Difference in covered area will affect the cost of the house. There is this common misconception that if the size of the house or the covered area of the house is same, the cost incurred on the house will be the same. For instance in our latest grey structure covered area per sqft cost article/video we took 10 Marla home as an example with 3400 sq ft area. Sometimes the covered area can vary because of owner’s demands and requirements for instance if a person wants to construct three story house the covered area of that house will increase to 4200 sq ft 4500 sq ft or even more, similarly if a person constructs a house on a single storey the covered area of that house will be lesser than 3400 sq ft. That does not mean that the cost of grey structure will be same for a house with the covered area of 4300, 3400 and 2800 respectively. The main reason for this is that there are some costs that remain constant no matter what your covered area is. For instance the costs that remain constant are as follows:
Complete boundary wall of the 10 Marla plot
UGWT (underground water tank)
Septic Tank
Sewerage system of the complete house
Floor PCC of the floor outside the house such as side passage, garage and ramp
Parapet wall, terrace parapet wall
Final water proofing of the roof and Overhead water tank.
These are the costs that remain constant whether you build a single storey home or a double or triple storey home. For instance if the cost of these things is Rs 100 and we divide that cost with covered area of 2400 the amount will be more than if we divide that with 3200, it will be even less if the covered area is more than that. All the costing done by us has been on a standard 10 Marla home with a covered area of 3400 sq ft. If the covered area of the house is more the cost of the house will drop and if the covered area of the house is relatively less the cost of the house will increase.
Many of us think that if we decrease the covered area of the house we can save money of the bricks and steel that wasn’t used due to decreasing the covered area. It does not happen like that. After constructing a full ground floor we try to save covered area on the first floor by adding open areas and front terraces and to cover that we add pergolas and design elements. The cost incurred in adding these design elements are more than the cost we save in form of bricks and steel by reducing our covered area.
Here we would like to add that if the covered area of a 10 Marla home is 3400 sq ft the cost of the house according to our latest grey structure cost Nov 2019 would be Rs 1419/- sq ft for a premium plus complete grey structure without any compromise in the quality of any type. Similarly if the covered area of the house is less than 2900 or 2800 sq ft than the cost of the house may increase by Rs 200 to 250 /- sq ft. If the covered area increases to 3600 or 4000 sq ft than the cost may decrease by Rs 50 to 80/- sq ft.
We hope this article has cleared the confusion of covered area and how it effects the costs of the house.
