House Raise - Wall framing and ceiling Heights

Hi all,

We recently raised our post war QLDer and laid a slab. We're now ready to proceed with the framing component.

The original timber bearers are now bolted to new steel beams and these range in depth from 125mm (which is the same depth as the original timber bearers) to 250mm. The timber joists being supported by these bearers are all the same height.

My question is twofold:

Firstly, when framing out underneath do the wall frames extend to the height of the structure above it thereby having better tie down properties, or do I just make the frame a uniform height? ie to clear all of the steel beams the ceiling would have to be 2850mm or less so make the top plates of all the walls 2850? As you can see in the basic elevations below, the footprint of the lower level is wider than the upper level. This means the ground level exterior walls don't line up with the first floor for the most part.

Secondly, what's the standard way of going about framing the ceiling for a uniform height in this situation? The best I've come up with is some kind of system involving hanging beams from the timber joists and attaching the ceiling battens to these.

Before anyone mentions it, we obviously could just gyprock straight to the existing joists and box the exposed beams but this wouldn't look great due to their locations.

Thanks for any tips.

 

Minimum ceiling height is 2400mm
If you need to get a uniform ceiling, then the ceilng fixer will install ceiling hangers, furring channel and hang the ceilng.

 

Your wall frame will need to suit the cladding and the mini roof over the bits that extend past the top storey.

The ceiling support for the plastering is mostly independent of the wall framing.

Have a look on rondo.com.au - the 'Key lock' system.