Most people can easily picture a skyscraper or very tall office building.
However, it can be difficult to guess how many stories are in one of those tall buildings.
Getting a feel for the height of a single story can help you estimate how tall a 50-story building is.
How tall is a single story?
How tall a story is in any given building can vary a bit, as different construction calls for different floor and ceiling thickness and wall heights.
Different materials used in construction can also cause different heights.
However, on average, a single story is between 9 and 14 feet tall. Stories in tall buildings tend to be quite a bit shorter, usually averaging about 10 feet.
In general, the tallest floors in a building will be the ground floor, which often has vaulted ceilings, and the penthouse or top floor.
The height of the ground floor level can reach 25 feet.
It’s entirely possible, though, for several floors, such as those used for conference rooms, to be a different height than other floors in the same building.
Stories in houses, as opposed to those in high-rises or office buildings, can vary even more.
Most houses have rooms that are 9 feet tall, but a vaulted ceiling can raise the height of a single story by a large amount.
When considering how tall a single story is, it’s important to remember that things such as roof style or decorations can add or subtract height to some stories.
How tall is a 50-story building?
The exact height of a 50-story building can vary quite a bit depending on how the building is constructed, what materials were used, and what the actual height of each individual story is.
Roof style, decorations, and any additional building on the roof can also affect height.
By multiplying 50, for the number of stories, by the tallest average story height of 14 feet, we get 700. This tells us that the tallest average height for a 50-story building will be about 700 feet.
Multiplying by 9 feet, the shortest average height for a story gives us 450.
This tells us that a 50-story building will be somewhere between 450 and 700 feet tall, depending on a number of factors.
To make matters a bit more confusing, many 50-story buildings are actually shorter than what math would tell us they should be.
In general, 50-story buildings average between 400 and 500 feet, because many high-rise buildings have stories that are much shorter than average.
One Story Compared to Other Objects
It can be hard to visualize just how tall a single story is without some frame of reference.
If you’ve ever seen a giraffe at the zoo, you can compare that animal to a story.
Giraffes generally grow to between 15 and 20 feet tall.
This means that a small giraffe is about the size of a large story.
A tall giraffe, on the other hand, is about the size of two average stories.
An average sedan-style car is about 14 feet long, so looking at your car can help you easily visualize the height of a story.
Minivans or SUVs are generally a bit longer, so imagining one of these vehicles can help you picture two shorter stories.
Ladders are also a good way to estimate height.
Step ladders are available in a variety of sizes, but one of the most common is an 8-foot ladder, which has a reach of about 12 feet when it’s extended.
Picturing a ladder of this size, whether it’s extended or not, can help you visualize about one story in height.