When determining the required height for your building, it is important to know what the nominal dimensions mean in the building size description. Let’s say you have an RV that is exactly 11 feet, 10 inches in height: how do you know how tall an RV shelter to build? Would a structure advertised as 12 feet tall be enough?
Building Heights Explained
If a building is described as 10 feet tall, this is referring the inside side wall height, or what we call the “leg height,” Simply put, leg height is the shortest point of the top of building. The center height, or “peak height” is the tallest point of the building, which will vary depending on the width and roof pitch of the building.
Putting Our Understanding to Work
Back to our RV shelter. Let’s say an RV shelter is advertised as 18 feet wide x 36 feet long x 12 feet tall, using our regular standard roof style. The leg height and/or side wall height is 12 feet tall. If the roof pitch is 3:12, the roof line will rise 3 inches in height for every 1 foot in width, so the peak height will be approximately 2 feet taller than the leg height. This makes the highest point of the RV shelter 14 feet tall, plenty of space to park your RV safely.