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Basement Finishing/Framing-Bottom Plate

3K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  AllanJ 
#1 ·
Hi -

I guess I stumbled onto this forum a little too late but I'm glad I did.

Here's my situation: We're finishing the basement of a 100 year old house in Boston, MA. Not looking to make it fabulous, but want walls and a bit more warmth. So it's a fieldstone foundation and a few years ago we had drains installed along the inside perimeter of the floor with 2 sump pumps. Previously we had alot of water - "a river ran through it". With last night's downpour both pumps were going non-stop but they were able to keep the basement dry.

So we are at the point where it is framed out and are almost finished insulating. After reading through alot of the posts here I am confident that we have done it correctly. Except for one major thing. :whistling2: We were very hesitant to compromise the drainage system in any way, and since the bottom plate is over the drain in some areas and close to it in others, we thought it would be fine to just secure the plate with construction adhesive. Basement Technologies literature (the company that did the drain) says not to nail or screw anywhere near their track.

What to do now?? One thought we had was use some kind of L brackets to further distance the nails from the track. I hate the thought of removing the insulation in order to nail the plate to the cement floor. I also hate the thought of ruining the drainage system. Did I mention I hate the thought of our new walls falling down from the weight of the drywall? :) We are planning on using Densarmor which apparently is even heavier than regular drywall.

Thank you for your thoughts and ideas!!!


Linda
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Based on the situation you have with the drain. It may be fine.

You see, what you are building are simple "partition" walls. They are not load bearing or structural walls. Hopefully, you don't plan on installing a lot of heavy shelving and goods onto them either.

Did you properly prep the concrete floor prior to using the construction adhesive? What I mean is, did you make sure that there was no chemical residue or dust that would inhibit or affect the adhesive's contact with the concrete?

You could also add some PT 2x4 braces behind the wall, and pinned against the foundation to eleminate any rear-ward movement.

Lastly, I have this question: How far below the concrete surface is the drain?
If you know the specific distance, then you could drill a few tapcons into the bottom plate using "screw lengths" that you are sure will not penetrate to the drain line.

Good Luck.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Is the basement floor repoured concrete over the drain pipe track? Or are there metal plate sections above the drain track that are supposed to be removable for inspection?

Assuming there is new repoured concrete and the new concrete is of a shape that cannot slip down into the drain trench, it should be OK to build your framed wall over the covered trench. But I would not drive masonry nails.

You do understand that, if the drain had to be dug up for any reason, you would have to destroy the framed wall above.

If there is a small metal plate as an access cover to the drain system, on the floor, in the way of the framed wall, frame around it as if you were putting a (perhaps one foot tall) doorway there. That is, header, jack studs, etc. down at ankle level. So you could still lift off the metal plate.
 
#5 ·
...You do understand that, if the drain had to be dug up for any reason, you would have to destroy the framed wall above...
Generally, if the drain line were required to be dug up, it would be because of operation failure.
If the Home Owner had an operation failure of the drain line or drain system, that would generally mean, that, they had water back-up in the basement.
If they had water back-up in the basement, they are probably going to be ripping out a lot of damaged material on those walls anyways...
 
#7 ·
You should not have a problem with walls that have shelves or TV's or chinning bars fastened into the studs provided that the concrete is not just a two inch layer that might crack in half lengthwise and fall into the track/trench directly below the sole plate.
 
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