ᐅ Attic Height – How Much Storage Space Is It Really?

Hello dear forum members,

Our house is being designed with an attic height of about 1.6 meters (5 feet 3 inches). This measurement refers to the middle, meaning the space up to the ridge inside. It will be accessible via a folding attic ladder.

The exterior dimensions of the house are 11.15 meters by 9.6 meters (the latter is the gable side). The roof will be a traditional purlin gable roof with a bay window on one side, centered along the 11.15 meters length. The bay window’s external width is 4 meters (13 feet 1 inch).

We are only familiar with attics that have full ceiling height or very shallow lofts under a hip roof.

Since we are building without a basement, the attic is naturally an important storage area! Does anyone have similar size ratios and can share their experience or photos showing how much storage space remains? You also need access to boxes and similar items.

We do not want a knee wall, nor do we want to reduce the ceiling heights. Living space is more important to us than the attic, but we still want room for decorations and similar items!

Because we are only permitted to build one full storey, changing the roof pitch is also not easy. Our construction company has already calculated that we can even have an attic, with a knee wall of at least 1 meter (3 feet 3 inches) clear height, but without losing the full storey.

Furthermore, we are not planning to have a window in the attic – is this a bad idea? Originally, we wanted triangular windows in the gables, but 1. the chimney has been moved in front of the window location and 2. they turned out to be outrageously expensive!

Any experiences, photos, or comments?

Best regards and thanks

Important missing information: roof pitch.

In my opinion, one window per gable is necessary just to allow ventilation (construction moisture).
However, a 50/50 split is sufficient.

Oh ... then maybe we need to reconsider the windows. The current plan only includes this small double casement window as an emergency exit.

Of course, the roof pitch is 38 degrees.

So, my old house had a slightly larger footprint but a similar, though somewhat lower, height.
Three households lived there last, with two of them having an enormous amount of stuff stored in boxes.
If you’re not extreme collectors, you will have more than enough space there. You can only store limited items upstairs via the pull-down attic ladder anyway. At some point, I decided not to store anything up there except leftover bricks or things I would almost never need again.
If the new house (without a basement) really isn't enough, which is usually more a matter of lifestyle, I would rather put a garden shed on the lawn at ground level.
For me, it’s a nightmare to rummage through boxes and stuff in the attic, with or without windows.
Two fluorescent tubes or similar lighting are more than enough to illuminate everything well.

hausnrplus25 schrieb:

Oh ... then maybe we need to reconsider the windows after all. The current plan only includes this small double casement window as an emergency exit.

Of course, the roof pitch is 38 degrees.

If it really is that expensive, as you said, I would skip the window. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have it, but you do have a hatch.

Thank you for your response.
We are planning to store seasonal decorations (about 6 moving boxes), as well as suitcases, sleeping bags, tents, keepsakes, an empty box for shipping items, and similar things. We don’t want to accumulate unnecessary stuff, but it always ends up being more than you expect.
Also, we would prefer not to have to crawl on all fours just to get the Christmas decorations...

We will try to find out whether a window is mandatory.