Door height

[housewinnie]

Not a problem just curious if anyone knows the answer.

1880s farmhouse cottage.

Why is it that the downstairs doors are normal height but the upstairs are lower, even though the upstairs ceilings are higher.

 

[RBailey]

Not a problem just curious if anyone knows the answer.

1880s farmhouse cottage.

Why is it that the downstairs doors are normal height but the upstairs are lower, even though the upstairs ceilings are higher.

I would guess it is something along the lines of the principal that the rooms nearer the main entrance are always grander (more bigger architraves / skirtings etc) in order to impress the guests.

Cheers,
Richard B.

 

[housewinnie]

Been here a year now and just getting used to not whacking my head

 

[Drayton]

Was it definitly new-build in the 1880s? There's no chance the roof's been raised? Doesn't seem to have been from the gable end image on another thread but that's sometimes an explanation.

 

[Cubist]

In the absence of a good and technically reasoned suggestion - may I suggest some dissatifaction of the builder following some hard and heated discount negotiations with the buyer?

 

[Stevers]

This is what I think of as a 'doctor's house' from 1879. All doors bar the shower room (77") on the ground floor are 79". In the basement the doors to the scullery and old kitchen are also 79". Next to the kitchen though is the pantry door at 72" (ouch) and next to the scullery door (that is now the door to my man cave) is a storeroom with a 73" door. That door has smaller TG&B planks than the others and might have come from one of the cottages that were demolished to build the house. Upstairs all of the doors are 77". Ceiling heights are 8'6" basement, 8'10" ground floor, and 8'7" first floor.

Because everything was made to order, doors and windows could be any size they liked. I would expect upstairs doors to be smaller (cheaper) and downstairs doors to be larger (more impressive). I wouldn't expect higher ceilings upstairs unless it was to compensate for dropped ceilings (the slope of the roof shows inside). The windows on this house get smaller and narrower as they go up to improve proportions, and that was pretty much the norm perhaps until BS joinery came in. On the 'ground' floor the four panel doors to the front rooms have panel beadings (both sides), those to the rear rooms don't have any. Front rooms also get a basic sort of wooden coving that the rear rooms lack. The rooms at the back of the ground floor (behind a masonry arch and elevated above the back yard) were probably intended to be bedrooms and so had bedroom fireplaces and joinery detailing similar to upstairs.

 

[housewinnie]

This is what I think of as a 'doctor's house' from 1879. All doors bar the shower room (77") on the ground floor are 79". In the basement the doors to the scullery and old kitchen are also 79". Next to the kitchen though is the pantry door at 72" (ouch) and next to the scullery door (that is now the door to my man cave) is a storeroom with a 73" door. That door has smaller TG&B planks than the others and might have come from one of the cottages that were demolished to build the house. Upstairs all of the doors are 77". Ceiling heights are 8'6" basement, 8'10" ground floor, and 8'7" first floor.

Because everything was made to order, doors and windows could be any size they liked. I would expect upstairs doors to be smaller (cheaper) and downstairs doors to be larger (more impressive). I wouldn't expect higher ceilings upstairs unless it was to compensate for dropped ceilings (the slope of the roof shows inside). The windows on this house get smaller and narrower as they go up to improve proportions, and that was pretty much the norm perhaps until BS joinery came in. On the 'ground' floor the four panel doors to the front rooms have panel beadings (both sides), those to the rear rooms don't have any. Front rooms also get a basic sort of wooden coving that the rear rooms lack. The rooms at the back of the ground floor (behind a masonry arch and elevated above the back yard) were probably intended to be bedrooms and so had bedroom fireplaces and joinery detailing similar to upstairs.

We do indeed have sloped ceilings upstairs..