Window height in dormers and the distance to the eaves

Hello everyone,

we are currently in the middle of a roof conversion that has been planned for years. We are glad that it is finally happening, but unfortunately there are unwanted details in the planning that I did not notice beforehand.

Among other things, the window height in the dormers is much higher than usual. The bottom edge of the window opening is at 117 cm (and the window frame adds to that), which is determined by the roof slope. They cannot be lower at this point because the outside of the roof extends that high. However, if the dormers were placed a bit further out, the window height could be the usual approximately 90 cm.

My question is: Are there regulations (Northern Hesse) that specify how close a dormer wall may come to the eaves? Although I have the Hessian building regulations on my computer, I find it difficult to find all the important information ... so I am asking here if anyone knows anything about this?

Unfortunately, it is already too late. The dormers are installed and the windows are high ... but at least knowing the background of what I would like to be annoyed about ;) would be helpful.

That depends on the knee wall. You can't push it outward over the lower wall. At least, that's not usually done.

For me, with a 1 m knee wall, I get a 1.05 m windowsill height.

Not to the outside of course, but closer yes. I measured earlier and there is 90 cm of space between the dormer wall and the house wall (fire wall). It may well be that less is not possible ... The "remaining roof" has to have a certain stability and if it gets too tight between the house exterior wall and the dormer exterior wall, it might become too short for the overhanging roof.

Then you have a knee wall and the windows sit on the knee wall. You could have pushed the knee wall outward, max. up to the exterior wall. Does the foot plate rest on the ceiling?

You could have pushed the knee wall outwards

Yes, that’s what I mean, but the roof overhang has to be firmly anchored, and the smaller the distance between the dormer and the house wall, the more unstable it becomes...

I assume the architect did it right (in this case :cool:) (and now I always have to stand on my tiptoes when I want to look out of the window ;))

the title of this article is unclearly formulated. More important than the distance between the outside wall of the dormer and the eaves is the distance between the dormer wall and the house wall, because da the stability of this part of the roof is created.