I'm finishing my basement and decided to use steel framing. Most of it is pretty simple but I am at a point now where I'm not sure what to do.

I am using the existing wood floor joists to hang the drywall for the ceiling throughout the basement except in the bathroom, where I want to lower the ceiling a few inches due to ducting etc. in the way.

My question is, how do you hang ceiling joists on steel studs? Are there special joist hangers or do you just notch the joist and screw through the webbing? Do I need to use special steel joists for the ceiling or can I use the standard steel studs? The span isn't very big, only about 7 feet at the widest.

Any help is appriciated.

 

Depending upon what is up in the ceiling and whether you might want to access it later, you might consider a drop ceiling for the bathroom which would be one solution. Another solution would be to build the wall 1 1/2" short and screw through the steel into a wood 2*4 header and run wood studs for the ceiling. Use a heavier gauge metal for the studs in this wall which should be available to purchase from an independant lumber yard. The HD's in my area do not carry them.

 

Hmmmm. I have yet to see studs in a ceiling. Maybe I'm not looking at things right.


The 2x top plate would solve the problem. The drop ceiling would too, but you still need ceiling joists.

 

Thank You for the correction. Joists would be a much clearer word. Somehow the authors last use of the word stuck in my head.

 

I just wanted to reiterate my main question, to try and bring things back on track.

What is the acceptable process for hanging steel ceiling joists to steel framing? So far I have framed everything out with steel using non-load bearing parameters and now I need to run some ceiling joists to hang drywall on. Are there special joist hangers for steel, or do you just screw the joists to the framing members?

The problem I'm having is that the Home Depot's and other big chain stores don't carry a lot of steel framing products, and have little experience using it.

Any help is appreciated.

 

I would still stick with a 2X top plate.

 

I am also finishing my basement with steel studs.
For my ceiling I am using resilient channels. They are made from steel. You screw them to the underside of the joists (Perpendicular). The you screw the drywall to them. Home Depot carries them by the drywall corner beads.