Old building alteration, split a room vertically

[Unregistered-vjvenkat]

I have a room, which is 16 foot wide, 19 foot long and 20 foot tall. The four walls of the room are load bearing. There are 5 inch beams in all the four walls of the room at three different heights (7 foot, 10 foot and 17 foot) in the building. I want to create a ceiling at a height of 10 foot now which will split the room vertically into 2 creating level1 and level2. What are the options i have?

To understand the existing situation better I have Uploaded a drawing for you to see. Both links point to the same image.

1. http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3804/roomwithceilingat20feet.png
2. http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?09a3b0eb88.png

[homebild]

What type building?

Is is commercial or residential?

From what are the walls constructed?

From what are the beams constructed?

Where do you live? (Country and State, Province or County would help)

[homebild]

One clear-span method that can be used is to though-bolt a ledger board to the brick walls on all sides at the 10 foot height.

You could then use joist-hangers to fasten the floor joists to the ledger.

The down-side to this approach is that the bolts will be exposed on the exterior of the brick walls.

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Another clear-span method would be to frame four walls around the interior on the 1st floor on top of which you can install your floors joist for the upper story.
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[Author]

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