Door threshold gap ?

adamjay42

I am just about done with my basement finish. Here in CO basement's require floating walls, where the entire wall is secured to, and suspended from overhead joists. There is a 2-3 inch gap at the bottom, which allows the foundation to settle and shift. It is easier to install the floating walls than I thought it would be, the toughest part was the wall that went parallel to the joists. I couldn't really put sleepers since I couldn't reach the outermost joist, so the wall is entirely along one joist, and that joist is a good 8 inches from the foundation. I think fireblocking wise I understand what I need to do, every 10 feet run a vertical 2x10 to the foundation and stuff fiberglass tightly between the top plate and existing insulation/joists. I am, however, struggling conceptually with doors. The trim will cover the 2" gap around the walls, but what am I supposed to do to hide the gap in the door threshold?

Adam

epeterson777

I live in CO and have floating walls in my basement as well. I ended up cutting the frame of the door about 3/4" up from the concrete. The carpet ended up filling the gap for the most part. In my basement, you can see a little bit of it if you really look for it. Realistically your floor isn't going to float more than a half an inch, so you should be alright just cutting the frame up a bit. You can have the trim go down further than the frame, so if the floor does 'float' up it would push up the trim as opposed to your framing. I hope that made sense - if not let me know. I can show you pics of what I did and how mine turned out. I passed all the building inspections as well so mine is legal.

adamjay42

We (in Colorado Springs) require a 1 1/2" gap between the bottom plate and the PT lumber base, so does your door frame hang lower than that? Or are you saying you put some form of trim on the door frame?

I just don't understand how the jamb can be allowed to go lower than that inch and a half gap. Could I possible secure the jamb to the PT base and have a gap on the top, covered by the height of the jamb itself? Does that make sense? I've never put in a door before so maybe I am totally off.

Adam

epeterson777

I live in a suburb of Denver and it sounds like we have the same requirements (minimum 1.5" - max 3"). So you have a bottom plate attached to the floor, then you have a bottom plate for the wall and then you have large nails that go through to connect those two plates, right?

I cut the door jamb about 3/4" from the concrete and attached it to the bottom plate of the wall, not the plate that is attached to the floor. I do have a couple of doors that aren't finished on the back side. So I will try to take some pictures of what it looks like and put them on here later this morning.

tpolk

yes please post never heard of this til this site. hanging walls, hanging trim, hanging chads all very confusing

epeterson777

Here are the pictures of a couple of my door frames. They don't look perfect because you will have that gap. If it is carpet that will be around them then they can be perfect if done right, but with tile you will notice the gap. I attached the jamb to the bottom plate of the wall (not the floor plate) because in the unlikely event that your wall does float then that floor plate should move along the jamb rather than lifting the jamb itself.

Let me know if these pictures show it, I can take other ones if you want. The basement is all done now but these doors are around the furnace room so the backside is all unfinished.

adamjay42

OK, and your inspectors didn't have a beef with it?

It does look great (and I forgot I could put a door plate there to help hide the gap)

Thanks,

Adam

tpolk

what a pain in the you know what. so depending on the lift the door stays put and the base tears off the drywall. do you not caulk base to drywall?

adamjay42

so depending on the lift the door stays put and the base tears off the drywall. do you not caulk base to drywall?

No, the Drywall floats as well. There is NOTHING that is attached to the floor except the PT 2x4s in the concrete. the ONLY things attached to the PT wood is a 1/2 x 2 spacer and the baseboard to cover the gap. The spacer is so that the baseboard is set in front of the drywall.

epeterson777

The inspectors were all fine with mine.

Now that it is all done, I have been paying attention and I haven't seen the floor float at all.