Know The Difference Between Carpet Area, Built-up Area And Super Built-Up Area

If you are buying or selling a particular property or planning to do renovation work on your house, you might have come across the terms carpet area, built-up area and super built-up area. What is the difference between carpet area, built-up area and super built-up area? Which one is used for calculating the total gross floor area of a building? What does this term imply?

Carpet area meaning

Which is the area of a floor which is covered by the carpet. It is measured before fitting a carpet and after removing the old one. it does not include areas under doors, spaces between walls and floors, under stairs or any other area which is not covered by the carpet. This area includes the space occupied by the skirting boards, skirtings and architraves, but excludes any space occupied by fixed furniture.

This was already measured in terms of square metres (sq. m.). However, it is also good to know that there are different types of carpet areas that are used based on the size and shape of the room, such as:

Square Carpet Area – The simplest type is a square room where all sides are equal in length. For example, 5 x 6 or 10 x 10 or 12 x 12 or 15 x 15 etc.

Rectangular Carpet Area – For rooms with two lengths of sides. but two different widths e.g., 5 m long and 3 m wide, or 7 m long and 2 m wide etc.

Circular Carpet Area – For rooms with curved surfaces which have no equal sides e.g., a circular room with a diameter 4m or 5m or 6m etc.

What is a built-up area?

Built-up area is the sum of all the carpet areas of a floor and the ceiling (if any) of that floor.

The built-up area is used to calculate the carpet area rebate for each property. The total built up area of a property is calculated by multiplying the carpet area by 1.15.

Built up area = Carpet area x 1.15

For example, if a property has a total carpet area of 500 SQFT then the built-up area will be 667 SQFT (500 x 1.15). The rebate amount is based on this total built up area rather than actual physical built up area. 

Carpet area vs built-up area

Carpet area, built-up area and super built-up area are all different forms of measurement for carpeted rooms. This the total space inside the walls of a room. Built-up area is the space inside the walls plus a specified amount of border space surrounding the room. Super built-up area is the space inside the walls plus an even greater amount of border space.

Tiling, skirting boards, door frames and the like can be included in built-up measurements to make a room appear larger than it actually is. However, interior decorators advise that you should try to avoid including these extras when calculating from the carpet areas because they may look better in smaller spaces.

The actual size of a carpeted room will have an impact on what size of furniture can be comfortably accommodated. For example, if you want to fit a king-sized bed into a room then you should measure it carefully to ensure that there is enough space between each wall and the bed itself so that there is sufficient clearance for people to walk around it without bumping into anything as flats in Calicut.

Formulas For Calculating Areas

Carpet Area:

The total carpeted area of a room is called a carpet area. This can be measured by multiplying the length of a room by its breadth and dividing it by two.

Built-Up Area:

The total built-up area of a house (also known as super built-up area) includes all those areas that are not covered by walls, ceilings or stairs such as open terraces, balconies, patios etc. This can be calculated using this formula: Built-Up Area = Total Floor Area – (Area of Basement + Area of Ground Floor + Area of 1st floor + Area of 2nd floor).

Super Built-Up Area

Super Built-Up Area  = Carpet Area + Open Areas + Built-Up Area