Norwegian Room Height, Light & Ventilation Rules (TEK17)

The requirement

A habitable room in a Norwegian dwelling needs a ceiling height of at least 2.4 m. TEK17 §12-7(2)(a) fixes that number. Rooms you do not live in, such as a hallway or store room, need 2.2 m (§12-7(2)(b)). Small one-storey homes get a lower figure. And there is no minimum room area at all.

A habitable room (rom for varig opphold) means a bedroom, a living room or a kitchen. Parts of a room may sit lower than the minimum, say under a sloped ceiling. TEK17 puts no limit on how much of the room can be lower. The room as a whole still has to work (§12-7(2)(d)).

Now the exception. A small detached home can use 2.2 m even for habitable rooms (§12-7(2)(c)). It must be one storey and one unit, with no basement. Its overall height must stay within 4.5 m. A one-unit holiday home (fritidsbolig) gets the same break.

One more low figure is still live, not just history. Say a secondary room becomes part of the main dwelling. That change-of-use room may go down to 2.20 m (§12-7(3)). It may even go to 2.00 m where the home’s construction was applied for before 1 July 2011.

TEK17 · §12-7

No minimum room area. This one is worth saying plainly. TEK17 sets no fixed minimum floor area for a room. §12-7(1) only asks that a room’s form, height and size suit its use. That is a performance rule, not a number. You may hear a 7 m² figure for habitable rooms. That was only old guidance, and it is not a TEK17 rule. Do not present it as one. Any minimum-size figures sit in municipal planning and zoning rules, outside the building code.

Daylight — TEK17 §13-7

Habitable rooms need satisfactory daylight access (§13-7(2)). TEK17 gives two ways to meet it.

Daylight factor: an average of at least 2.0%, verified by simulation.
Glazing check (dwellings): glazed area of at least 0.07 times the room’s floor area, divided by the glass’s light transmittance. The window must sit at least 0.8 m above the floor, and not in a light well.

Ventilation — the one hard number set

Ventilation is where TEK17 fixes firm figures. §13-2 sets three rates.

Ventilation type	Where	Figure
Background, whole dwelling (occupied)	Whole dwelling	1.2 m³/h per m² floor area
Bedrooms, in use	Bedroom	26 m³/h per planned bed space
Non-habitable rooms	Bath, WC, storage, unfinished basement, etc.	0.7 m³/h per m²

The extract rates come from §13-2(4), Table 1. Each room gets a background figure and a boosted figure.

Room	Background	Boosted
Kitchen	36 m³/h	108 m³/h
Bathroom	54 m³/h	108 m³/h
Toilet	36 m³/h	36 m³/h
Laundry room	36 m³/h	72 m³/h

Work it out on site

Say you are framing a bedroom in a one-storey house with no basement. You want the standard 2.4 m ceiling height. You are not leaning on the small-home exception.

Check the exception first. The reduced 2.2 m figure only covers a detached, one-storey, one-unit home with no basement, up to 4.5 m overall, or a holiday home. Is your house taller, joined to a neighbour, or over a basement? Then the exception is out. Build to the standard 2.4 m.
Frame to 2.4 m clear. Measure from the floor to the underside of the ceiling lining. Hold that across every part of the room you count as habitable area.
Size the window. Take a 12 m² room with glass of 0.75 light transmittance. The sum is 0.07 × 12 ÷ 0.75 = 1.12 m² of glazed area. Set that glass at least 0.8 m above the floor.
Set the extract rate. Kitchen or bathroom? Use the Table 1 figures above. Then check the background rate for the whole dwelling. It must reach 1.2 m³/h per m² of the dwelling’s total floor area.

Headroom over a stair is a separate figure again. That one is set in TEK17 §12-14. See the stair article below. Do not read a ceiling figure onto a stair, or the other way round.

Part of the Norwegian Building Regulations hub — one national regulation, with the veiledning and the plain-language guides.
Building the stairs, and need the going and 2R+G numbers? See Norwegian stair & guard rules.

Sources

TEK17 §12-7 (Rom) — habitable/non-habitable ceiling-height minima, the small-dwelling exception, and the explicit absence of a minimum room area. Read it at dibk.no.
TEK17 §13-7 (Lys) — daylight factor and the simplified glazing-area formula. Read it at dibk.no.
TEK17 §13-2 (Ventilasjon i boligbygning) — background, bedroom, non-habitable and extract-rate ventilation minima. Read it at dibk.no.

Read this first. These figures reflect TEK17 as amended — §12-7 was substantively amended 01.07.2023, so check the “Endringshistorikk” on each dibk.no page for the wording current at your job’s commencement date. And don’t mistake the “no minimum room area” rule for a gap in the research: the regulation states this explicitly, it’s a genuine feature of TEK17, not an oversight.

Frequently asked questions

What's the minimum ceiling height for a habitable room in Norway?

TEK17 §12-7(2)(a) sets a fixed 2.4 m minimum for a habitable room (rom for varig opphold). Non-habitable rooms like hallways and storage need 2.2 m (§12-7(2)(b)). Small detached one-storey single-unit homes with no basement, up to 4.5 m overall, and single-unit holiday homes may use 2.2 m even for habitable rooms (§12-7(2)(c)).

Is there a minimum room area in Norway?

No. TEK17 §12-7(1) only asks that a room's form, height and size suit its use. There is no numeric minimum floor area in the regulation or its veiledning. The 7 m² figure sometimes quoted is old, non-binding guidance, not a current TEK17 rule. Minimum-size rules come from municipal planning and zoning instead.

What daylight does a room need?

Habitable rooms need satisfactory daylight access (§13-7(2)). Two ways to meet it: an average daylight factor of at least 2.0%, verified by simulation, or a glazing check for dwellings. Glazed area must be at least 0.07 times floor area, divided by the glass's light transmittance. The window sits at least 0.8 m up, not in a light well.

What ventilation does a Norwegian dwelling need?

These are the hard numbers TEK17 does fix. Background ventilation for the whole dwelling is at least 1.2 m³/h per m² of floor area while occupied (§13-2(1)). Bedrooms need at least 26 m³/h per planned bed space while in use (§13-2(2)). Non-habitable rooms need at least 0.7 m³/h per m² (§13-2(3)).

What are the extract rates for a kitchen or bathroom?

TEK17 §13-2(4), Table 1, sets the background and boosted extract rates: kitchen 36/108 m³/h, bathroom 54/108 m³/h, toilet 36/36 m³/h, laundry room 36/72 m³/h.