Finishing a basement

rlrife

Planning on finishing my basement and I'm trying figure everything out before I start, and I'm trying to find out whats the best way to attach studs to a cinderblock wall?

clasact

you may want to check through some of the other threads on here you will find alot of good info and some not so but start at the bottem of this page and it will give 4-5 simular threads to start with

Deck

I've seen tin studs used in basements. The tin rails are set to floor with masonry nails. to ceiling with screws. And they use these things called tin snips to secure the vertical tin stud things inside the rails. Not like the scissor type, but it's a type of screw to secure tin studs to rails.

Also you'll need a plumb bob. You set the top first and then drop the plumb from both ends of one side. Then you have a location for the bottom. You'll also need some tin snips ( the actual snips/scissors ). But you won't need a miter saw so that's nice.

My vocab may be off, I'm not a contractor. Maybe the rails are called something else? I don't know.


To answer your q though, from what I've seen and read about it's a top and bottom thing, and then you put the vertical studs in between. This regardless of the type of material.

On some old houses I know they take a vertical 2x and make it so the widest width is apparent. In other words if you have a 2x4 and you want to secure it directly to the wall, you do so making sure the 3.5" of width is apparent. Then you can hammer nails (powered nail gun with masonry nails) or drill through (for lag bolt/shield, maybe tapcons.. not sure about this).

as far as shooting into the concrete, you might encounter some pitfalls. check out these two threads.

shooting treated 2x4s into concrete

shooting treated sill 2x4s into concrete

Termite

Don't attach to your foundation walls. It is difficult to do, and is really not the best course of action unless you need that extra inch or two of room for some reason. Space your studs about 1/2" or more from the foundation walls. That way, subtle movements in the foundation over time don't telegraph through the drywall. Frame a wall conventionally using 2x3's or 2x4's. Treated bottom plate attaches to the floor, and so on.

Steel studs are an option, but can be rather complicated for a DIYer in a few areas. They're going to require skill with tin snips, especially when building furdowns and soffits. They're absolutely a nightmare to firestop. DIYers often make the mistake of running wire through them without using appropriate grommets. To properly cut them to shorter lengths requires a special cutoff saw (or hours with tin snips if you have a lot to do). The top and bottom tracks receive the studs, which screw to the tracks. Very good for some applications, but you just don't see much of it in residential construction.

rlrife

This is probably a dumb question but what mechanism is used to support the studs and dry wall if it isn't attached to the foundation walls??

Termite

The top plate is attached to the underside of the floor joists, the bottom plate is fastened to the concrete with cut nails, tapcons, ramset nails, etc.

rlrife

Thanks so much, I appreciate your help.