Ceiling Height decision

[Crofter]

I should really have made a decision on this ages ago, but have been kicking the can down the road, so to speak. Also, it's a bit of a subjective question of aesthetics, without a right or wrong answer.

 

My wee house has a warm roof built using a hefty ridge beam, so not much extra support is required, making a totally open and vaulted roof an option from a structural POV. There will be a central partition wall which will tie the walls together and help support the ridge beam as well. Even as it currently stands, it has been up for months now and stood through some gales without so much as a creak, so I'm happy that it doesn't need any extra beams in place.

 

One half of the house is a sinlge open plan room and that will have a vaulted ceiling (there are actually a couple of beams at 10ft above FFL as well, primarily to give me somewhere to put the lights).

Oh and one minor complication is that technically I ought to have the ceiling at no more than 10ft height, so these beams also double as a support at that height in case anybody at a later date enforces that particular point.

 

The other half of the house is trickier to make a decision on. It will be split between three spaces- an entrance hallway, the bedroom, and the shower room. My feeling is that, especially for the two smaller spaces, a standard height ceiling would look best and anything else would just look wrong. A room that is taller than it is wide seems like a strange concept. Really not sure about the bedroom, though, which is just about big enough to work with a raised or vaulted ceiling, but this would be assymetrical as the room only spans a little over half the width of the building.

 

Hope I've described this adequately- floor plan and section attached for clarity.

 

Just curious about what ceiling height you guys think would look/feel 'right'...

[Ferdinand]

What is above your ceiling etc?

 

I might try to work from the top and decide how much height I need in any stirage space or sleeping platform up there.

 

Can you for example have enough height to walk along the middle beneath the ridge beam?

 

I think any ceiling height would be OK, but might tend to 2.4m as standard, or perhaps 2.6m.

 

F

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2016 by Ferdinand

[Crofter]

I'm not too bothered about having a usable space- nobody is going to be living in this house permanently, no water tank to hide away anywhere, and if needs must there is storage underneath the house, which sits on piers. A sleeping platform is perhaps one exception, but that can be fitted into the space above the built in wardrobe that is going in the partition between lounge and bedroom (not marked on plan, but basically it will run behind where the sofa sits). Not wedded to the idea of a platform and it would almost certainly break the 10ft ceiling height rule.

 

My main aesthetic concern is that any ceiling higher than 2.4m will involve some degree of coomb along one edge. And I think this could look a bit weird.

[ProDave]

For the bathroom, I would have a conventional flat ceiling.

 

for the bedrom, I would give it a vaulted ceiling, but not just right up to the extreme top of the roof, that would leave a lopsided vaulted ceiling if you see what I mean.

 

Instead, on the wall between a bedroom and bathroom, I would start another "false" vaulted ceiling starting at the same level and going up at the same angle to meet the main roof. like this:

 

 

[Crofter]

That's certainly a permutation that I hadn't considered!

I think a high ceiling in the bathroom is a bit of a waste and means extra tiles or wetwall, funny angles to complicate finishing, etc.

 

Glad it's not just me who thinks a lopsided vaulted ceiling would look weird.

[mafaldina]

Why don't you go and have a look at what Helen and Alistair did in their blackhouse (Tigh Dubh). Can't remember the detail but similar size and issues.

 

[ragg987]

We have vaulted ceilings in our bedrooms and bathrooms. Some are symmentrical and others (e.g. bathroom) are not symetrical, but still at full height. Our smallest vaulted room is the bathroom at 3.25m x 2.4m - the ridge of the vault is along the longer side.

 

I think this works extremely well, the vault and asymetry are aestehtically pleasing (to us) and add a degree of quirkiness into what could otherwise be more box-like. You are welcome to take a look if you happen to be in the area (Aylesbury).

 

I attach a picture of another vaulted area to give you a feel of ours (not the one described above). Image is from larger bedroom through to smaller dressing area (vault is not symmetrical here) through to bathroom. We do not intend to fully tile the bathrooms - only to height set by shower screen and half-height for the rest, as dictated by boxing for suspended toilet and sink (green bit in the image).

