DIN 277: Usable area and net floor area
If you read descriptions of buildings, you will come across the terms net floor area and usable area over and over again. Both surfaces denote something different, as is clearly defined in DIN 277.
These are base areas according to DIN 277
- A simple example helps to distinguish the terms. Imagine a building that consists of a 10m by 10m walled area. The gross floor area according to DIN 277 is 10 x 10 m2 = 100 m2.
- This building is surrounded by 4 walls, each 10.30 mx 0.30 m thick. This area is divided into three rooms. For this purpose, a 0.20 m thick wall and a 10 m long wall was drawn. In addition, a wall measuring 5 mx 0.20 m was drawn. So it will be 10 x 0.2 m2 + 5 x 0.2 m2 + 4 x 10.3 x 0.3 m2 = 15.36 m2 by walls proven. The surfaces are called construction surfaces because they are necessary for the construction of the building.
Of the gross floor area, there remains a net floor area of 84.64 m2. This area is also not identical to the usable area.
That is the usable area
- Let us assume that there is now an elevator shaft of 2 m x 2 m = 4 m in this house2. Although the elevator has a use, it does not belong to the usable area according to DIN 277. Such areas are called technical functional areas. This also includes, for example, a heating system or the space for the hot water supply.
- In addition, a room of 3 m x 2 m = 6 m2 used as a hallway. This space is referred to as the traffic area in DIN.
- The net floor area of 84.64 m remains as the usable area2 after deducting the technical functional area of 4 m2 and the traffic area of 6 m2 only 74.64 m2.
What does usable area mean?
Offers for houses and apartments are for certain reasons with different ...
This usable area in turn does not have to be identical to the living space of a building, because there are other uses besides living, such as storage, offices or production. In purely residential buildings, however, the usable area is usually the living space.
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