Building an interior wall

Wife would like a wall next to the main entrance so the entire living dinning room area will not be in plain view to another at the door. The wall will go from floor to ceiling and will be connected to the end of an existing wall. This wall will be 8" thick and will have about four to six rectangular cut outs to put plants or books.

I don't think this will be too complicated. I just need to decide on a length, then cut the top and bottom plate to length. Screw the bottom plate to the floor and the top plate to the ceiling. Then nail a few vertical members in, where I have these cut outs I will add horizontal members, may need to do some electrical work if wife wants some lightings inside these cutouts, then apply drywall. paint and add baseboards - done. Seems like something I should be able to handle myself.

I have a few questions.

Currently I have 16x16 ceramic tiles on the floor (concrete floor). Should the bottom plate be placed on top of the tiles or do I have to remove the tiles, screw in the bottom plate, then retile to the edge of the wood? Common sense tells me I should remove te tiles, but I don't have replacement tiles, and it seems the wall will not be too heavier. After all if I have to put a floor to wall book shelf I would not think twice about putting it on top of these tiles, so why should I worry about putting a lighter wall on top of it?

How would I ensure after I nailed in the bottom plate, when I nail in the top plate that I do it with perfect alignment with the bottom counterpart?

Thanks in advance,

O
Reply to
orangetrader
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Reply to
Paul Min

Can you cut the tiles with a masonry blade in a circular saw? Dusty, but a clean cut and no damage in removing the visible tiles.

Plumb bob. Gravity is your friend.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I would probly just leave the tiles in place and use a masonry drill, installing a few concrete anchors--maybe some foam under the floor plate to take up some of the un-evenness of the tiles.

counterpart?

I would probly lean towards building the wall complete and then flipping it it up rather than to try nailing the sticks together in place.

But if I was to build it in place, adding blocking along the top and bottom plates spaced between the wall studs always seems to work better for me than toe-nailing the studs in.

Reply to
PrecisionMachinisT

As others suggested, a plumb bob. My understand> I would probly lean towards building the wall complete and then flipping it

It seems to me that this typically does not work in a remodel situation, since the diagonal of the wall exceeds the total height of the wall, so you can't get it upright without hitting the ceiling.

One option is to use a double top plate, with the first top plate nailed to the ceiling joists, and the second top plate part of a wall assembly constructed on the floor. This wall assembly is then short enough to flip upright without hitting the ceiling, and can be slid under the top plate.

Cheers, Wayne

Reply to
Wayne Whitney

I would remove the tile, mostly because if you ever decide to re-floor it would be a real problem to remove the tile cleanly. Personally, I would attach the top plate to the ceiling. It would be great if you could attach to a joist, but since the wall is simply decorative, you could use toggle fasteners if there is no joist.

Once the top plate is secured, use a plumb bob to mark the exact location of the bottom plate. Again, it would be good to attach to a joist, but if there is none handy, you could use toggle fasteners again. The only force that will be applied to this wall would be if a

400 pound visitor leaned on the wall--and toggle fasteners will resist that kind of force.

Mr Fixit eh

Reply to
Steve Nekias

Reply to
jhill

Reply to
PhotoMan

Yes, cut the tiles. If you try to nail through them you almost certainly will crack one or more. Also picture trying to replace a tile that is partially under a wall.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

You're sure you don't want to skip the wall and just go with a cabinet/shelf-unit? Two lag-bolts into the ceiling joists to stabilize it, and you don't have run power, or figure out how to attach it to the side-wall or the floor.

Reply to
default

The tiles are now over the 8" concrete slab. There is no wood subfloor. Does this make a difference?

O

counterpart?

Reply to
orangetrader

I think I will attach to ceiling joists. I will go up to see if the ceiling joists are going along or across it. If they are across no problem I will just screw into each joist from below. If it is going along it, I don't know...I think I have to add some members across, at least at each end of the 48" long wall. May be three of them 16" apart. The bottom is concrete slab beneath the tile.

It will be hard to get rid of the tiles. The tiles are 16"x16" and I don't have any spare. If I remove it...I have to cover 8" of it. Also bad is this 8" is split among two rows of tiles.

O
Reply to
orangetrader

I mean I don't have wood subfloor. It is a single story house on top of a monolithic concrete slab 8" thick sitting on top of RC piles drilled deep into the ground.

Reply to
orangetrader

I probably do not have the skill required to cleanly cut the tiles in place. As I understand it if I use a masonry blade and if I go too deep I will hit the concrete slab and it might kick back and split my skull right? Plus it only take one mistake to ruin the whole thing. I don't have even one spare tile...

O

counterpart?

Reply to
orangetrader

No. It will only obscure about 48" of the 96" opening we have right now.

O

counterpart?

Reply to
orangetrader

No, no kickback. The same blade that cuts the tile will cut concrete also. You have the skill. You can mark a straight line and follow it, or you can put a board in place to use as a guide.

If you are afraid of cutting the tiles, go over top of them rather than risk breaking them.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

You are going to have to use a shoe molding around the bottom, that plus the wall covering will cover any minor mistakes, i.e., wandering off line by as much as 3/4 inch. As I pointed out, trying to nail through the tiles is going to break them for sure. You could go over the top of them by using just construction adhesive on the bottom plate I suppose.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

you can rent a hand wet saw with a diamond blade (makita makes one). set the depth on it to be the tile thickness and you'll never hit the cement. it will also keep the dust down; otherwise you'll be cleaning up the dust forever if you just use a dry masonary blade. you can't get a kickback with a diamond blade unless you do something really stupid.

you could also use a drill to put anchors through the tile into the cement, but chances are you could crack the tiles too.

Reply to
Charles Spitzer

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