# Lowering Ceiling in Great Room



## etabbert (Feb 27, 2010)

My Great Room is 17 feet wide by 24 feet long with a 18 foot ceiling height on the inner wall and a 10 foot ceiling height on the exterior wall. I am on propane and want to lower the ceiling to a straight 10 feet to cut my heating costs. I was thinking that I would run engineered joists across the width (17' wide) walls by attaching a perimeter joist around the inner walls and using joist hangers to attach the joists. There would be the weight of the 1/2" sheetrock that it would have to be supported My question is whether this sounds like the right way to go about this or do you have a better suggestion.


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## Willie T (Jan 29, 2009)

I think you might be surprised at how little difference lowering the ceiling will make. If high ceilings were such a problem, they would find it almost impossible to heat all those high-ceiling cathedrals, sports arenas, and hotel, hospital and office lobbies. Not to mention theaters.


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## Scuba_Dave (Jan 16, 2009)

My cathedral ceiling in the great room is ~12' high, sunroom is maybe ~11'
Higher ceilings make a room (seem) much bigger
10' is still a nice height...but the room will seem quite a bit smaller

For 17' span, ceiling only - with insulation, probably need a 2x10 16" OC depending upon the wood & what you will do with the space above
Some people use the closed off area for storage

Span Calc:
http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/calc/timbercalcstyle.asp


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## Wildie (Jul 23, 2008)

In commercial situations, dropped ceilings are suspended from over-head with 'pencil rod'. Thes rods support horizontal stringers, from which the finished ceiling is suspended.
You should get advice from an architect, as they are familiar with the proper methods required!


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