House construction on turnkey contracts is based on per sq ft construction cost which requires covered area according to drawings. All the costing articles & videos of Team Overc’s are based on covered areas. Clients often get confused in covered area and land area. Today we will explain the difference between covered area and land area and the way to calculate them for per sq ft construction cost.
We will take 5 Marla plot as a sample for this article. Land area is also known as plot area and its dimensions are most commonly 25×45 or 125sq yards. The way to calculate land area is very simple as we multiply the length of the plot with its width and we will get the land area. For instance in this case we multiply 25 by 45 and we get 1125 sqft and that is the land area or the plot area of the house. This figure of land area cannot be used in calculating construction cost of your house.
Whereas covered area is the area that is constructed on that land. As you can see in the video, the highlighted area is the open area of the land and will not be considered in covered area as there is no construction done in that area. The area in the middle is the place where the construction will be done. So the land area was around 1125 sqft and if we take out the side that will not be constructed we will be left with around 75% of that which will be 900 sqft this will be the covered area of one floor. If you’re making a multi storey building you can add the covered area of that floor to this 900 sqft for example we the covered area of both floors are same so you add 900sqft of ground floor to 900sqft of first floor and you will get 1800 sqft. This will be your covered area of the house.
In another scenario for instance your covered building is not rectangular. As you can see in the video above the constructed area is in different shape and blocks. In this case it may not be possible for a layman to calculate the covered area. The best way to do the calculation would be to divide your constructed area into different blocks. If your blocks are rectangular or the walls are at 90 degrees only then it is possible to calculate the covered area manually. If in case you’re constructed area is not rectangular or square shape, you will then have to use software such as autoCAD to calculate the covered area of the house.
To calculate the total covered area of this house as shown in the video please take the covered area of block A for instance it is 10×20=200 sqft and then repeat the same formula for block B and C and then add all three total figures to get the total covered area of the construction.
In another case if the house has chamfered corners or any round area in the constructed area. There is no way to calculate the covered area manually. To calculate such covered area you will have to consult a draftsmen or an architect. You can also use software such as autoCAD if you’re fluent in it to calculate the constructed area’s covered area.
We hope that the difference between covered area and land area is now clear and won’t be confusing anymore. Please make sure to use the covered area for your per sq ft construction cost from now on and not the land area.
