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5K views 7 replies 8 participants last post by  stadry 
#1 · (Edited)
We just built new construction 6 months ago. They did not finish a portion of our basement stairway (the entire basement is unfinished). I assumed it was because it was an outside wall. However, now I'm wondering if it's because there is no room to add drywall and it's a design flaw.

We are planning on finishing the basement next year, but I'm wondering how it would even be done and if they need to come and fix this if there's a problem so I am looking for advice on what to do.

They covered it with insulation (as they did all of the concrete basement walls to be "whole home certified" energy efficient. We are okay with the insulation on the basement walls because we figure our contractor can just cut the insulation and lay in the framework.



However, upon closer inspection of the wall, the concrete is nearly even with the existing drywall above it. How would a contractor drywall that? I've been reading up and I don't think it's advisable to put drywall directly on concrete which is what we thought they'd probably have to do. Should there be room for framework and this is a design flaw? If you were going to drywall this what would you do? Just put a vapor barrier? Any advice would be very much appreciated!
 

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#4 ·
Its common to frame in against the concrete and drywall over that. The lower wall is offset from the upper and you either cap the transition with a nice piece of wood or with drywall to make a very narrow shelf.

It's not a design error, there is no point adding additional framing to the upper wall to make it all flush and whenever you have a stairway against a basement wall the upper framed wall will be offest due to the thickness of the concrete.
 
#8 ·
' they ' didn't finish it because: 1, either nobody paid for the work; OR 2, ' caught ' the work that was supposed to be done wasn't,,, you could also rivet frp to the walls but that always looks like a thruway rest room to me,,, btw, your bldr's warranty ONLY covers leaking basements for 1 yr
 
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