Partition walls before or after subfloor?


  #1  
Old 12-15-05, 07:11 PM
bemace
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Partition walls before or after subfloor?

Just bought a house with an unfinished basement. The builder framed and insulated around the exterior walls, and I want to know if I should frame the interior walls first (directly on the concrete) or put the subflooring in first and then fasten the walls to that. I'm probably going to use DryCore or something similar. It seems like the walls would be more stable directly on the concrete, but putting in the subfloor first would save a lot of cutting. BTW, I'm planning on carpet on top.

When building the walls, should I double the top or bottom plate? I've seen the top plate doubled more often in my searches, but come across several places where a bottom plate was nailed down first and then the wall put in place on top of that. Is this determined by code, personal preference, or something else?
 
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Old 12-16-05, 06:37 AM
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A double bottom plate comes in handy if you are installing a subfloor after the walls. It allows you something to nail your baseboard too.

I would install the Dricore after you frame the walls. It would be best not to penetrate the rubber backing with nails and the walls would be stronger if nailed directly to the concrete.
 
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Old 12-16-05, 09:03 AM
boardslinger
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I'd agree. Build you walls first, then placein your flooring. yourwall will be stronger. Plus to save you a lot of time, a little money and energy, I would go with steel studs. You definatly will not have to touch you wall more than once. With wood, you have to sort, cut, dry fit, assemble, stand up, and anchor. With steel, you shoot down your bottom truck, put up your top track, and start filling in with steel studs. Being that what you are building is ot load bearring, all you need is 25 gauage. Not to mentioon that the finished product is straight. Good luck
 
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Old 12-16-05, 10:50 AM
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It makes more sense to me to put down the dricore first (maybe because that's what I did ).

Anyway... the manufacturer says it can be done either way. I put mine down first then built the wall on top of it. You need to leave a 1/4" gap for the dricore to float. This way, the gap ends up behind the wall. Also, you don't need to use pressure treated bottom plates. No matter which way you do it, the manufacturer says to pin the floor to concrete if you are going to carpet. If you build on top, you just pin the bottom plate through the dricore into the concrete.

As a DIYer, it just seemed easier to me to do the floor first and then build on top of it.

So far, so good. Plus it's now warmer and much easier to walk on while I'm building the rest of the room.

Good luck!
Tom
 
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Old 12-16-05, 01:44 PM
bemace
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Thanks for the input so far guys. If anyone else wants to take a side I'd be interested in hearing more experiences.

The DryCore site says that if the walls go in first, the drywall should be up before the drycore goes in. Why would that be? Isn't the drywall supposed to be up off the floor anyway?
 
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Old 12-19-05, 07:30 AM
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Not sure, but my guess is that unless you use a double bottom plate, there may not be enough room to nail the drywall and base moulding. In a standard built 2X4 wall, the bottom plate is really ony 1 1/2" and the dricore is 7/8" which only leaves 5/8" of the bottom plate above the floor. Any dips in the floor and you have even less. Maybe a pro could pull it off, but that's pretty tight for a DIYer.

Tom
 
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Old 12-19-05, 01:32 PM
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I had the same question about why they recommend that the drywall should be up before installing the DRIcore. So, I asked. Their response indicated that the only real reason is that the cleanup of drywll install & mudding will be easier. I'm sure that is true. Probably much easier to scrape globs of drywall mud off the concrete floor than off the DRIcore.

Personally, I think I'm going to install the DRIcore right after I finish framing. It will make the rest of my time down working down there a lot more pleasant. Warmer and easier on the feet.
 
 

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