My wife and I are considering the purchase of an older home that has a lowered living room. The construction creates the problem of a lower ceiling height in the sweet part of the basement. Curious if anyone has ever raised a floor and how costly it is.

I have a multi level first floor myself. I just dealt with it. You really don't even see it unless you look for it.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b393/bigmouthindc/Theater%20Pics/DSC00413.jpg

I sketched this for some dude who was dealing with a dropped area in the front of his room. Stepping the ceiling height down in two steps in a theater shaped concept.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b393/bigmouthindc/DSC01369.jpg


Also my neighbor was able to take some inches off the lowered area (same model as mine) the contractor sistered additional floor joist material to the sides of the existing joists and then sliced 6 inches off the original. It all depends on what you have for joists to begin with (Height and Material), the span of the joists, and whether there are obstructions in the way.

Post some pics of your ceiling joist system.

Those are great ideas, but the lowered part is much larger. The living room that is sunken is approximately 15'x20' and right where you would locate the theater. The sunken living room joists are about 6'-6.5' from the finished floor which is way too short. It's hard to tell how it is constructed b/c they have that portion of the basement finished and I'd have to demo part of it to see. We have a contract on the home so it will be some time before we get settled and can do anything about it. I'm half-debating about putting the HT in the living room.

Just another thought. Lower the floor. It's been done and documented here a couple of years ago.