Ceiling for office

[jasonschumacher]

Hello everyone, I have a 20x40 steel building. I sectioned off 18 feet of the length for an office/storage. I just built a stick frame with no ceiling. Very plain.
Well now a year later I have decided that I want a ceiling, but I would to keep it open with no beams going from the floor to the ceiling. Is a drop ceiling the only way? Thanks

 

[64dragnwagon]

I believe drop ceiling is all you can do without ceiling joist. How tall is the building? Do you have room above the office for a loft?

 

[Zeke]

Beams from the floor up, or vertical, are called posts. You apparently have an 18 foot span. You could do that a couple of ways. One would be to frame up the ceiling joists with 2 x 12's. They should span that length. Or you could run an 18' beam and hang joists in the longer direction of 10' each way.

If you do a dropped ceiling you have to hang it from something. That could be your roof. No storage above. I'd have to capitalize on the storage potential.

 

[jasonschumacher]

I believe drop ceiling is all you can do without ceiling joist. How tall is the building? Do you have room above the office for a loft?

No, the walls are only 9 ft unfortunately.

Beams from the floor up, or vertical, are called posts. You apparently have an 18 foot span. You could do that a couple of ways. One would be to frame up the ceiling joists with 2 x 12's. They should span that length. Or you could run an 18' beam and hang joists in the longer direction of 10' each way.

If you do a dropped ceiling you have to hang it from something. That could be your roof. No storage above. I'd have to capitalize on the storage potential.

If I ran a beam that size, would I need to reinforced my walls? They are just 2x4's.

 

[64dragnwagon]

If there is no room for storage above then drop ceiling will be the cheapest and do the job just fine. Just wire it up to the trusses/rafters.

 

[jasonschumacher]

If there is no room for storage above then drop ceiling will be the cheapest and do the job just fine. Just wire it up to the trusses/rafters.

Thank you very much.