Min. Ceiling Height tolerance with floor coverings

Hi all

Was hoping one of the learned building inspectors or surveyors or anyone in the property industry could help with some info. We are considering our options for flooring for our refurbishment. Our house is not your typical place. 60-70% of the house is on stumps with timber bearers and brushbox timber floors around 50 years old. The other part of the house is built to match the rest of the house but is partly on concrete slab and partly cantilevered using steel posts, timber bearers and chipboard flooring. It used to have carpet but we have ripped that up.

Anyway, my wife want to match the solid brushbox flooring into that part of the house (not engineered floating floor). Due to it being partly on a concrete slab, the flooring contractor will need to install plywood substrate. Problem is out existing ceiling height is around 2410-2415mm. Once we add 12mm ply and 19mm hardwood, this will reduce to 2379-2384mm.

My question is, is there any tolerance given on the 2400mm height measurement, and what actual legal issues are there surrounding marketing of the house if we ever sell it? Could a bank refuse finance to a prospective buyer if it were found out? What is the likelihood of someone actually picking it up and taking issue with it? Is this something that building inspectors regularly check?

There is a way out. The current ceiling battens in that part of the house are 40mm hardwood. I could (if I really wanted to) take these down and replace with 22mm steel battens and re-sheet the whole ceiling, but would like to avoid this if possible as the solid hardwood floors are already going to cost me an arm and a leg...

Appreciate the help.

There are ways around it. I drew plans for a guy about five years ago for an upstairs addition over his whole house ( 2750 stud ) and because of height restrictions had to keep it to 2450 upstairs. The builder made a big stuffup and when I did an inspection halfway through the job just as they were cladding the inside with plasterboard, I noticed that the height above the windows was less than we had aimed for. I whipped out my tape and found that the sill height was correct as was the window dimensions but the head height to ceiling was 75mm less than it should have been. A check of the overall stud height was that it was roughly 2375mm. By the time the carpet went down and the plasterboard on the ceiling the FFL to ceiling height would have been roughly 2350mm.
I had a talk with the client who had a big argument with the builder over this ( and a lot of other issues ) but the certifier passed it as being fit for purpose.

Stewie

I guess at the end of the day, the only mandatory part of the BCA is the performance requirements, and if the certifier is happy to put signature on it as being fit for purpose and meeting the performance requirements then it's all good.

I would think the 2400 rule applies the the constructed floor to the finished ceiling height at time fo initial certification.. Reason being that a concrete slab could be polished and technically become the floor. Same applies to a bare wooden floor.

What you do afterwards, ie carpets etc, is irrelevant as far as building compliance goes.

Reduced height might be an insurance issue, best to disclose it to them.

Someone picking up 10-20mm short on the height afterwards, is pretty well negligible. I have NEVER seen a real estate agent, prospective buyer, or bank loan inspector measure this height if it is not obvious.

Well I know all our stud walls for a standard height we would cut our studs at 2360 + 2 x plates at 45mm and we would end up with a total sheet flooring to underside of ceiling joists of 2450mm. Add 10mm plasterboard for the ceiling and 20mm for carpet and you scrape in at 2420mm FFL to CL. I've also been told from a couple of building inspectors that this is the only way they would approve a build for final certification ( quite a few years ago now so maybe things have changed ).

Stewie

Well in the end we decided to go with a high end bamboo floating floor. It was half the price of solid hardwood on plywood substrate, and got around our height concerns.