A square yard is the area of a square measuring one yard on each side. A yard is 3 feet, so a square yard is 3 × 3 = 9 square feet. Using NIST's exact square foot (0.09290304 m²), 9 × 0.09290304 = 0.83612736 m². Carpet and turf are often priced per square yard.
Formula
yd² = ft² ÷ 9
ft² = yd² × 9
m² = yd² × 0.83612736
Example
A room measuring 12 ft by 15 ft is 180 ft², which is 180 ÷ 9 = 20 yd². At 20 yd², the area is 20 × 0.83612736 = 16.72 m².
Common mistakes
Dividing by 3 instead of 9 gives three times too many yards. Square units scale with the square of the length, and cubic units with the cube: see cubic yard. The area calculator finds the area first; how many feet in a yard covers the length step.