Building Wall Over Floor - DIY Chatroom

bradarth · 07-11-2005, 12:10 PM

My basement has laminated flooring currently. I would like to build a wall in the middle of the floor.

What is the proper way to go about it?

I have been told by friend (not professionals by any means) to just nail the bottom of the wall through the flooring, but I’m unsure of doing that, since from my understanding the floor is suppose to move about and having a wall on top would limit that.

My other option is to cut out/ remove the section I’m building the wall over. Being that it’s in the middle of the floor, what is the best method of doing so and can that be done?

Thank you
Brad

**Floorwizard** · 07-11-2005, 06:11 PM

Yes you will need to cut the floor.

The lam will need to be 1/4 away from the wall for expansion.

A roto zip would work well, and your wall molding will cover up the expansion.

CarpenterDon · 07-12-2005, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Bradarth wrote:
My basement has laminated flooring currently. I would like to build a wall in the middle of the floor.

What is the proper way to go about it?

I have been told by friend (not professionals by any means) to just nail the bottom of the wall through the flooring, but I’m unsure of doing that, since from my understanding the floor is suppose to move about and having a wall on top would limit that.

My other option is to cut out/ remove the section I’m building the wall over. Being that it’s in the middle of the floor, what is the best method of doing so and can that be done?

Bradarth,

Yes you do have to cut the flooring and attach the bottom plate of the wall to the concrete floor.

Lay the 2x that will be used to frame the bottom of the wall on the floor and draw a line around the entire area of the 2x (adding 1/4" additional space to the cut-out) make the cut with your saw on the inside of the line.

Then your ready to frame your wall and secure it to the floor.

To attach the wall to the floor, I would drill 5/16" x 1/2" holes and use lead shields (inserted into the holes) and secure the wall with 5/16" x 2 /12" lag screws. 1 screw for every 2' of wall length. The lead shields are available at any home center or hardware store.