basement walls

2/18/2011 at 5:21:56 AM

Is this an open, unfinished basement? Do you have any photos of the area. If it is just an open basement you can simply frame a 2 x 4 wall (or any width you prefer) and secure your top plate to the floor joists, For the bottom plate you can screw into the plate and slightly into the concrete, just enough to get the tip of the screw in and to stabilize the wall. It should not break the concrete, nor damage the weeping tile. The other option would be to use a construction adhesive on the bottom plate, that would also secure the plate to the floor. The main thing is to secure the top and bottom plates from moving, once they are secure, your wall studs can be screwed to the plates and your done.

2/18/2011 at 7:13:30 AM

The construction adhesive is the best bet if there is any concern to the intergrity of the cement, which there shouldn't be, unless there is radiant flooring piping within the floor, it sounds like a better job could have been done. Another little trick that could help is to score the floor with a very little groove, about 1/8", along the center of what will be the center of your bottom plate. This will give the construction adhesive something to grab on to if the floor is well finished and smooth. Also, incase you're going to be finishing the entire basement, floors and all, build your subfloor as you would a framed wall section leaving just enough space for some expansion, 1/2" to 1", along the edges and nail your wall sections to that. This does depend on the size and levelness of the floor, you could even secure all of the edges to the walls using this method of subfloor. I would get another contractor to advise me on whether or not the drain was install properly, something doesn't sound right. Good luck with your project.

2/18/2011 at 7:30:53 AM

In your case my preference would be to lay your subfloor down first (for a subfloor I prefer Dows XPS with plywood on top) and attach the bottom plate of the 2x4 stud wall to the subfloor and the top plate to the floor joists. The problem with glueing the bottom plate to the floor is that there should be a gasket on under the bottom plate as wood should not come into contact with concrete at all. When we frame basement walls we also revese Typar and hand it next to the wall to assist in manageming both air and moisture movement.

Regards,

Kingsway Construction Inc.

Glenn Rosborough