Stud wall: premake vs build in place?

woodworkbykirk

stick frame basement walls in renos mainly because the old slabs are hardly ever even which means you can have a huge variation in studs lengths. if every stud works out to being within 1/8" of one another you can prebuild the wall and put it up.. the only different thing i do though is the bottom plate is already fixed. the studs arent nailed to the bottom plate only the top.. stand up the wall first then hop the studs up onto the bottom plate.. doing this allows you to get the wall standing up straight first and it doesnt destroy or pull off the vapour barrier...

Red Squirrel

Loool oops. Unless I can get the atoms to align properly so I can put studs inside of studs, that ain't happening! Yes I meant every 16 inches. When it comes the time to do this I'll measure around to see what kind of variances I'm looking at with the floor/ceiling and if everything is close enough then I'll just prebuild. Otherwise I'll build stud by stud. Some spots I may have to do it that way no matter what such as where my server rack is as it will be a tight fit to get a prebuilt wall there.

I'll probably stick with using shims though if I do prebuild, from what I read I kinda want the wall to "float" as the floor may move over time. If the wall starts lifting up the house it may not be enough to cause damage, but it will be enough to perhaps open up tiny cracks that will let air and bugs in. Then again I will be spray foaming so this is probably not an issue.