Occupancy rate, utilization rate and soil permeability rate. Do they sound like words from another world to you? But they are not! All of these terms refer to the process of building a house.
And everyone who is building their own home will come across these strange words along the way.
When this happens it is essential that you know what they mean and the importance of each one.
That's exactly why we brought this post to you. To explain to you, tim tim by tim tim, which after all this means. Come on?
What is occupancy rate?
The occupancy rate, in general, refers to how much is allowed to build on a lot or land. This rate varies from city to city and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Urban areas also tend to have a higher occupancy rate than rural ones.
The land occupation rate is defined by the prefectures of each municipality. It is important to ensure that housing is built in a sustainable and balanced way, preventing unrestrained and unplanned growth.
It is the urban planning departments that determine the occupancy rate for each sector of the city. This is because each region is divided into zones and a different occupancy rate is determined for each of these zones, depending on the objective of each municipality's master plan.
To find out the occupancy rate in your city, you have two options: search for this information on the city hall website, or go personally to the urban planning sector and apply for this information, in which case, a small fee is usually charged. .
It is worth remembering that before starting the work or even the project it is essential to have this information in hand, so you do not run the risk of having the work embargoed, paying a fine or having to make last minute changes to the project.
How to calculate occupancy rate
Now, the question that remains to be answered: how to calculate the occupancy rate? This is much simpler than you can imagine.
But first you need to have the total measurements of your land in square meters.
Let's assume that you own a 100 square meter plot and want to build a 60 square meter house, so the calculation must be performed by dividing the total area built by the total area of the land, like this:
60 m² (total built area of the house) / 100 m² (total land area) = 0.60 or 60% occupancy.
If the municipality of your municipality has determined that the maximum occupancy value in a lot must be 80%, your project is ok, within these parameters.
But it is important to note that the occupancy rate is not just about the size of the house, but of all the roofs you have on the land, such as buildings, covered leisure areas and upper floors with surpluses.
Let's give a better example: your land has 100 m² and you have a project of a house with 60 m² on the first floor and a second floor where a balcony that projects 5 m² outwards will be built. In addition, you still intend to build a small building with a leisure area measuring 20m² in total.
The calculation, in this case, must be done as follows: first add all the built areas of the project.
60 m² (total built area of the house) + 5 m² (excess area of the upper floor) + 20 m² (building area of the building) = 85 m² total
Then divide the total built area with the total land area:
80 m² / 100 m² = 0.85 or 85% occupancy.
In this case, for an occupancy rate determined at 80%, the project must undergo a restructuring to fit the parameters required by the city.
But, assuming that the balcony of the upper floor has the same length as the first floor, then there are no surpluses and, thus, the occupancy rate becomes 80%, falling within the limit stipulated by public agencies.
Given this scenario, you must be asking yourself what goes into calculating the occupancy rate and what doesn't. Then, write down:
Areas that count as occupancy rate
- Eaves, balconies and marquees over one square meter;
- Covered garages;
- Built areas such as leisure and service areas as long as they are covered;
- Edicles;
- Horizontal surpluses of the upper floors, such as balconies, for example.
Areas that do not count as occupancy rate
- Open garages;
- Pools;
- Machine houses;
- Upper floors that do not horizontally exceed the length of the first floor;
- Underground built areas, such as garages
However, although the areas above do not count as an occupancy rate, they do enter into the calculation of the land use coefficient. Confused? We will explain further in the next topic.
Utilization coefficient
The utilization coefficient is another important data that you need to have at hand when building your home.
This value is also determined by the municipality of each municipality and refers to how much land was used.
In other words, everything that was built counts, whether closed or open area, in contrast to the occupancy rate which, in most cases (may vary depending on the municipality), takes into account only the covered built areas.
Another difference in the utilization coefficient in relation to the occupancy rate is that, this time, the upper floors are also included in the calculation, even if they have the same measure as the first floor.
For example, three floors of 50 square meters account for 150 m² for the purpose of calculating the utilization coefficient.
But let's exemplify so that you can understand better. To calculate the utilization coefficient, multiply the value of all floors and divide by the total area of the land, as follows:
50 m² (total area of each floor) x 3 (total number of floors) / 100 m² = 1.5. In other words, the utilization coefficient, in this case, is 1.5.
Let us suppose now that in addition to the three floors, the land still has a leisure area of 30 m². The calculation this time would be done as follows:
30m² (leisure area) + 50 m² (total area of each floor) x 3 (total number of floors) / 100 m² (total area of the land) = 1.8.
For calculating the utilization rate, you should also not consider underground constructions, but, in contrast, awnings, eaves and balconies with more than one square meter should be counted, in addition to built-in areas not covered, such as swimming pools, sports courts and garage. .
Soil permeability rate
Not over yet! There is one more extremely important calculation that must be done before construction begins, called the soil permeability rate.
It is important to ensure that rainwater can penetrate the soil properly, freeing cities from flooding and flooding.
This is because with the improper use of waterproof floors, rainwater cannot drain satisfactorily and ends up flooding streets, sidewalks and other public spaces.
The soil permeability rate is also defined by the municipal governments and each city has a different value. To calculate the soil permeability rate you must multiply the amount offered by the city by the total area of the land.
In general, this rate usually varies between 15% and 30% of the total land area. Let's imagine that the soil permeability rate required by the city government of your city is 20% and your land has 100 m², the calculation would be done in this way:
100 m² (total land area) x 20% (soil permeability rate defined by the city) = 2000 or 20 m².
This means that on a 100 m² plot, 20m² must be used for soil permeability. In other words, there cannot be any type of waterproof construction in this area that prevents the passage of rainwater to the soil.
But that does not mean that this space should be left unused or misused. On the contrary, in a good project, this area can represent a garden, a flower bed or a recreational lawn.
There can also be the location of an open garage.
Another option to better take advantage of this permeable area is to look for alternative materials. The most common and popular of these is the concregram floor.
This type of floor has a hollow space where grass is planted. City halls usually consider concregama as 100% permeable.
It is also worth considering the use of draining floors. In this case, the floors are completely waterproof, but keep the outside area completely paved.
In some projects it is also common to see the use of pebble stones or river stone to cover the soil, maintaining the permeability of the land. The look is very beautiful.
Or you can simply choose to put grass in the entire permeable area of the land, making a beautiful garden or a small field for recreation and leisure.
The important thing is to assess your needs, tastes and lifestyle to suit this area in the best possible way and, of course, keeping it busy and well used.
Finally, it is worth clarifying that all this information is aimed at making better use of the land both from the point of view of the owner and from the point of view of the city. Once these values are respected, the entire urban environment wins.
After all, who doesn't want to live and live in a well-planned city, with housing in balance according to the space available and, above all, respecting the environment and sustainable practices? Well, each one has to do their part!
