Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 04, 2007 9:40 am I'm currently living in a (rental) house with 9-foot celings and love it !
I'm now lookig to build a two-storey home and would like to have 9-foot celings. Does anyone know what the standard height is these days (seems to be getting lower all the time), and what sort of extra costs I might be looking at for 9-foot ceilings? thanks Re: Ceiling height 4Apr 04, 2007 11:09 am HI there,
I think the standard ceiling height is 8 foor or 2440. Our house has 2590 ceilings or 8 1/2 foot. To get 2700 or 9 foot ceilings would have been nice but a much bigger cost! I know some freinds who built a 2 story home that came standard with 8 foot ceilings and the covenants on the land said 9 foot and they had to pay an extra $9500. Matt Re: Ceiling height 5Apr 04, 2007 12:09 pm Thanks everyone I suppose just under 8 feet isn't too bad... I think I'll try to get a quote on both. It's interesting though to think of a lot of the old terrace houses which had 14-foot ceilings. Wonder why ? Re: Ceiling height 6Apr 04, 2007 12:15 pm We are going with the high ones because we are having a homestead style house, with bullnose verandahs. If we had the 2400 ceilings, the height of the verandah would be lower and cover up the tops of the windows from view, it just made it look better overall, opens up the rooms and looks bigger. Plus my family home is a farmhouse and has massive high ceilings, so I like them. My dad actually commented that our ceilings will be really low, before he found out that in new homes thats higher than usual. Re: Ceiling height 7Apr 04, 2007 12:40 pm The other thing you might consider is square set ceilings instead of cornice.
I think it helps the ceiling to look higher still.... Matt Re: Ceiling height 8Apr 04, 2007 3:17 pm Does 'square set' basically mean no cornice at all ? Or is it a 90-degree cornice ? Re: Ceiling height 10Apr 04, 2007 5:04 pm Do cornices actually "do" anything ? By that I mean do they help secure the ceiling, or provide slightly better insulation, prevent potential warping of the ceiling or any other sort of function ?
Or are they just meant to look nice ? Re: Ceiling height 12Apr 04, 2007 9:11 pm who's the kiwi ? Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: Ceiling height 13Apr 04, 2007 10:00 pm Cornice is the way it has been done forever!
It was invented to cover the gap where the wall plaster met the ceiling plaster. (And to cover up lazy platerers faults ) Square set is more minimalistic and modern in my opinion. Acoustically I am told there is a difference (my business partner is the Audio Technician) but for me I like it better. Matt Re: Ceiling height 14May 30, 2007 12:05 am What we seen in HomeWorld at Kellyville/Sydney is most builders provide 2400mm as standard ceiling height.
We raised both floors to 2700mm and it cost us $4900 for each floor. It also depends on the council, our council requires min 2700mm for ground floor and max is 3000mm. For 1st floor, min 2400mm and max also 3000mm. Cheers Allan http://building-our-first-house.blogspot.com/ Re: Ceiling height 15May 30, 2007 4:12 am Hi,
When we built about 10 years ago, we designed our home all ourselves. We have lots of lovely plaster features, fancy cornices, arches, crowns etc. They absolutely make our home have lots of character that is generally devoid in many modern homes. The ceilings are 3 brick courses higher than standard, and give the space to make all these features look at home. The result is we have a 'little big house'. That is, we don't have a large floorspace, but the overall effect is the home feels far bigger than it actually is. We love the higher ceilings and think it is worth every cent. From memory, it cost us an extra $1k for each extra brick course (modest size home) so I'd guess an average $2k per course would be a fair guide today. Ash. Re: Ceiling height 16May 30, 2007 6:01 am ahuang It also depends on the council, our council requires min 2700mm for ground floor and max is 3000mm. For 1st floor, min 2400mm and max also 3000mm. Hi Allan - what council is this? (We are in Sydney also - building in the Blacktown Council area - where the max I think is set at 2.7m) Re: Ceiling height 17May 30, 2007 9:45 am Just to throw my two bobs worth in - Speaking to someone at Dennis Family homes about a two storey, they quoted $5,800 for 9 foot ceilings on the lower level, and 8 foot 6 inches on the upper level.
Didn't sound toop bad to me, considering the extra materials required, inside and out. Perry Re: Ceiling height 18May 30, 2007 10:07 am We don't have the height requirements here in Wagga.We have done quite afew houses in the central area with ceilings up to 3.6mtrs in height.As someone mentioned this height was common in very old houses.Modern (brick veneer in the eastern states)houses are governed by gyrock sheet sizes eg:2*1200mm sheets for 2400mm ceilings,1 1200mm and 1 1350mm sheet for 2550mm ceillings and 2 1350mm sheets for 2700mm.We finished a farmhouse (still working on retaining walls etc)recently and although the walls were solid brick we worked to sheet sizes and they gyrocked over them rather than cement rendering.The ceiling height is 42 brick courses or 3 1200mm gyrock sheets.In WA they measure heights in brick courses as the houses are solid brick.But they still end up with similar heights (28courses of standards= 2400mm etc)I wouldn't normally be writing all this useless info but it is finally raining and I'm having a play on the computer.Regards Terry
PS:A couple of pictures of the Borambola farmhouse,including high ceilings. Re: Ceiling height 19May 30, 2007 10:13 am But is it energy efficient to have such high ceilings?
You could use high ceilings for cooling as long as there was somewhere for the air to escape (convective cooling) - but then in winter - warm air would rise up there and stay there (unless you had some powerful fans to push it back down). Re: Ceiling height 20May 30, 2007 10:14 am Holy crap!!
3 x 1200mm sheets! Most plasterers here in Melb would have a fit if they had to do that!! Our stilts don't go that high Matt ok thanks - yes was wondering if that should have been listed as Option Three! 2 7755 I'll look into different shower heads and ask the plumber about some engineering and see what he says. Thanks 2 9570 i imagine you also have another contract with an architect? and yeah, whatever other's said about special conditions and appendices 16 16026 |