Vaulted Ceilings: Pros, Cons, and Considerations

In new construction—and occasionally in major remodeling jobs—homeowners are faced with the choice of a standard ceiling height or opening the ceiling to the sloped roofline. This higher open style is known as a vaulted ceiling or cathedral ceiling.

Vaulted ceilings have their adherents and their detractors. Those who love vaulted ceilings praise the luxurious, airy, and grand feeling that they create. Those who dislike vaulted ceilings consider them to be dated, energy inefficient, and wasteful. With that in mind, is a vaulted ceiling right for your home and your budget?

6 Creative Options for Ceiling Construction

What Is a Vaulted Ceiling?

A vaulted ceiling is any ceiling that angles up past the typical 8- to 10-foot flat ceiling height. The footprint of the room remains the same. However, the added ceiling height can give the illusion of more space. Space and airiness come at the expense of energy inefficiency and increased building costs.

Types of Vaulted Ceilings 

There are several different types of vaulted ceilings, including:

• Domed: Domed ceilings slope down from a center point, creating a smooth dome.
• Barrel: Barrel ceilings form a curve across the space like half of a round barrel (or a semicircle). 
• Groin: For groin vaults, two barrel vaults intersect perpendicularly, forming a curved X shape. 
• Rib: Rib ceilings consist of rows of exposed beams that come to some kind of central point.

Vaulted Ceiling Pros and Cons

Vaulted Ceiling Advantages

Feeling of More Space

While vaulted ceilings don't give a room any more usable floor space, they do create a more spacious feeling. How this illusion works can be traced to several factors.

More light afforded by the greater number of windows and skylights brightens up the room. Sound is absorbed in the large upper space. With a vaulted ceiling, the ratio of objects to open, unused space is more pronounced than in rooms with lower ceilings. In other words, rooms with vaulted ceilings have less stuff in a larger space.

Increased Light

Vaulted ceilings can make a room brighter, especially when the roof is fitted with skylights or other types of windows. They also can provide more wall space for floor-to-ceiling windows. And they allow space for larger light fixtures to hang from the ceiling.

Greater wall and ceiling space provide more opportunities for light bounce, as well, especially when painted a lighter color.

Character

Vaulted ceilings can add lots of character to a space compared to a basic flat ceiling. Plus, wood beams that span the ceiling can further increase its visual appeal, and they provide a place from which to mount light fixtures.

In terms of specific design styles, a vaulted ceiling can add midcentury modern flair, though those homes generally had lower vaulted ceilings than homes built in the 1980s.

A vaulted ceiling in a one-story ranch rambler can be an effective way to convert a standard tract-home residence into a home with a vintage look and feel. And vaulted ceilings can also look wonderful in rustic, cabin-like homes. The popular A-frame cabin style is a type of vaulted ceiling, too.

Vaulted Ceiling Disadvantages

Expensive

A vaulted ceiling in new construction is more complicated than standard ceiling framing. A vaulted ceiling requires special roof trusses that are built off-site and are more expensive than standard trusses. The overall framing construction cost can increase by 5 percent to 20 percent to add a vaulted ceiling to a 20-by-20-foot great room.

A vaulted ceiling can cost between $5,000 and $35,000, for an average cost of about $20,000.

On the other hand, the vaulted ceiling does reduce usable living space on your second story, and that might in turn lower your home value. For instance, you might have to trade an additional bedroom in your home for the vaulted ceiling, but the bedroom often would add more value when it comes time to sell.

If you want to create a vaulted ceiling in an existing home, it can be a very expensive remodeling project. Such a conversion requires input from a structural engineer and an architect to identify the load-bearing walls and determine whether (and how) portions of the ceiling can be removed to open the space to the roofline.

Difficult to Install in Existing Build

Creating a vaulted ceiling is far beyond the skill level of most DIYers. This is a project that requires not just professional help, but the help of a contractor, architect, and tradespeople experienced in this unique, challenging retrofit.

Building a vaulted ceiling in an existing home requires knocking out the ground-floor ceiling and then cutting away floor joists, which almost always requires the installation of new support beams and vertical posts—a major engineering modification.

Many homes use trusses to support the roof, and vaulted ceiling conversions require that the attic framing be altered to properly support the roofline.

Maintenance and Repair Considerations

One drawback of a vaulted ceiling becomes evident when you need to clean or paint the ceiling or repair skylights or windows located near the ceiling.

Recessed lights and other light fixtures are difficult to change and fix when they are up to 20 feet high or even higher. Many homeowners must bring in professionals for tasks they could easily do with a stepladder and an 8-foot ceiling.

Energy Inefficient

Vaulted ceilings waste energy because room heat naturally rises into the empty space where it offers no benefit to the occupants.

Energy loss can be more pronounced with vaulted ceilings that are fitted with skylights or other windows. Moreover, rooms with vaulted ceilings tend to be draftier simply because of the natural convection patterns caused by warm air rising and cool air falling.

Some energy loss can be mitigated. But the reality is these spaces will often feel chilly and drafty in winter, especially for homes built in colder climates.

Vaulting Ceilings and Energy Efficiency

If vaulted ceilings waste energy, is there any way to minimize the energy loss?

Installing extra insulation in the ceiling or installing ceiling fans to force warm air down into living spaces are two ways to slow energy loss and make the room feel warmer.

A vaulted ceiling built with two-by-twelve rafters can accommodate R-30 fiberglass batt insulation. Faced insulation should be used.

Another option is to use high-density R-30 fiberglass insulation. Priced comparably with conventional R-30 insulation (around $1.60 to $1.70 per square foot), high-density reduces the thickness of the batt by about 1/2 inch.

As with other ceilings, insulated vaulted ceilings should be covered with 1/2-inch drywall.

Is a Vaulted Ceiling Right for You?

A vaulted ceiling might be right for you if you like an open vibe versus a cozy space. But you must be willing to accept the more difficult maintenance, increased energy cost, and winter draftiness that come along with the bright, spacious feel.

It's worth consulting a real estate professional to determine whether a vaulted ceiling will be a selling feature for your home based on buyer demands in your area.

Some designers argue that the time for vaulted ceilings has passed forever, calling vaulted ceilings a relic of the 1980s and early 1990s. It's important to remember that vaulted ceilings were also found in other periods such as Midcentury Modern.