Renovating an apartment in a mainland Chinese city usually means a full interior fit-out of a concrete-frame flat in a large development, and two ideas organise almost all of the planning. The first is the difference between the area you are quoted — gross, including a share of the building’s common spaces — and the internal area you can actually lay out furniture in. The second is the two-phase structure of the work itself: the hard fit-out of structure, services and fixed finishes, followed by the soft furnishing layer.
This guide covers both, plus what typical compact plans look like, why measurement comes before every quantity, and how the site’s calculators slot into the schedule. Chinese homes vary enormously by city, building age and developer — treat everything here as typical practice to check against your own plan, never as a description of every home.
Gross (building) floor area includes your share of common spaces such as lift lobbies and corridors; internal (usable) area is the space inside the dwelling’s own walls. The ratio between them varies by development, so confirm the internal figure from the floor plan and title documents rather than assuming a percentage. Work runs in two phases: yìngzhuāng (硬装), the hard fit-out of structure, tiling, plaster, fixed wiring and plumbing, then ruǎnzhuāng (软装), the soft furnishing of furniture and decor. Measure every room in millimetres, then order.
Two Areas: Gross and Internal
Two different areas appear in Chinese property documents, and confusing them inflates every plan you make. The quoted figure for a dwelling is normally the gross or building floor area (jiànzhù miànjī, 建筑面积): the dwelling measured through shared walls, plus an allocated share of the building’s common spaces — lift shafts, stairwells, corridors, lobbies and machine rooms. The internal or usable area (tào nèi / shǐyòng miànjī, 套内/使用面积) is what lies inside the dwelling’s own walls, and it is the only area worth planning rooms around.
| Term | What it counts | Where you find it |
|---|---|---|
| Gross (building) floor area | dwelling plus an allocated share of common spaces, measured to shared-wall lines | title documents, listings, sales plans |
| Internal (usable) area | the space within the dwelling’s own walls | floor plan, title documents — confirm, don’t assume |
The ratio between the two varies by development. A tower with more lifts, longer corridors and bigger shared amenities carries a heavier common load than a low-rise block, so the same gross figure yields different internal areas in different buildings — commonly landing somewhere around 70–85% for multi-storey flats, but sometimes beyond that band in either direction. Never assume: read the internal figure off your own floor plan and title documents. As arithmetic, a flat quoted at 89 m² gross with a 75% internal ratio gives 0.75 × 89 ≈ 67 m² to plan with — a two-bedroom layout that is comfortable, not generous.
What a Typical Plan Looks Like
Compact urban layouts dominate the newer stock. Two-bedroom apartments around 80–100 m² gross are widely common across mainland cities, with three-bedroom plans commonly in the region of 100–140 m² gross; listings summarise the plan as a room count such as 2室2厅1卫 — two bedrooms, two living areas, one bathroom. Living and dining usually share one open zone, the kitchen is often its own room with a door, one or two bathrooms sit near the bedrooms, and a balcony adjoins the living room, the kitchen, or both. Ceiling heights in newer builds are commonly around 2.7–2.9 m after finishing.
These are patterns, not rules. Older blocks from the mid-twentieth century, the commodity housing of the 1990s and today’s towers all differ in plan and construction, and regional habits differ just as much. The internal dimensions printed on the plan — then your own tape measure — are the only facts that matter for quantities.
Two Phases: Hard Fit-Out and Soft Furnishing
The renovation trade in China splits the project into yìngzhuāng (硬装, hard fit-out) and ruǎnzhuāng (软装, soft furnishing), and the split is a genuine planning tool because it decides the order in which numbers get fixed.
| Phase | Typical scope | Quantity planning |
|---|---|---|
| Hard fit-out (硬装) | removal of non-structural partitions, screeds and levels, tiling, wood-look flooring, plaster and paint, fixed wiring and plumbing, doors, fixed cabinetry | from measured room dimensions, with waste |
| Soft furnishing (软装) | furniture, curtains and blinds, loose lighting, rugs, decor, appliances | after hard-phase dimensions are fixed |
The logic is simple: the hard phase decides every finished dimension the soft phase has to fit. Tiles, flooring and paint are hard-phase quantities — the calculators below cover them — and fixed cabinetry is ordered during the hard phase against measured walls. Nothing movable should be chosen before those numbers exist, which is why the measuring happens first.
Floors and Walls in the Hard Phase
Tile and wood-look flooring are the standard hard-fit-out finishes. Porcelain tile in 300 × 300 mm and 300 × 600 mm formats is the norm in kitchens and bathrooms; 600 × 600 mm and 800 × 800 mm formats are common in living and dining areas; wood-look plank flooring — laminate or engineered boards — is usual in bedrooms and often runs through the living zone as well. Walls are typically plastered and finished in emulsion paint, with tiled feature walls in kitchens and bathrooms.
The arithmetic for a living room floor: a room measuring 4.2 × 3.6 m is 15.12 m²; at 0.36 m² per 600 × 600 mm tile that is 15.12 ÷ 0.36 = 42 tiles; adding 10% waste gives 47 tiles. The Tile Calculator and Flooring Quantity Calculator do this with the waste allowance built in, and Tile Layout Patterns covers how the set-out changes the cut count at the edges.
