ᐅ How high are your lintels? At what height do they start to feel dark and oppressive?

Hello everyone,

Last week, the construction manager hinted that it might be necessary to reduce the lintel height for the windows on the upper floor—from the planned 227 cm (89 inches) to about 215 cm (85 inches). Roller shutters will be installed above the windows.

I’m wondering whether this is a significant issue or acceptable. If it is a problem, I would consider shifting the windows toward the center of the gable (if that’s even allowed—I’m worried the building permit/planning permission might restrict changes). This would mean a shift of about 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches).

I did some measurements—in our apartment, all lintels are about 220 cm (87 inches) from the floor. Personally, that doesn’t bother me. At my parents’ terraced house, the lintels range from 240 cm (95 inches) to 233 cm (92 inches) and have no roller shutters, but I never really noticed any difference. Would 215 cm (85 inches) feel noticeably low or oppressive?

Thanks for your input,
Good luck.

A few extra centimeters don’t bother anyone – do you have a permit-exempt process? Then not at all, because no one will come 😀.

In our case, the architect was quite bold with the window and roller shutter box in our bedroom, so the window will now be a bit smaller. We don’t mind... whether it feels oppressive is really up to you, as that is a completely subjective impression.

On the ground floor, the lintels are all at 2.40m (7 ft 10 in) or between 2.50-2.60m (8 ft 2 in – 8 ft 6 in), and upstairs they are a bit lower at around 2.20-2.30m (7 ft 3 in – 7 ft 7 in) due to the roller shutters.

So, 2.40 m (7 ft 10 in) + 25 cm (10 inches) for roller shutters + 20 cm (8 inches) for floor construction + 11 cm (4 inches) for the lintel → just under 3 meters (9 ft 10 in) raw ceiling height and later 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) clear room height? That’s certainly not bad.

There is a development plan and we have a B-building permit / planning permission – although I don’t really think it matters if they measure the 5 cm (2 inches) to the left or right.

We have a clear ceiling height of 2.72m (8 ft 11 in).

And no one is going to come by and check the measurements anyway... nobody would care about that.

Our venetian blinds don’t have boxes; they are installed within the cavity wall layer ;-)

I guess I get that with our 2.58 inferiority complexes :p
The idea of the air layer sounds interesting – I don’t think you can do without the mounting element for roller shutters, right? We might install venetian blinds when we renovate in about 30 years 😀

I called the site manager, and he said to wait for the roof first – he’s not keen on moving the windows. But no, he didn’t definitely say no – we’ll see.

Lexmaul79 schrieb:
- Do you have a permit-exempt process? Then definitely not, because no one shows up 😀.

You would be surprised – inspections are done randomly but especially without prior notice 😉

Regards, Bauexperte