Finishing My Basement - Framing Floating Walls
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- I explain the difference between a floating wall versus a conventionally framed stud wall. I then show the process as I frame the longest wall in my basement and discuss some of the challenges I addressed as I proceeded.
I share a few of my 'techniques' along the way as I address a few challenges as I work around a few features in my basement.
Here in Colorado, we have expansive soils due to the existence of bentonite - which will expand when wet. As a result, it is possible for a basement floor to rise (or heave), so we 'float' the stud walls in our basements. Building codes very from county to county. In our county there is no requirement, but floating basement walls is recommended. Further south in Douglas County, for example, basement walls must contain at least a 3" gap! Even without expansive soils, the basement floor of a newly constructed house could potentially settle - so floating the walls may also be a consideration then.
I discussed the reason for floating walls in my previous video:
"Finishing My Basement - Floating Wall - Base Plates" - • Finishing My Basement ... .
FWIW - I have hours and hours of footage - I sorted through my footage trying to keep this video reasonably short. As a result, I only covered the installation of one wall. Some of the other walls in my basement provided their own challenges. If you see something I missed or have additional questions, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Disclaimer: I am NOT a professional. I am a do-it-yourselfer working alone with fairly simple tools. I attempt to research what I'm doing and apply what I've learned, but I do not claim to be an expert. So please consider this before proceeding on your own project.
I appreciate all the feedback, comments and questions. I will do my best to respond.
This guys builds super sturdy compared to what I see on other youtube videos
"Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!"
Good Content and Production value. Great ideas for thorough planning.
Thank you very much! I appreciate the feedback.
Thanks for posting this. Will be building walls tomorrow and will use you some of your pointers.
You're welcome - I'm happy to hear you found it helpful!
These are great, and I'm excited to see the next ones in the series.
Thank you for the kind reply! I plan on posting the next steps.
Great craft!
Thank you!
Great video and well thought out layout! What was the reasoning for the bunk of studs in one location? It looks like a column of 2x’s to support a load but I wouldn’t think a floating wall is supporting any load. Also is there a reason for the multiple king studs around the window frames?
I know it looks like a LOT of 2x4s! I elected to add a stud at the end of each wall and on either side of the widows to accommodate hanging either shelves or cabinets - should the need ever arise. I realize it is overkill, but all things considered, I felt it was a small expense to ease my life in the future.
Thank you!
Hi Kevin, great video we're planning on doing floating walls and this is going to help. One thing I can't figure out, is the rigid insulation beind the framing sitting on the floor? If the floor is expected to shift inches, will that compress and crack the rigid insulation behind the frame? We're using it as a vapour barrier so if it cracks moisture may get in. Should we leave 2 inches between the floor and the bottom of the rigid insulation? Any thoughts you have would be appreciated.
This is an interesting question - and the problem with floating walls in general. The need to leave a gap.
I do not have enough experience with this to provide a good answer, but I have some thoughts.
If you REALLY need to provide 2", the safe bet is to leave a 2" gap at the floor and accept the lack of vapor-barrier and insulation over the gap.
If you leave NO gap, the foam board would compress 2" if the floor raises 2" but it would compress over the entire height of the foam board. The adhesive is not strong enough to overcome the force that would be applied.
You could split the difference and leave a 1" gap.
My "guess" is the foam-board would not crack, but I have NO experience or data to back that up. You could purchase a sheet and try some experiments - though it would take some work to test this! I suspect (again without knowing) that once compressed, the foam board would not return to its uncompressed state when and if the floor should go back down.
In my case, I set the foam board on the floor, but did not attempt to trim to follow the contour of the floor, nor did I seal under the foam board. My thinking is that IF I ever have a leak, I want the water to show me where.
Good luck with this - sorry I could not be of more help.
Just curious, did you build your walls with screws or nails? I saw the part where you used screws to attach to the joists, but I’m curious if you built the walls themselves with nails or screws. The floating wall thing seems like it puts more load on the fasteners on the top cap especially and I’m worried that if I build with nails they might pull out over time… I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I initially framed the walls using nails (16d coated sinkers). In addition to hanging the walls from the floor-joists, I also re-attached the wall studs to the top-plates using construction screws. I covered this at some point in my video.
Thank you for posting!
Did your builder install basement blankets on your unfinished basement walls?
If so, was there a reason you replaced them with the hard foam insulation?
No - our house was built in 1979, the walls have been bare ever since then. As such, I have no experience with these blankets, but if I had them I likely would have left them in-place.
Whats the gap you leave for drywall? I have s 2×4 wall with one green treated bottom plate.
If you mean between the bottom of the drywall and the floor - I nominally left 1/2”. Now, from what I learned - this gap is typically much larger - on the order of 3”! It depends on your specific soil condition and building codes.
Your egress window are great! What did they cost
It's been 30 years since we did this, plus it was in combination with replacing the basement floor - so I can't provide a reasonable cost for the windows themselves. I suspect it will be a function of access, depth of excavation and your local economy.
Good luck!
For your door opening do you leave a gap at the bottom for the door jamb?
I left 1/8" gap under the jambs. Some jurisdictions require multiple inches of float (I've seen 3") - I don't know how you can leave this large of a gap under the jambs - or doors themselves.
In my case - I don't expect to see any more movement, but if these gaps should close-up, I can go back and trim the bottoms of the jambs.
@kevintaberski4249 Thanks for the reply
@@double_A_RON_ You're welcome!
Why are floating walls required?
That's an excellent question!
Often, soils are expansive. Here in Colorado,our soil contains Bentonite which will expand when wet.
Though I answered this in my previous video:
"Finishing My Basement - Floating Wall - Base Plates" - th-cam.com/video/KeHB36PuwJQ/w-d-xo.html.
I neglected to mention this in this video. I'll add some text to the description.
Thank you for the question!