Custom Whole-Home Cabinetry
Custom whole-home cabinetry (quánwū dìngzhì, 全屋定制) is popular precisely because compact plans leave little room for furniture that almost fits. Entry shoe cabinets, floor-to-ceiling wardrobes, balcony storage and television wall units are built wall to wall to measured dimensions in millimetres, using the full ceiling height rather than the 1,800–2,000 mm that freestanding units reach.
Because it is fixed cabinetry, it belongs to the hard phase: it is measured and ordered once floor levels, wall finishes and services are decided, and it is planned around measured walls rather than nominal room sizes. The cabinetry supplier will take their own measurements — let them — but have your own sketch first, because it is also what the tile, flooring and paint quantities are built from.
The Balcony as Utility Space
The balcony is usually the working zone of the plan: a washing machine and sink on the balcony, a hoisted drying rack above it, cleaning kit and mops alongside. That makes the balcony a hard-phase decision, not a later one — the drain point, water supply and socket positions have to be planned before the screed and tiling go down, because moving them afterwards means breaking out finished floors.
Enclosing a balcony to make a sun-room or extended living space is common where the building’s rules and the facade allow it; buildings and cities differ, so check before planning around an enclosure. Drying remains the balcony’s core job either way — outdoor line-drying is the default laundry habit in most of the country.
Measurement-First Planning
The routine that makes every other step easy: obtain the floor plan and confirm the internal area from the documents; measure each room yourself, in millimetres, at skirting, waist and ceiling height, recording the smallest figure for anything fitted; mark drains, water, gas and the distribution board on the sketch; and check which partitions are structural before planning to remove any of them — a concrete frame carries loads in places that look removable.
Then run the numbers. A worked paint example for a bedroom measuring 3.3 × 3.6 m with 2.8 m ceilings: the perimeter is 13.8 m, so the wall area is 13.8 × 2.8 ≈ 38.6 m², less about 4 m² of door and window ≈ 35 m² per coat, or roughly 70 m² for two coats into the Paint Calculator. The same sketch feeds the Tile Calculator and Flooring Quantity Calculator — measure once, order everything.
Common Mistakes
- Assuming a gross-to-internal ratio. It varies by development; confirm the internal area from your own documents.
- Ordering tiles by room count or gross area. Quantities come from measured rooms, with waste added.
- Choosing soft furnishings before hard-phase dimensions exist. The hard fit-out fixes what the furniture must fit.
- Leaving balcony services out of the hard phase. Drains and sockets decided after tiling means breaking the floor out again.
- Treating a partition as removable without checking. Confirm against the structural plan and qualified advice.
Plan It With the Calculators
Measure the rooms, then let the Tile Calculator do the arithmetic: room dimensions and tile format in, tile count with waste allowance out. The same measured sketch drives the flooring and paint orders — make it once, in millimetres, and reuse it for every calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between gross and internal floor area?
Gross (building) floor area includes the dwelling plus a share of common spaces such as lift lobbies, stairwells and machine rooms, measured to the exterior or centre line of shared walls. Internal (usable) area is the space inside the dwelling’s own walls. The ratio between them varies by development — commonly around 70–85% for multi-storey flats — so confirm the internal figure from the floor plan and title documents rather than assuming.
What do yìngzhuāng and ruǎnzhuāng mean?
Yìngzhuāng (硬装) is the hard fit-out: structural work, screeds, tiling, plaster and paint, fixed wiring and plumbing, doors and fixed cabinetry. Ruǎnzhuāng (软装) is the soft furnishing layer: furniture, curtains, loose lighting and decor. The hard phase fixes every finished dimension; the soft phase furnishes to those dimensions, so measuring comes first.
How big is a typical two-bedroom apartment in China?
There is no single answer — homes vary widely by city, era and developer — but compact urban layouts dominate the newer stock, and two-bedroom apartments around 80–100 m² gross are widely common in mainland cities, with three-bedroom plans commonly in the region of 100–140 m² gross. The internal, usable area is smaller and varies by building, so work from your own documents and tape measure.
Do tiles and flooring belong to the hard fit-out or the soft phase?
The hard fit-out. Tiles, wood-look flooring, plaster and paint are fixed finishes, and their quantities come from measured room dimensions. Common tile formats run 300 × 300 and 300 × 600 mm in kitchens and bathrooms and 600 × 600 or 800 × 800 mm in living areas — measure each room and add waste before ordering.
Related MyHouseLogic Guides
- Tile Layout Patterns — grid, brick and modular set-outs, and how each changes the cut count.
- Tatami Mats and Room Sizes — the neighbouring Japanese tradition of counting rooms in mats.
- Flooring Quantity Guide — turning a measured room into a plank and board order with waste.
- Homes Around the World — the collection of regional measurement and planning guides.
- Field Guide library — every MyHouseLogic guide, each tied to a calculator.
The bottom line: two areas, two phases, one tape measure. Confirm the internal area from your own documents, plan the hard fit-out before the soft furnishings, and measure every room in millimetres before a single tile or plank is ordered.