Wall under beams, advice please

[joetaxpayer]

I'll apologize that this is somewhat off topic in advance, but the expertise is here.

I am finishing my basement, myself. Floor is down, UGL'd the whole foundation, 6 mil plastic, 2 x 4 solid insulation in between, and then plywood on top. All brought home on top of my Taurus, ha.

Now, I'm ready to put some partition walls up. The first wall will run under metal beams, I beams, 6 inches wide at top and bottom. How do I secure the top of my wall to the beam? Is there a 'code' way to do it. The wall may take some shelves on the inside of the room it creates, so I want to be on the safe side here. The ceiling is open, so the rest of the basement I'll just screw into the joists. This is the one place I'm parellel to the beam. Thanks, JOE

[Cherokee-LTD]

You may not need anything. Is this an end wall supported by side walls or will it be open at either end? It's like building a box, the first side won't be stable on its own but becomes very stable when you add one side to it and much more so when you add the other side. Unless it's a long span (10"+) you shouldn't have a problem IMO. If you are concerned about it, you can drill a few holes and drop some threaded rod with nuts at each end.

-Brian

[joetaxpayer]

[Eric Ryder]

Use a ramset (and hearing protection DAMHIKT) to pin the wall in a couple places (4' oc?) to the beam.

[TeamCasa]

My preferred method is to weld studs on the beam then attach nailer to the beam. However, for a partition wall in a basement, I might try using a powder-actuated nail gun (Ramset type) to attach a nailer. If that fails, (beam to stubborn or insufficient charges in gun) you can drill and bolt or even specialized tek screws.

Dave

[Dave jackson]

You could always take some clamps and liquid nails the top plate to the beam, then plumb down to find the location for your sill, then add the studs. Ramsets are great for fastening the sill to the concrete, but I doubt you'll get a drive pin through the beam as the steel is usually around

3/8" thick. If you decide to build the wall on the floor first and then stand it, check the floor to beam height in several spots and go with your smallest measurement for the wall height. If your are going to drywall everything, you may want to build a soffit around the whole beam (boxing it in) and putting your wall under the soffit. This will allow you to conceal the beam with the drywall. --dave

[willshak]

How about you build a partition wall on each side of the beam, kinda clamping the beam between the studs? You'll end up with a fatter partition wall, but you can then have the shelves built into the wall on the one side.

[joetaxpayer]

Will, this is exactly why I love the rec. Ideas like this that I never would have thought of. Gonna run this by SWMBO. One side of this wall will be a room, the other side is to be a hallway that can lose a few inches with no problem and can use the built-ins. Thanks for the tip. JOE

[mike]

Joe, there are several ways to fasten lumber to I beams. Usually I beams are 1/4" thick on the flange, easy enough to drill. You only need 3 holes or less. Lag bolts or screws finish it up. Adhesive can also be used instead of drilling. Top plate is installed first with adhesive and a few studs to prop it up.If you can clamp the top plate you can go ahead and install the studs. Cut studs very snug,about 1/8" oversize. You can use power actuated guns to shoot special nails for steel. The last thing, this is something that I learned 40 + years ago. The beam is 6" wide, cut 1/8" x 1" flat mallable iron 9" long.Drill two holes to fasten it to top plate with roofing nails. The iron is on top of the plate, prop the plate into line on the beam.Begin hammering the iron up at 90 degrees to bend around web.When done it should look U shaped. Same for other side of iron.The bends should be sharp, if you have trouble with the top bend because of limited hammer swinging space, the apply clamp and beat down at same time.This method is used when the beam is too difficult to drill, PL , Titebond, etc were not around when I first used this method. If the drilling is easy,then I would go this route. mike

[ezalpha]

[Prometheus]

Codes can differ depending on where you are, but I'd go with long bolts or threaded rods myself. Same concept as buying tools- buy quality and you only cry once. Only in this case it should read build quality (Or you can call it over-building, if you like) and you only cry once.

[willshak]

I had to do the same thing, only my girder was a triple 2x10. There was a lally column that got buried in the partition wall too. My partition wall turned out to be 17.5" thick, but I had to allow room for pipes and elec wire that ran alongside the girder. Yours should be about 14" wide (4 + 6 + 4, including sheetrock) which would allow for

9.5" deep shelves.

[Joe Willmann]

Put the wall to one side of the beam. Then when you finish the side of the wall where the beam is visible, incorporate the beam into the finishing.

You can either wrap the steel beam in wood and make it look like a wooden beem or pehapse put built in book shelves on that side of the wall. Then the beam could be hidden by the panel that covers the space between the top shelf and the ceiling.