We had a contractor add an addition to our house which included an unfinished basement. Due to a very high water table, during construction we had a lot of water in the basement. The contractor added french drains around the perimeter and a rubber membrane to the exterior walls. Since then the basement has been dry.

I'm now ready to add partition walls in the basement. My question is how to best secure the plate to the concrete floor. With the water problems of the past I'm afraid to penetrate the concrete. Is there any risk that any form of mechanical fastener would cause a crack in the floor which would allow water to seep in from below. If so, what are my alternatives. Use construction adhesive? How do I keep that in place until it sets?

 

UNCMEDICINEMAN,

The best way is to attach WOOD TREATED BOTTOM PLATE to the concrete is to use either...

Concrete nails - Sometimes this is hard and time consuming!

Tapcon Screws - Relatively easy but again time consuming!

Hilti Gun with ramset nails - Rent the gun, buy nails and charges - Very fast and holds great! - No adhesive is needed.

In any case, the penetration into a concrete floor is not going to cause any problems. Most slabs are running 4" thick and we are only talking about penetration of about 1 inch or less. The odds of anything causing a crack all the way through this is extremely low as I have never see this happen in 25 plus years.

Also understand that water, if you were to have problems, will and can come through the concrete at any point - concrete is porous but you have taken great strides in virtually eliminating anymore events with water infiltration.

Hope this helps!

 

Other ways to secure a treated sole plate to concrete are:
- drilling a 3.5" hole thru the sole plate into the concrete and then driving two 16 penny nails into that hole; consequently those two 16d's will bind together and secure a tight fit into the concrete - pretty cheap.
- another way is to use anchor bolts: I've used 3" x 3/8" anchor bolts (e.g. Simpson Wedge-All Anchor) - very secure.

 

CrackedDrumHead,

Isn't this overkill? We are talking about basement partition walls - not exterior or garage/home applications - slab on grade, block, poured walls, etc.

I'm suggesting the most used applications for basement partitions. What you are suggesting is too extreme yet applicable methods within their own right.

Just some thoughts...

 

Thanks guys for the advice. I think I'll go with the Ramset -- sounds a bit quicker.

 

UNCMEDICINEMAN,

Good choice! Ramset is reasonable to rent and is alot faster - just wear some ear plugs as this will make some noise, 22 cal. cartridge.

Let us know how it worked out!