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About this tool
Plan balcony flooring, planters, seating and lighting by size — with a budget and an added-load check.
The Balcony Makeover Planner prices a balcony makeover by area and item count, and then does the check most mood boards skip: it adds up the weight. Floor finish weight per square metre, wet potting mix at 1,400 kg per cubic metre in every pot, and people plus furniture are converted to kg/m² and then to kN/m², and compared with the 3.0 kN/m² imposed load that IS 875 (Part 2) specifies for balconies in residential buildings. You get a budget, a per-square-foot rate, a seating fit check and a clear signal on whether the plan is light or needs an engineer's eye.
Open Balcony Makeover Planner on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Choose a Floor finish — each option carries its own weight, from Artificial grass at 3 kg/m² to Loose pebbles, 40 mm deep at 64 kg/m² — then enter Balcony length (m) and Balcony depth (m).
Set Floor rate (INR per m², laid), which prefills from the finish you picked, plus Planters with Planter diameter (mm) and Planter height (mm), Seats, Light fittings, the per-item costs and Storeys in the building; every figure is editable and the plan recomputes as you type.
The Makeover budget headline gives the total and the cost per sq ft, with rows for Seats the length can take, Depth left in front of a chair and Railing height for this building; the Weight added to the slab panel ends in Share of the 3 kN/m² allowance and a verdict. Copy result saves the plan.
Converts every element to kg/m² and compares it against the code imposed load for balconies.
Default rates are indicative; change any of them to your own city's quotes and the budget follows.
Says how many seats the length takes and whether anyone can walk past a chair.
IS 875 (Part 2) specifies an imposed load of 3.0 kN/m² for balconies in residential buildings, which is about 306 kg per square metre. That is the design allowance, not a guarantee about a particular slab — a real balcony's capacity depends on its reinforcement, span and condition, so a heavy plan should be checked by a structural engineer.
A 300 mm wide, 300 mm deep pot filled to 80% with wet potting mix holds about 17 litres of soil, so with the pot and plant it comes to roughly 27 kg. Scale that up: a 450 mm pot of the same proportions is over 80 kg watered, which is why a dozen large pots can matter structurally.
Loose pebbles and artificial grass are the least expensive per square metre and neither needs demolition of the existing floor. Pebbles are heavy for what they are — a 40 mm layer adds about 64 kg/m² — while artificial grass adds only about 3 kg/m², so on an older slab the lighter option is usually the better one.
About 900 mm: 550 mm for the chair and 350 mm to sit down and get up. Add 500 mm more if someone has to walk past an occupied chair. Below that, a wall-hung drop-leaf ledge with folding stools gives you a usable balcony without blocking it.