What about something like this (no jquery)? It’s similar to @gdoron’s answer but a little simpler. Tested it in IE9+, Firefox, and Chrome.
function getAbsoluteHeight(el) {
// Get the DOM Node if you pass in a string
el = (typeof el === 'string') ? document.querySelector(el) : el;
var styles = window.getComputedStyle(el);
var margin = parseFloat(styles['marginTop']) +
parseFloat(styles['marginBottom']);
return Math.ceil(el.offsetHeight + margin);
}
Here is a working jsfiddle.