Framing a wall

I have a question about framing an interior wall.

The way I have seen it done, you have the bottom plate and top plate and studs in between, and the bottom plate to be PT since it's resting on concrete slab. The drywall goes on top.

However, I recently demoed part of my house, and I had to extend existing walls and build new walls. I did not notice it at the time, but today I realized that the original construction had nailed furring strips (seems to be 3/4" x 3") to the bottom plate on both sides. See the picture below:

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and the drywall actually sit on top of it flushed. I also measured the ceiling and it's 99" above the slab instead of standard 96", I wonder if they raised the ceiling so as to accomodate 2 sheets of 4x8 and the strip at the bottom.

Is there any advantage of doing it this way? I would think the baseboards will attach better?

I was going to frame the new walls differently, but seeing now how they did it I think I have no choice but to do the same, or else my drywall will not touch the ceiling, and I have to buy drywall sheets that match the thickness of that strip.

Always running into surprises.

MC

Reply to
MiamiCuse
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Well there are many ways to skin this cat. If your walls are an unusual thickness, then you will have to fir them out to match existing. I don't think many people would monkey with using 3/4 firring on the bottom plate to flush with the sheetrock any more. It would make base trim a bit easier, but wood is pretty expensive. Standard procedure is to hang the top sheet first to get as tight a fit as possible to the ceiling. If your base is tall enough to cover on the bottom, you could fill the bottom three inches with sheetrock or whatever and not even bother taping the bottom joint. Your base would have to be tall enough to cover the factory tapered seam--it would probably have to be about 5". You could also leave the 3" gap between the sheets, and fill this with 3/8 rock--this would be easy to tape as the factory tapered seams would butt into the 3/8 rock and the whole works gets taped and filled. Yet another approach is to buy some 54" rock---so you would use a 4 foot sheet and a 51" sheet.

Reply to
marson

Sounds like someone used 8' 2x4s instead of studs and then used the nailers to fill in at the bottom. Just leave off the bottom nailer and use blocks to hold the base out at the bottom, or use strips of sheetrock as filler strips.

Reply to
Robert Allison

Yeah robert, but if his base is only 3" tall, the top edge will fall right on the factory tapered seam--he'll have to crawl around on his hands and knees and mud that sucker then.

Reply to
marson

True, but you are going to have to really look hard to find a base that is only 3". When you reach that size base it is almost always 3-1/2" or 3-5/8". That shouldn't be a problem. If he has some base that is problematic, then what I would do is run a sheet of drywall to the ceiling, run a sheet to

1/2" off the floor and fill in the gap between the two sheets. That way, there is just one joint to mud in the middle.
Reply to
Robert Allison

Or, if this is matching an existing ceiling height and wants to use 1/2" instead of 3/4 drywall, could easily just cut the nailer at the bottom from 1/2" sheathing and have the best of both without needing any shimming for matching thickness nor need an extra joint to tape in the middle...

Whether the original was planned for the base nailer or simply a homeowner patchup, it is handy for an intermediate base to not have to hit the studs...

Reply to
dpb
3/4 drywall???? s

Reply to
Steve Barker LT

Yes but with factory taper, his base will have to come up 5" (3" gap plus 2" for the taper) or he will have to fill it with mud to make it look like anything. I think your second idea is the way to go anyway. He can do is fill strip standing up like a gentleman instead of groveling on the floor.

Reply to
marson

You mention a concrete slab. Perhaps the boards you found are merely spacers to keep drywall above concrete so moisture doesn't get sucked up into drywall. I have hung drywall in basements and leave a gap at the bottom to do just this.

Reply to
franz frippl

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