I am interested in finishing my basement and create a family room. It consists of a very large room that's about 12' x 25'. It also has a seperate room that has the Washer and dryer and the heating and A/C units that will eventually be finished along with adding either a half bath with a stall shower, but that's later on. The house has Central Air btw. My main dilemna is that because it is a "split" and has a walk-up and out basement, I have a 4 ft (approx) wall around the entire floor. I am assuming I will need to frame around this. The rest of the walls will need wiring for outlets, etc. but seem ready to sheetrock. The ceilings are high (10 ft?) and uncovered as well. I would like to put a floor down as well and insulate between it and the foundation. I am not extremely experienced but I am a hard worker. I am trying to research the subject so that I can possibly do as much of it as I can myself. I have a brother-in-law who is a contractor, but is extremely busy and not completely reliable for this reason. he is also building an addition onto his own house.

With that said, is there any advise or suggestions as to how to approach this project. Book suggestions are welcomed as well. My main concern, honestly, is framing around the cement wall. Once that is done it will make things a little easier (I think). Any advise?

 

Hello. If I understand your situation correctly, I may have just what you need. I have a 4 ft x 36 ft. wall (kneewall) I think they call it because I have a lookout basement. I couldn't for the life of me think of a solution to attach the top part of the wall to anything becaue in my situation the frame wouldn't go all the way up the the bottom of the joist. I built my frame 4 ft high (green treated wood for the bottom plate), to match the top of the 4 ft poured walls height. After that, I used 4 mill plastic, you can use 6 mill also, and set the plastic against the wall. I just stapled it to part of the frame above to hold it and used some poly caulking to hold it down as well. The reason I did this was because I used untreated wood, which is fine, to create a header to attach the frame to. What this means is take a 2 x 4 that is 8, 10, or 16 ft long or what ever you need and set it against the wall (plastic, 4 inch side flat against the wall), about 2 or 3 ft off of the floor and use one of those concrete guns at Home Depot where you put a 22 type cartridge in and send a nail through the board and into the concrete. Don't set the board right at the top of the 4 foot wall. I did this and cracked the wall. Seems like there is not enough support at the top to take the nail. Just drop it down.

Once the "header" board/s are up all the way down the wall, take your frame and basically set it against it. I used the PL400 Subfloor goop at the bottom of the plate, nailed it with the same gun, then toe nailed the frame to the header board. Rock solid.

I hope this helps and I am not off on this one. Thx, Pat