Clear height is the vertical distance from the finished floor to the lowest thing hanging from the roof: the underside of a beam or truss, a sprinkler head, a light fitting, a duct or a heater. It is the height your racking and goods can actually use, and it is almost always lower than the "ceiling height" or building height quoted in a listing.
Around Riga, modern Class A warehouses are typically built with 10–12 m clear height, Class B buildings with 6–8 m, and older Class C stock with less than 6 m. Those bands decide how many pallet levels you can stack, which matters more to your budget than the rent per square metre.
Clear height, eaves height and building height
Listings use several heights, and they are not interchangeable.
| Term | Measured to | What it tells a tenant |
|---|---|---|
| Building (ridge) height | Top of the roof, outside | Planning and fire-safety category, not usable space |
| Eaves height | Where wall meets roof, outside | Shell height; the frame and services sit below it |
| Clear height | Lowest obstruction, inside | The height racking and goods can use |
On a pitched roof the clear height at the walls can be 1–2 m lower than in the middle of the span, and a single row of low beams or a heater line can take a metre off one zone. Ask whether the advertised figure is the minimum across the unit or the highest point. Latvian listings often say "darba augstums" (working height) or "griestu augstums"; treat both as a claim to verify, not a measurement.
How clear height turns into pallet levels
A Euro pallet with goods is usually 1.2–1.8 m tall. Each beam level adds about 0.15 m of steel and needs a 0.1–0.15 m handling gap above the load, and the top level needs clearance below the sprinklers. With 1.5 m loads that works out at roughly one level per 2 m of height, counting the floor position:
| Clear height | Pallet levels (1.5 m loads, incl. floor) | Pallet positions per 1,000 m² racked* |
|---|---|---|
| 6 m | 2–3 | ~900–1,350 |
| 8 m | 3 | ~1,350 |
| 10 m | 4 | ~1,800 |
| 12 m | 5 | ~2,250 |
*Indicative, for wide-aisle selective racking served by reach trucks, which leaves about 450 pallet footprints per level on every 1,000 m² of racked floor. Narrow-aisle racking fits more; columns, fire-safety clearances and dock zones fit fewer. A racking supplier's layout drawing is the only reliable count.
Sprinklers take height off the top. Fire-safety designs require free space between the sprinkler deflector and the top of the goods: roughly 0.5 m for conventional sprinklers and about 0.9 m for ESFR systems, depending on the design standard. See the ESFR sprinkler guide before you plan the top beam level.
What the extra height is worth: a worked example
Two 2,000 m² units, each with 1,400 m² of racked floor (630 pallet footprints per level):
| Unit | Clear height | Net rent | Rent per month | Pallet positions | Rent per position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class A | 12 m | €5.50/m² | €11,000 | 3,150 | €3.49 |
| Class B | 8 m | €4.20/m² | €8,400 | 1,890 | €4.44 |
The taller unit costs 31% more per square metre but about 21% less per pallet position. Service charges and heating are paid per square metre too, so the gap usually widens once they are added. Current rent ranges by district are on the market data page.
The calculation only holds if your operation uses the height. Floor-stacked goods, heavy items that cannot go above two levels, and picking from shelving at hand height all pay for cubic metres they never fill. In those cases a lower, cheaper building with a better yard or more docks is often the stronger choice.
What taller racking demands
- Equipment. Top beams above about 7–8 m need reach trucks or very narrow aisle (VNA) trucks; a counterbalance forklift will not reach them. Check the mast height against the top beam.
- Floor. More levels put more weight on each rack upright. A 12 m rack with 1-tonne pallets can put around 4 t on each upright, so read the floor load guide alongside this one.
- Fire safety. Combustible goods stored above 6 m change the fire-safety category of the building under the Latvian building code (LBN 201-15), which limits compartment size unless the building has sprinklers.
Checking it at a viewing
- Measure with a laser meter from the floor to the underside of the lowest beam at several points, including near the walls.
- Note everything that hangs below the beams: sprinkler pipes, lights, heaters, ducts, cable trays, crane rails.
- Ask for the section drawing from the as-built documentation and compare it with your measurement.
- Give the minimum figure, not the advertised one, to your racking supplier and ask for a layout with a pallet count.
- Compare offers on rent per pallet position, using the pallet calculator if you have no layout yet.