ᐅ From what knee wall height is a story considered a full floor?

2023HausBochum schrieb:

Would adding a balcony on the upper floor create space to raise the knee wall? Or are there other tricks that would allow you to increase the height of the knee wall?

If the height of the knee wall is more important to you than the floor area: build a setback floor, meaning with a recessed upper story, possibly with a roof terrace. Or a balcony that is supported by the floor slab footprint, not a “hung” or cantilevered one. For example, if you reserve about 1/4 of the floor area for a roof terrace, you can easily build a knee wall of 200 cm (79 inches) or even higher, and then finish with a 30° pitch roof. If you want to maximize the space, I would strongly recommend consulting an architect at least for the planning phase.

ypg schrieb:

This may be because it depends on the footprint of the new construction and can’t be answered in general terms.
In your case, it’s not 2/3 (as in some other countries), but 3/4…
You can roughly determine this yourself using graph paper and a protractor. For a definitive answer, your trusted architect can tell you… impossible for a forum to decide.

North Rhine-Westphalia
Building Code NRW, § 2 Definitions, paragraphs 5 and 6

The building code that applies is the one from the year the development plan was issued, so 1962. Is that the version you mean?

2023HausBochum schrieb:

Would adding a balcony on the upper floor provide more flexibility to raise the knee wall? Or are there other tricks to increase the height of the knee wall?

You don’t need that, and wishing for it would probably backfire. If you search for the term "window boundary," you will find, among other things, my post in https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/umfrage-satteldach-kniestockhoehe.42017/page-3#post-545590, and also externally (including the quotation marks) I have extensively discussed this topic in "How the Knee Wall Affects Window Placement in the Attic." You don’t put a broom closet in every corner, so you don’t need the maximum knee wall height (and knee walls—see "building glossary"—are not limited at all). What I can’t link here due to sheer volume are the posts on this forum dealing with a plethora of questionable tricks to boost knee wall height, bulge out the roof space, and the like. In my opinion, the only reasonable remedy against the obsession with maximizing knee wall height is my aforementioned external article ;-)

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2023HausBochum schrieb:

Would adding a balcony on the upper floor provide enough flexibility to raise the knee wall higher?

Why do you want to raise the knee wall? It sounds like you already have an offer based on a specified knee wall height. Please clarify what the issue is. The point is not to plan a balcony instead of living space just to increase the knee wall by 20cm (8 inches).