How to attach stud walls in basement

My house is on a hill, and the back wall of my basement is poured concrete. I am putting up stud walls against the concrete as part of finishing the basement - not load bearing, just to hold sheetrock and wiring.

I know I can rent a stud gun to shoot nails and attach the bottom plate to the concrete floor, but is there a preferred method of attaching the vertical studs to the wall ? Maybe a special bracket or something ?

How many nails are needed to attach walls to the floor? Every 4 ft or so ?

FYI - 9 ft studs on 12 inch centers (to match the remainder of the house)

 

reprosser,

Don't attach the studs to the wall. Attach the top plate to the joists first. Then drop a plumb line and mark the floor for your bottom plate. Both the top and bottom plates will be about 1 inch from the wall. After attaching the top and bottom plates, secure your studs every 16" as you described.

As for attaching the bottom plate to the floor, nails every couple of feet is fine. You're really just making sure that the bottom of the wall doesn't slide out when you're finished. Make sure that you don't nail to the floor where your studs will be placed. You can work around that, but it's easier if you don't have to.

 

The studs do not have to be directly fastened to the basement wall. 12"oc is overkill for a non-loadbearing wall. Use 16" and provide blocking at midheight for stability. The floor fasteners should be at 18" oc. Where is your vapor barrier going?
Is your house on heaving clays? If so, you will need a floating wall.

 

Thanks for the info.

All the other walls in the basement run to or against the concrete wall with no gap. What is the purpose of the 1 inch gap ?

I agree that 12 " oc is overkill, but the area is not very big, and I wanted to stay consistant with the rest of the walls (12"oc).

I was not planning to insulate, but the vapor barrier may be needed - what is correct location ? With or without insulation ?

I am in the Atlanta metro area, and have never heard of "heaving clay". The floor is concrete slab. All the other walls are tied together in what looks to me to be "normal" fashion (not floating).

Oh, and the basement has been dry year round - during some heavy downpours, for the 3 years I have been here.

 

Assuming insulated walls and vapor barrier, the 1" gap allows the existing basement walls to "breath" keeping condensation off of the stud wall and insulation material.

I wonder if MikeCT is replying as I type this one too.

 

you might consider gluing the bottom plate to the floor with a construction adhesive. We had a wall that I tore out of our basement. the bottom plate was glued down. I am still trying to get it up. the adhesive holds as well if not better than nails. I am weary about nailing into our concrete floor and will make it a point to avoid it in the future.

 

Your cement basement walls are not true, either (maybe you can't tell by eye, but they're not). As well as being a task that there is no need to undertake, if you tried to connect your studs to the cement you'd end up with out of true walls. Dropping the studs in front of the cement wall means your finished walls will be true.

 

Hey - Cool Idea !

I like the adhesive approach. I don't have to rent equipment to use it either.

Also, MikeCT is correct - the walls are not plumb or square. I would have needed to shim or adjust in some way.

I will build true, and attach to floor and ceiling.


thanks

 

The only problem with adhesive is that the bottom of the wall will be capable of being knocked out of line until the adhesive dries. You might want to consider buying the Remingtom 'Power hammer'. It's and inexpensive stud gun. You don't use a trigger to fire it, but rather you hit it on the top with a hammer and it fires the load.