How tall is a "story" in a building?

[Bruck]

Just wondering, how do they measure a story, can it be measured in feet? is there a conversion? 13 feet per story or does it vary?

 

[Heisenberg]

I always thought it was about 10 feet per story.

 

[CraigRT]

10-12 feet IIRC

 

[CraigRT]

p.s. the proper spelling is storey

 

[SaltBoy]

Link

I'm still not sure.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
p.s. the proper spelling is storey

american heritage dictionary begs to differ

i would think it varies but the usual estimate i think is between 10-12 feet

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

some buildings it can be 13-14 feet, but more often it is 10-12.

 

[Eli]

I've always heard 10.

8ft from floor to ceiling, 1ft on each end for insulation? Shrug. 10-12 seems right.

 

[Ameesh]

10 or 12 feet

 

[gistech1978]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
10 or 12 feet

thats what ive always heard.

 

[dullard]

It varies from building to building. In fact it often varies within a building.

A story is simply the number of levels in the building where you can live/work. This can be set to anything the designer wishes. For example in my university library there are 2 stories where normal buildings will have one. There are many doors which are just 3 feet high, and the ceiling is rarely over 5 feet high. This way they can nearly double the number of books in the same small space.

Many buildings like tall skyscrapers vary the story distance. For example the commercial levels may have a different height than the residential levels. The maintainence levels also may have a different height (to fit all the equipment).

To make things even more confusing, many skyscrapers skip stories. For example, the numbers may go like this: 15, 16, 17, 18, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34. Why? You get more rent the higher the story number. Thus by skipping some stories they earn more money. So I guess in this example stories 19-29 all had a 0" height.

That said, the 10-12 feet mentioned here are quite typical.