Exposed ceiling beams

Are you talking about steel support beams or decorative wood beams?

In older buildings, those wood beams aren't always decorative.

Is exposing ceiling beams against fire code in Manhattan if you do not own the apartment above?

I have read that it is, but how do apartments with exposed beams exist then?

I have exposed non decorative ceiling beams but with sprinklers.
In the end, isn't sheetrock covering ceiling beams one more thing to burn?

I have no maintenance for my beams, but the efflorescence from the brick wall is an occasional nuisance.
A ladder and a hand vac once every 9 months solves that.

It depends how old the building is and what the beams are made of.

Built in approx. 1900 and wood beams...

It's probably a converted industrial loft building. Code would've required the sprinklers when it was changed to residential use. Same with exposed steel in later buildings.

If they're the "exposed beams" you see in lots of prewar buildings, there's steel under the plaster. By then all structural steel had to be covered with fireproof material. In fancier prewar buildings there're flat plaster ceilings suspended beneath the beams.

It's not a loft. This a townhouse. There are plaster ceiling and what I believe to be woods beams above the plaster.

If it's single-family, then exposed wood beams are OK, but if you do enough work to expose them then that might trigger having to comply with current code.

If it was converted to apartments, then the code at the time of conversion would apply, probably requiring sprinklers.

Does anyone know if it is possible to expose beams like this in a pre-war (5 story) building? I believe the construction is steel on the outside walls as well as steel in the center of the building, with wood floor joists between. Our ceilings were lowered at some point (8") prior to our purchase. We'd like to raise them back up at some point and are considering finishing them with tin. I hadn't thought of exposing the beams... Any thoughts on how much this kind of thing would cost?

bump, hifier did you do your work?