move you into another mountain, so how you measure matters as much as what you measure with.
What you need
- A phone with a compass and location turned on (so magnetic declination can be corrected for where you stand).
- Remove any magnetic case or metal phone grip.
- Know which door is the main door — the one residents use and guests come through every day.
Steps
- Calibrate the compass
If the phone asks, move it in a figure-eight a few times until the compass reports it is ready.
- Stand in the right place
Stand on the threshold of the main door, back to the house, looking straight out. Keep at least 1–2 m from metal gates, motorbikes, cars, steel columns and electrical boxes.
- Hold the phone correctly
Keep it flat at chest height, top edge pointing straight ahead, at right angles to the façade.
- Read and record the degree
Wait a few seconds for the number to settle, then record the exact degree, for example 135.4°. Do not round it to “southeast”.
- Measure at two or three spots
Measure again in the yard or on the pavement a few steps out, looking the same way. Readings that differ by more than a few degrees suggest magnetic interference — move away from metal and measure again.
- Check against a map
Compare the façade's direction with the street in front of your home on a satellite map. When the two agree, the reading can be trusted.
Common mistakes
- Measuring right next to a metal gate, aluminium door frame, motorbike or car — the needle can be off by tens of degrees.
- Tilting the phone or holding it upright while reading the compass.
- Looking into the house while measuring, recording a value 180° off (the sitting instead of the facing).
- Writing only a name like “southeast” — one name covers three mountains.
- In apartments, measuring in a steel-heavy corridor without checking a map.
Do it in Home Check
- Tap “Measure” to open the Measure (compass) screen.
- Hold the phone as described; Home Check shows the degree, mountain, trigram and sitting, already corrected for magnetic declination at your location.
- To look straight ahead through the camera, tap “AR Compass”.
- Save the reading as a project to use when setting polarity on the plan.
Questions
Can I measure indoors?
Measure on the threshold or outside. Indoors, reinforced concrete, appliances and metal frames deflect the needle; if you must measure inside, also check against a map.
What is magnetic declination — do I add or subtract it myself?
It is the angle between geographic north and magnetic north, and it varies by place. Home Check corrects it automatically for your location.
How do I measure an apartment?
An apartment's facing is usually taken from its own main door. Since corridors contain a lot of steel, measure several times and check against the building's footprint on a map.
Do this for your own home in the app
Scan with your phone to get Home Check.
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Markdown version of this page Index for machine readers (llms.txt)