Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Owain wrote:
AIUI there is no minimum height for a habitable room,
There is if a new build or conversion. Cost me loadsa money to raise the
ceiling height when extending an existing attic room.


It certainly used to be the case but I think you will find that the
minimum height requirement was restricted to stairs several years ago.

Right - I'm talking round about '90.

FWIW my downstairs headroom is just 6 feet under the beams which doesn't
much bother me as I am not that tall. The only real problem is lighting.
With the ceiling at just 6 inches higher choice of light fittings is
extremely restricted.

On a new build? Wouldn't that make it difficult to sell? I notice that
youngsters are getting taller. I'm 6 ft, and as a lad was taller than
most. Not anymore.

The clearance on the stairs is however another matter. I have long since
learnt to duck on the way down as the clearance is about a foot down on
modern regulations and, as the offending structure is a main floor beam,
there is no easy way round other than repositioning the stairs which
would be a major operation.

Seems weird not to have a minimum ceiling height these days considering
all the other regs?

Very odd. Would make house construction cheaper though as long as there
was still sufficient height to use standard doors. Save over 10% on
brickwork.

Back in the 70s the minimum ceiling height for a habitable room was 7'
6" and for a bay window 6' 6". ISTR that this provision had disappeared
by the time I was involved in a loft conversion in the late 90s but
ceiling height wasn't a problem anyway so I could easily be wrong about
when I first learnt of the change.