We've got our plans drawn for 10' first floor, 9' second floor. What's everyone seeing in new construction? Anyone doing 11' or 12' first floor height? Suggestions?

Thanks!

It really depends on the style of the house and personal preference but contemporary homes tend to have higher downstairs ceilings. Either way, I would definitely go 10' for upstairs. That extra foot will make your rooms feel more spacious and allows for extra storage in the closet.

10 down 9 up is very typical. For a one story, you could have variances from 9' in secondary bedrooms to 10' or tray in master, with 10 to 12 in living area. If you are not a full two story, you may have potential for a higher ceiling in the living area if nothing is above it.

We are building a single story and went 10'. Primarily because the upcharge from 9-10' was minimal due to drywall dimensions. At 10' they still have enough drywall to have a factory edge on both "halves". And I was told anything over 10 to go 12 for material utilization.

Lumber upcharge was insignificant for the jump to 10'.

New build. 11ft ceilings w 8 ft doors downstairs.

Might be 12. I'm too lazy to get up atm.

Foyer and living room 22 ft.

Builder93 said:

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We live an old house with 8' ceilings. I find that I don't like going into new houses anymore. The ceilings are too tall. The proportions feel out of scale. Plus people can't believe how low our utility bills are and we have no (I mean zero, none, nada) insulation in the walls.

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Agree on the cavern feeling, but I feel like 10' is the sweet spot for common areas and 9' for bedrooms. Wasted energy probably comes more from having a 3,000 sqft house for 3 people than having tall ceilings.

My '74 build is small, poorly insulated, and leaky but my average electric bill is like $52/mo for around 500 kWh/mo.

I've done electrical work on a new house that was 12' downstairs and 9' in the office/gameroom that was the only thing upstairs. It was fun because I was the only one who could reach the ceiling as the 'standard' ladders we had were 8' tall and I'm over 6' tall.

I've also done it on 8' all around the house. A lot of the houses we worked on were 9 to 10 feet tall downstairs and 8 to 9 feet upstairs.

Most of these were new builds in CS.

I like my parent's house. 9' downstairs all around; Master with a vaulted ceiling up to 11'. Upstairs was 8' in bedrooms, but a coffer to 9' for the fan space. Allows us tall people to raise our hands without hitting the fan. Only thing is price of extra wood/sheetrock for coffer vs. just making it 9' tall all around.

~egon

Commenting in standard heights for this or that ceiling doesn't mean much if you dont talk anout the overall size of the room. Proportions mean something. I can talk all day long about a 10 or 9 foot ceiling in "a" room but it doesn't help me know anything else about how the room feels or functions. High ceilings were in very old (victorian) houses in the south to let transom windows take the hot air away with the breeze. Low sling houses in Ireland keep the heat down low so the occupants can stay warm. Have you thought about why you want a certain ceiling height?

We're Building a 1story and have 11 to 14' ceilings throughout.

The tall ceilings makes it feel huge

New build... We have 12ft ceilings in our guest house and love them, we will have 12 ft ceilings in our custom home in a few years.

Aggietaco said:

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Builder93 said:

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We live an old house with 8' ceilings. I find that I don't like going into new houses anymore. The ceilings are too tall. The proportions feel out of scale. Plus people can't believe how low our utility bills are and we have no (I mean zero, none, nada) insulation in the walls.

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Wasted energy probably comes more from having a 3,000 sqft house for 3 people than having tall ceilings.

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Or more likely.. this

Quote:

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Foyer and living room 22 ft.

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Such a waste of space and energy. Never again will I have a double story ceiling height in a house.

We have 10' down, 9' up and 8' in basement. I think 9' is all around good, but 10' works for larger rooms. Our main floor is one large kitchen/dining/den plus a front room/office, then a bedroom/bathroom in back. So the large area works with 10'. But upstairs is all bedrooms and it feels roomy at 9'.

My parents have like 12-14 in main kitchen/dining area, and it's all tile, and it's echoey as hell.

Wasted energy probably comes more from having a 3,000 sqft house for 3 people than having tall ceilings.

This is partially true, but volume is volume. You can hit the large volumes pretty easily with high ceilings. Also, you are assuming a demographic related to generally wasted energy. We are talking about ceiling height related to a particular design for a family.

3000sf at 10' = 30,000cf
3000sf at 8' = 24,000cf
Thats a 20% reduction in conditioned volume.

Figure 1200sf of it as double height 18'

High ceiling 39,600cf
Low ceiling 24,000cf
40% reduction in conditioned volume.