A story or “storey” is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people to live, work, and store. Each story is measured from the floor including its thickness to the ceiling.
Sometimes, people use the story as a unit to measure the height of the house. However, depending on the type of building and construction, the height can be varied (one-story house or two-story house).
So how tall is the two-story house actually? Read the followings to have your most accurate estimate.
What is the height of each story?
According to the South Willamette Special Area Zone, buildings only have to comply with height and the story limit.
You can have as many floors as you can fit that limit. The maximum height of a story is 15 feet. So, you can have a two-story house with 30 feet in height.
The height of a house is the distance between the ground floor to the highest peak of the roof, excluding the basement.
A story has the height counted on the distance between two floors, from the ground floor to the upper one. Regarding the demand of the owner to have the building attic or loft; it affects the height of the house as well.
Traditionally, the average height of a story is from 8 to 10 feet ceilings. In general, if a story is at 8 feet tall, the two-story house will be 16 feet in height.
Similarly, if a story is calculated at 10 feet tall which accounts for 8-foot ceiling and 2-foot for the infrastructure of the roof; so the two-story house will be 20 feet.
The variety of story depends on the use of the building. These days, the residential house has 8 to 9-foot ceilings with about a 1-foot deep of the floor structure. Meanwhile, offices have ceiling heights of 9 to 10 feet.
Concrete floor slabs usually require 18 to 24 inches between the ceiling and the next floor level. Some specialized uses like theatres might have very tall ceilings.
It is important to know that there is no particular number, it can be different in many places. Not all ceiling have the same height.
Some stories in a building might be taller than the other; for example, the living room where people greet guess requires a higher ceiling than the other parts of the house.
Take a look at an example of a German two-story house. Commonly, the average height of their house is 13 feet tall. At this height, you won’t get tired from walking up and down the stairs frequently.
Moreover, you can save the budget investing in air-conditioning since the room is not so large.
Factors affect the height
Apart from the story limit, you need to consider other factors which affect the height of the house. If the story is short, it creates a cozy space, but some people feel cramped.
Similarly, if the story is high, it can either comfort people or create a generous space feeling. It also depends on the decoration and function of each story.
Characteristics of the house construction area
The height of the two-story house is proportional to the construction area of the stairs. It is easy to decide the height of a story if you have a large area.
A high story does not match with a small stair construction area. It will cause a big slope of the stairs which engenders difficulties and danger in moving between stories.
Climate characteristics
The ventilation of the house does not have to rely on the height of each floor but depends on whether it can create convection flow. In the regions with the tropical climate, 8 to 9 feet for each story is recommended.
The reasonable arrangement of windows and air vents will help to create better ventilation. With a pleasant climate, more than 10 feet in height for each story is totally fine as long as it complies with the story limit.
Energy-saving factor
Houses with low floor height consume less energy for air-conditioning. Large room volume needs a large machine capacity, longer cooling time which costs more money and electricity.
The same thing goes with heaters in winter. A moderate height will not only help to save energy but also ensure a clear relationship between stories of the house.
Construction budget
Increasing the ceiling height affects many issues such as increased construction costs. Obviously, high columns also lead to more steel, concrete and brick walls.
The higher the floor design leads to the higher the cost of operation and maintenance. Therefore, the height of the house comes along with the financial ability of homeowners.
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To sum up
To conclude, in the industrial age, the utilization, savings, and rationality need to be placed on top in house construction.
This article is for reference to the height of the house. Hope it gives you the answer to how tall is a two-story house should be.
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