construction question-

allen levine

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new york city burbs
my sons new home has a finished basement.
The basement was made into a one bedroom apt, that he doesnt want.
We have to leave the load bearing beam alone, but there is one wall between a bedroom and kitchen that is only sheetrock and studs.
Problem is, there is a drop ceiling, 2x2 ceiling panels.
The ceiling height of the bedroom is slightly different than the kitchen, and if we remove the wall, there is a gap between ceilings(were the wall is) and a height difference. Any suggestions how to take the wall down and address the mismatched and open gapped dropped ceilings?
 
Pictures would help, but my first thought would be to leave the top of the wall in place to where it would be even with the lower ceiling. Assuming you do not want to change out the ceilings, this might be the easiest way to deal with it. You might even consider making it a design element by disguising it as a beam.
 
Personally I'd probably pull down the smaller of the two ceilings and rehang it aligned with the other side. Drop ceiling tracks and tiles are usually pretty easy to find matches for and you should be able to re-use a lot of the parts you take down.
 
not an option wed look foward too. The entire rest of the basement apt would have to be lowered, and thats alot of ceiling. The bedroom seems to be a bit lower, and wed prefer as much height as possible.
 
Pics would help to understand the situation, but from what I understand, could you possibly build a "fake" beam to make the transition. Just let it hang down a inch or so below the lowest ceiling??

Regards,
 
Allen, Darren has a pretty good idea, to his response you said "the entire rest of the basement would have to be lowered. The bedroom seems a bit lower..." Is it possible to raise the ceiling height of the bedroom therefor all you have to replace in ceiling grid is the bedroom itself? Or is there not enough clearance in the bedroom for more height?

Rennie and David also have a good idea. As long as this wall is non-load bearing, you could cut the whole wall out but leave the top portion protruding an inch or so below the lowest ceiling height. Then just add a bottom plate (2x4) spanning the whole section that is cut off to keep it rigid. Then just fill in 1 1/2" rips of drywall to the sides of the 2x4 plate you added, put some corner bead on and mud it with drywall compound. To do this though you are going to have to disassemble at least one row of ceiling tile on both sides of the wall. So being that you'd have to go that far, you might as well just tear out the whole wall and start new by building a "drop" or portion of a wall protruding from the ceiling. If you built it new that way you could make sure to make it stable and fastened enough to the floor joists so it could support the weight of the studs and drywall.
 
Rennie's idea would probably be the cheapest to do, I was just thinking it would look nicer if the grids lined up. Another option would be to drop only the areas that need dropping and drywall the rest. We did this at my old house around all the mechanical/ductwork by building a couple of short walls (soffits) down from the ceiling then hanging the drop ceiling between them to cover that stuff. My joists ran the opposite way of the opening, so I could still fish wires and didn't cut off any circulation.

Family%20Room%202.JPG
 
We would both like to avoid having to redo half the basement ceiling.
My son closed on his home today. Im very happy.
Here are some pics of what Im talking about.
starting backwards, last two pics are the bedroom side, only thing on the wall is the thermostat.(can be moved easy enough)
first two, show how its hung, a track nailed over a beam.
3rd(to the right in the third pic is the wall with the lolly supports), 4th(this is the weigh bearing wall, with the lollys) 5th, pic, shows more of the main supporting beam, .
6 and 7 are the wall from the doorway down we want to remove first, not a weight bearing wall, . The bedroom ceiling and kitchen ceiling have a one inch difference.
 

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