Hi to All -
I'm planning a small outbuilding, less than 200sf, so in my county (Maui, HI) a permit is not required if there is no water or electricity involved. But I will be building another, permitted structure later, so I don't want any raised eyebrows when they see my "shed". Also I might want to retro permit it later for said water and power, so I want it to be legit.
I'm looking at a simple gable roof, open on the inside (no ceiling), with a mezzanine/loft. The IRC (R301.3.1) allows a story height of 11'7", with an extra 8' height at the gable end wall. My ceiling height under the loft will be 8', but the loft will be open to the rest of the structure, so for most of the room the ceiling height will vary from 8' at the side wall to around 16' under the ridge.
Questions:
1. Is the story height determined at the wall (haha I wish), or is it taken as the maximum height anywhere in the room?
2. If a permit problem ever happened, I could get the story height into legal range by extending the loft all the way across the room, with an opening into the resulting attic space. How large an opening could I have into the attic - and where is the line between an attic and a mezzanine?
3. R301.3.1 "Story Height" says that an additional 8' bearing wall clear height is permitted for gable end walls, and this is the confusing part. The section is about story height, and now we are given a maximum for wall height? Or does this mean that a structure with gable ends can have a larger story height, as determined by the gable wall height?
Any light you can shed on this would be helpful...
Thanks a lot -
David
BTW - nice place you've got here!
I'm planning a small outbuilding, less than 200sf, so in my county (Maui, HI) a permit is not required if there is no water or electricity involved. But I will be building another, permitted structure later, so I don't want any raised eyebrows when they see my "shed". Also I might want to retro permit it later for said water and power, so I want it to be legit.
I'm looking at a simple gable roof, open on the inside (no ceiling), with a mezzanine/loft. The IRC (R301.3.1) allows a story height of 11'7", with an extra 8' height at the gable end wall. My ceiling height under the loft will be 8', but the loft will be open to the rest of the structure, so for most of the room the ceiling height will vary from 8' at the side wall to around 16' under the ridge.
Questions:
1. Is the story height determined at the wall (haha I wish), or is it taken as the maximum height anywhere in the room?
2. If a permit problem ever happened, I could get the story height into legal range by extending the loft all the way across the room, with an opening into the resulting attic space. How large an opening could I have into the attic - and where is the line between an attic and a mezzanine?
3. R301.3.1 "Story Height" says that an additional 8' bearing wall clear height is permitted for gable end walls, and this is the confusing part. The section is about story height, and now we are given a maximum for wall height? Or does this mean that a structure with gable ends can have a larger story height, as determined by the gable wall height?
Any light you can shed on this would be helpful...
Thanks a lot -
David
BTW - nice place you've got here!