We have looked at hundreds of home floor plans and keep coming back to the same floor plan – but it’s got cathedral ceilings (great room, master bedroom, dining room)! The idea of heating and cooling three rooms with cathedral ceilings is frightening. Is it possible to remove, lower or replace cathedral ceilings and still retain the overall floor plan?
Assuming that the ceiling height will meet code minimums, any room with a cathedral ceiling can instead be built with a flat ceiling with attic space above. The structural and insulation requirements change, so the plan must be modified by someone who understands those things, but there is nothing magical about cathedral ceilings. It would probably not be good for resale value, however.
In home design, almost anything is possible if you spend the money to do it. If you actually want to lower roof lines and alter major structural elements then you’ll almost certainly have to get an architect to redraw the plans to your specification.
Can you post a link to the floor plan you like? Depending on the layout, it should be possible to build the house to the specifications on the plan and then install a dropped ceiling beneath the structural one. This would be much cheaper than having the plans redone, would convey a similar benefit for heating and cooling and leave open the option of opening up the space later if you want.
If it helps, new houses are much tighter and more efficient to heat and cool than older ones. This is especially true if you use an insulation with a high R rating, quality windows, etc. I would try and find more info on this before you shy away from high ceilings.
I am currently living in a house that was built in 1968 with 8ft ceilings, and the energy costs associated with this house are much higher than the house I just built. That house has 10ft ceilings and twice the square footage.
a building contractor can order trusses to give a roof line to fit a floor plan. the trusses are designed and constructed and shipped by a truss company. no need for an architect.
If you don’t like the cathedral ceilings but can’t change the plans, have them built to plan and then add drop ceilings. There are lots of decorative panels you can use in place of the white fiberboard panels. If a future homeowner doesn’t like it, it’s easy enough to remove and repair. You can even insulate above the ceiling to help with heating/cooling costs.
Just add ceiling fans, so the heat doesn’t all stay up there.
This may vary by location (we don’t even know what country the OP lives in), but typically you will need to show the joists or trusses on the Structural Plans, and they will need to be built to code and checked by whoever is approving the plans. But in many cases, too, the building inspectors will just check to make sure it’s to code. This is not rocket science.
But I would be careful about giving up so easily on cathedral ceilings, especially in the living areas. Not only does it make a much more pleasing place to spend time in, it’s good for resale value, too.
Bah… it costs a little more in winter and costs a little less in summer.
Once the hot air has filled the ceiling space, it actually acts as an insulator. The initial investment happens on day one of heating, when you crank the heat up for the first hour on the first cold day, the ceiling area needs to warm up, then it’s just a bubble of warm air up there.
I’ve been involved in a variety of projects, on a variety of home developments that have an array of houses from 8’ ceilings (non cathedral) to 9 or 10’ ceilings along with soaring cathedral and vaulted ceilings.
Square footage was the number one driver of costs – not ceiling height. All things being equal, if there were differences, they were negligible. An 3200 sq ft colonial with flat, 8’ celings will cost the same as a 3200 contemporary with 9’ celings and several cathedral or vaulted ceilings.
If the home has a properly sized HVAC system, quality windows and doors, it won’t matter much.
ETA: Number of doors and windows seems to matter, but less so if they are higher quality (non-builder grade).
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And good insulation. And if you need to put rigid R30 insulation in the ceiling, that can add considerably to the construction costs.
One note of caution. My parents had a house built with a cathedral ceiling. It wasn’t until after we moved in that we realized the builder had started the vault at a height of 7’ instead of the usual 8’ ceiling.
I’ve seen a lot of houses with ceiling fans. The owners say they help.
Cathedral ceilings shouldn’t be in the floor plans, they should be in the ceiling plans. I wouldn’t build a house that has the ceilings on the floor.
Thanks to all for your replys! As I mentioned, I wondered if it was possible to remove, lower or replace cathedral ceilings in a floor plan because of utility concerns. The home we build will be the one we live in for the rest of our lives, so there is no resale consideration. We live in Eastern Oregon, where we enjoy all 4 seasons (we had a low of 5 degrees this week). My husband and I both come from large families, so our gatherings can get BIG, which is another reason we love this floor plan, called the Cedar Creek by Don Gardner. Here’s the link if anyone wants to take a look:
If the house is properly insulated, your concerns are trivial. Dropping the cathedral ceiling in that plan will screw up the design and perspectives. If you really think your heating/coolings costs would be too much with cathedral ceilings, find another plan.
I grew up in a house with cathedral ceilings (16 feet). We super-insulated the home (R100 in the ceiling / R60 in the walls). I don’t recall high utility bills because of the high ceilings.
The website you’ve linked to does have a service to modify plans. Perhaps you could contact them regarding the ceilings?
Another voice here agreeing the concern over cathedral ceilings is trivial in comparison to the construction of the rest of the home.
Quality of build to prevent unwanted air exchange; quality of insulation choice and installation care for floor and ceiling insulation; window quality; lifestyle activities such as outside air exchange with open doors, and so on are all vastly more important.
We have a pretty ordinary suburban home–perhaps just under 4,000 square feet in Chicagoland suburbia. The entire center of our house is 20 feet high by 15 feet wide with cathedral ceilings all over the place. Our electric runs $50 in the winter and maybe $250 for a blistering summer month, with old ACs that are SEER 10. Our natural gas bills run for $30 summer to $150 winter using two 15 y/o furnaces that are 90% efficiency. Gas dryer and gas water heaters (two).
It’s how you build the house. Get the floor plan you want and focus on quality of construction with special attention to the insulation job, windows, and quality of HVAC components.
I build custom homes. I will add to the general consensus that cathedral ceilings are not the concern you think they are. The improvements in heating and ventilation, insulation, and envelope sealing make a bigger difference. This place has three fireplaces(!!), is a bungalow, and is over 3000 square feet; any one of those is probably a bigger issue for energy waste than the cathedral ceilings. The high ceilings may actually reduce the surface area of the insulation envelope, which would actually improve energy efficiency. A good HVAC contractor will be able to advise you properly on the relative energy costs of cathedral vs flat ceilings for this design. I strongly recommend a good HVAC contractor for a large bungalow like this.
My only concern is the nature of the roof/ceiling profile. It looks like the roof is a 12/12 pitch, which is good, but if the apex of those ceilings is actually in the 20-25 foot range, that may make for a fairly steep ceiling pitch. Steep cathedral ceilings can be very problematic for insulation and attic ventilation. Any more than about a 5/12 pitch and rigid panel or spray foam insulation becomes a necessity to avoid moisture and insulation issues. Foam insulation is vapour proof and superior in almost every way to fiberglass and cellulose insulation but can be very expensive. I would get advice from your insulation contractor for this reason. I assume eastern Oregon can be humid and have considerable temperature variations so this is very important.
The plan should have cross sections showing the ceiling profile and structural specs. The engineering of the roof is handled by the truss contractor and they can easily drop those ceilings but they will need municipally approved plans showing the final profile to work from. Framing contractors can easily frame in a dropped ceiling as it is non structural.