[Stones]

I always think fully vaulted ceilings only really work in large open rooms.  The smaller the room gets, the less height it can take before the proportions begin to look a bit odd.  I was in one house that had a standard 3 x 3 m double bedroom but had a double storey ceiling.  It actually made the room feel smaller than it actually was as the sense of floorspace was lost.  I think full height in the main living area is a must.  Bathroom and entrance hall I would just go with standard height flat ceiling -  creates a nice transition and wow factor for visitors.  I think the same applies to the bedroom and I quite like Dave's suggestion.  In our last house we used scissor trusses to create a vault, so only just over half the height of a full vault.  Worked well and gave the room a real sense of proportion and feeling of space.   Not ideal, but i would have thought you could mock up a false ceiling using a batten and bit of polythene or even an old bed sheet to see what proportions work?

 

I've actually got to make a similar decision for our bedroom.  Measuring 4.5 x 4 m (approx, we could have a full height vault, but my inclination is to put in a false tie perhaps a metre down to better proportion the room.  The opposite will apply in our main room (9 x 5m) which will full height or just short of the apex.

[AliG]

For the bedroom I think I'd go full height and the asymmetric ceiling adds interest. I was just in a showhouse where they did this and it worked really well. You could flatten off the peak, if you don't like the asymmetry, I wouldn't slope it back down again.

 

I understand the concerns about a really high ceiling, but it looks like the peak will maybe be 4m high.

 

I'd be less bothered for the shower room and hall. If you give the shower room a high ceiling you can always stop the tiles at the height of the top of the door, but I think the room is too small to really benefit.

[Crofter]

Thanks for all the thoughts on this. I've got my insulation boards on site already so I think I will use them plus some battens to help mock up some different options. Leaning towards standard height ceilings in the hallway and shower room, although unless I also go standard height in the bedroom, these lower ceilings will need to false as there will be no structural beams at that height. Shouldn't be too big a job though.

[Ferdinand]

51 minutes ago, Crofter said:

Thanks for all the thoughts on this. I've got my insulation boards on site already so I think I will use them plus some battens to help mock up some different options. Leaning towards standard height ceilings in the hallway and shower room, although unless I also go standard height in the bedroom, these lower ceilings will need to false as there will be no structural beams at that height. Shouldn't be too big a job though.

 

Perhaps the height of the "standard" celiings in bathroom plus hallway need careful consideration in relation to the bedroom vault.

 

Does it work better if the lower ceilings are at the same height at which the vault starts, so you get continuity when walking through the more intimate spaces to the larger?

 

Ferdinand

[Crofter]

There's not much wiggle room on the 'standard' ceiling height- the (already built) roof structure means that anything over 2.4m would start needing coombs.

[Nickfromwales]

I did a job with Coombs in both the front and rear bedrooms upstairs, so one per square room. I decided to make them more pronounced and then fitted some small semi-recessed, frosted, low wattage lighting into them. 4 lights over 5m worked well.

'His and hers' switches by the bedside cabinets so the room only got light slightly when the the main spots are not necessary eg getting up for a nighttime jimmy etc. 

[Crofter]

Having had time to ruminate over this some more, I think I'm down to two options:

1- just have a conventional 2.4m ceiling. It looks absolutely fine, it's the easiest to do, and it could enhance the 'wow factor' of the room that does have a vaulted ceiling.

 

2- follow @ProDave's suggestion and have a false ceiling to create a symmetrical vaulted ceiling, probably in conjunction with roof beams at 2.4m height. This entails a bit more work and some more penetrations through the airtightness barrier (where the false ceiling meets the rafters).

[Onoff]

On 31/08/2016 at 12:35, Crofter said:

I think a high ceiling in the bathroom is a bit of a waste and means extra tiles or wetwall,

 

Too true! Like the idiot I "know" who's ceiling height came out about 2470.....with 400 high tiles.....

 

"He's" mulling over having a border tile or similar.