ᐅ Hallway windows – What options are available, and what are your experiences?
Created on: 4 Aug 2024 10:08
R
roteweste_1
Dear homebuilding community,
We are currently in the design planning phase with our architect. Everything is going great. We are getting the house of our dreams. Unfortunately, the design has a small issue: the tricky window for the upper hallway.
The hallway is interior and can only be used via the stair railing. Our first idea was to interrupt the attic staircase at this spot and install a roof window. After a lot of back and forth, we discarded this idea and settled on fixed glazing in the stair railing measuring 1.50 m x 2.00 m (5 feet x 6.5 feet). Since our garage is located behind the stair railing on the north side, the window will start at about 3 m (10 feet) high, making it difficult to reach from the stair landing. Another downside is that the fixed glazing cannot be opened, so there is no way to ventilate the hallway in the evening. We are concerned that a normal window with a 3 m (10 feet) sill height (to keep it accessible) will let in too little light to the upper floor hallway.
Here are the key areas in the floor plan (oriented to north). I included both hallway areas with all lighting options:
Ground floor (higher resolution attached):
[IMG alt="EG.png"]https://www.hausbau-forum.de/data/attachments/86/86408-9f4889e2807d7bd9501dd7c295f1cf15.jpg[/IMG]
Upper floor (higher resolution attached):
[IMG alt="OG.png"]https://www.hausbau-forum.de/data/attachments/86/86409-6708da146d069b5eaf0674d4392a029d.jpg[/IMG]
Side view:
[IMG alt="Seite.png"]https://www.hausbau-forum.de/data/attachments/86/86410-497e1b2f13add331e18a3b7e7e3f045b.jpg[/IMG]
Our question is quite simple: What alternatives do we have if we want:
A) A window that mainly provides good lighting for the upper floor hallway and stairs
B) To be accessible for cleaning
C) To be usable for ventilation
We look forward to your suggestions.
We are currently in the design planning phase with our architect. Everything is going great. We are getting the house of our dreams. Unfortunately, the design has a small issue: the tricky window for the upper hallway.
The hallway is interior and can only be used via the stair railing. Our first idea was to interrupt the attic staircase at this spot and install a roof window. After a lot of back and forth, we discarded this idea and settled on fixed glazing in the stair railing measuring 1.50 m x 2.00 m (5 feet x 6.5 feet). Since our garage is located behind the stair railing on the north side, the window will start at about 3 m (10 feet) high, making it difficult to reach from the stair landing. Another downside is that the fixed glazing cannot be opened, so there is no way to ventilate the hallway in the evening. We are concerned that a normal window with a 3 m (10 feet) sill height (to keep it accessible) will let in too little light to the upper floor hallway.
Here are the key areas in the floor plan (oriented to north). I included both hallway areas with all lighting options:
Ground floor (higher resolution attached):
[IMG alt="EG.png"]https://www.hausbau-forum.de/data/attachments/86/86408-9f4889e2807d7bd9501dd7c295f1cf15.jpg[/IMG]
Upper floor (higher resolution attached):
[IMG alt="OG.png"]https://www.hausbau-forum.de/data/attachments/86/86409-6708da146d069b5eaf0674d4392a029d.jpg[/IMG]
Side view:
[IMG alt="Seite.png"]https://www.hausbau-forum.de/data/attachments/86/86410-497e1b2f13add331e18a3b7e7e3f045b.jpg[/IMG]
Our question is quite simple: What alternatives do we have if we want:
A) A window that mainly provides good lighting for the upper floor hallway and stairs
B) To be accessible for cleaning
C) To be usable for ventilation
We look forward to your suggestions.
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
Motorized windows. Otherwise, show everything. Maybe there will be better solutions. The planned window with a width of 120cm (47 inches) will probably be too heavy. Otherwise, a cost-effective crank handle would also do the job.
roteweste_2 schrieb:
A) Wanting a window that mainly brightens the hallway on the upper floor and the staircase well The problem here, as I already mentioned, is that you can put many windows into a niche, but you won’t benefit from it as desired because the side walls of the stairwell will block the light from reaching the hallway on the upper floor. The stairwell itself upstairs will be bright. On the ground floor, the hallway will not benefit from the window. This is because it is set back in a recess and is also too far away—about 3 meters (10 feet) high plus the length of the staircase (3? meters). So diagonally about 4.5 meters (15 feet)?
And it doesn’t matter what kind of window you put there: the balustrade to the middle landing will be roughly 1.50 meters (59 inches) high.
roteweste_2 schrieb:
We haven’t discussed the issues of cleaning and ventilation with the architect yet for the fixed glazing. That’s why I’m trying to explore alternatives here in the forum. We have neighbors who have a panoramic window on the upper floor of their double-spiral staircase (width roughly equal to the staircase, almost square). There you can see the “balustrade height” on the ground floor, but it’s not dark because they have a staircase open at the front, the reveal is only about 2 meters (79 inches) deep, and there are floor-to-ceiling windows with open space at the front of the room bringing in additional light.
By the way, the window is fixed. There are other ventilation options because of the openness. Dirt shouldn’t be an issue on the north-facing façade, as it’s not a weather-exposed side. Using a ladder from inside once a year and from the garage side should be the least of a house’s problems.
You could also consider a fixed staircase to the attic and, as you yourself said, roof windows. These clean themselves from the outside. But even with those, only the staircase will be illuminated. Open risers are basically a must.
Since everything in a house design is planned as a whole, you should be open to further internal changes. To wall in a landing staircase without being able to install a window within 3 meters (10 feet) of height is, in my opinion, not a final, ready-to-submit design.
But it’s nothing to be ashamed of if something like this is overlooked. Then a different or new design is needed if you don’t want to move the garage further back.
L
londoner20046 Aug 2024 20:38We have a 3m x 1m (10ft x 3ft) roof window above the staircase, which looks great and lets in a lot of light. In another area, we were able to install a slightly smaller roof window for the dressing room without losing any space in the attic, as it is located in the lower part of the sloping roof. I am very grateful to the architect for both ideas. Both windows face north. We don’t plan to clean them regularly; cleaning would probably have to be done from the roof, but that should be manageable.
roteweste_16 Aug 2024 21:02londoner2004 schrieb:
So, we have a 3m x 1m (10ft x 3ft) roof window above the stairwell, and it looks fantastic and brings in a lot of natural light. In another area, we were able to install a somewhat smaller roof window for the walk-in closet without losing any space in the attic, as it’s placed in the lower part of the sloping roof. I’m extremely grateful to our architect for both ideas. Both face north. We don’t plan to clean them regularly; it might be possible to access them via the roof, but this should work fine.Thanks for the response. Does your house have knee walls / open ridge? What is your roof pitch? Do you have any shading options or do you use shading?L
londoner20046 Aug 2024 21:13roteweste_2 schrieb:
Thanks for the reply. Does your house have knee walls / open ridge? What roof pitch do you have? Do you have an option for shading or do you use one?Hello! We have a 38-degree roof pitch, 10cm (4 inches) knee wall. The rafters are about 3.8m (12.5 ft) above the floor in the attic, so it’s an open ridge. The house has only been standing for two weeks—I’ve spent a lot of time inside recently. At the moment, in midsummer, I don’t see a need for shading. But we could add that later.
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