Tall Ceilings

Owners looking for tall ceilings in their home have many options.

We have recently been commissioned by one couple who will be renovating their home, and one of the major changes is to change the ceiling height in 2 of the main living spaces.
The first room is the Family Room, which is situated on the ground floor, the owners would like to achieve a very tall ceiling space. In order to achieve this we will be proposing to remove the room and the floor of the second floor above.
This will require some structural modifications of course.
Fortunately, the house is already large with a footprint of 2000 sqaure feet, the total area is approximately 6000 sf including the basement area, therefore losing one bedroom was not out of the question. For most project, owners are looking for more rooms or more area, but this project, it was the quality of the space was deemed more important.
The proposed plan will add approximately 9 additional feet to the height of the room, for a resulting height of approximately a 20 foot ceiling height.
The windows on the exterior will be modified to be much taller. The former bedroom windows will be lengthened to the old floor height and the ground floor windows will be lengthened to the former ceiling height.
The door to the room upstairs will be modified and turned into an opening from above, and a french balcony will be added. The design of the french balcony would need to be designed as a “guard”. The design solution of the finishes will offer many options and decisions to be made. The finishes will tend to create a light and airy look or be designed to create more of a dramatic effect with the help of the ‘verticality’ of the space.

The second room, is the media room which is in the basement.Here, the owners are looking to add height to the basement, mainly in order to install a golf simulator and to have an entertainment area.

The golf simulator specifications requires 10- foot clearance.

Currently, the ceiling is approximately 6-foot and a half at the lowest point. Therefore, in order to achieve the desired ceiling height, we will need to dig down. Digging down in this case means underpinning the foundation almost four feet.

Underpinning is a method where the basement is dug out in sections, and concrete is placed under the existing foundation wall and footing.