Hi from Tennessee

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
SpartanEpoxies
House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
scarymary

scarymary

Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2010
Messages
21
Reaction score
0
Well, I am here to possibly get some expert advice on a project my husband and I have to decided to take on. We bought a home that was built in the late 60s, early 70s. It is your typical ranch variety style home; brick, three bedrooms, one bath. The project we are working on at the moment is a carport that was converted into a living room. Apparently the living room was small when the house was built, and I believe that now the former living room area is part of the kitchen. The present living room is about 12x17 and was covered in that dreary old dark paneling until one day I decided I would mud the grooves of the paneling and paint over it. That was a terrible mistake. I had dry compound residue from all the sanding all over the place. The room was also carpeted. Having several animals, carpet is not something I am fond of. So that has to go as well. So here is the deal.........we have begun demo on the room only to discover that there is brick on two adjacent walls. The paneling was attached to furring strips attached to the exterior brick of the home. I have pictures and will post them. I'm sure you will understand what I mean once you see the pictures. Our intent is to hang drywall around the entire room. I suppose my first obvious question is would it be wise to attempt to hang drywall on the furring strips? Some of them appear to twisted. They also weren't screwed into the brick, but nailed, I assume with concrete nails. Without going into too much more detail in my initial post, I would really like to know how someone experienced in this sort of situation would approach this. Right now I am at a loss. I really don't want to post the pictures here and use up valuable space, so I will provide a link to my snapfish page with the pictures I have taken thus far. I hope someone will be brave enough to give me their honest opinion on this.
 
Last edited:
Here is another link......hopefully this one will work. I will try it myself to see.

Sorry the link doesn't work.
 
Last edited:
Mary, the link doesn't work. Posts containing pictures or links have to be approved by moderators from new members. This helps cut down on spam, porn and bad language. Sad but this is a problem, even on a home improvement site like ours. If you have a pic in your computer you can upload it to a message, scroll down on the post page and look for attachment, select the photo you want and upload it. That way you don't have to try and deal with other sites.

Glad to see someone else from the Volunteer State.
 
OK, I have the pics on my computer. I can start an album here and you can look at them there. That way I won't have put any pics in the thread. But I will post one here so you can see what I'm talking about. Glad to see someone from Tennessee is answering my posts. Thanks a bunch.

SDC10304.JPG

SDC10303.JPG
 
After doing some extensive research, I believe I know the proper way to approach this monstrous job. Perhaps someone can correct me if there is a better way, but this is what I found on another website.

Stick Build Framing

To stick build walls, first nail a top plate perpendicular to the floor joists. Next, secure a bottom plate to the concrete floor using concrete nails and an adhesive such as Liquid Nails. Make sure you use pressure treated lumber on the bottom plate as it is in contact with the concrete and will wick moisture over time. The top and bottom plates should be parallel to each other. Use a plumb line to ensure they are parallel. Finally install 2’x4" studs every 16" along the plates. Make sure you measure for each stud prior to cutting, as the floor to ceiling distances will vary.
Click to expand...

Basement Walls

1.
1

Address all moisture and leaking issues first. Once the wall is finished, it becomes difficult to repair water problems.
2.
Step 2

Design the wall layout so the joists in the ceiling line up as closely as possible with your new wall studs. In some cases, there will already be support beams in these areas, installed during the original home construction. If you are building a new home, you will still frame the basement walls after your ground floor joists are in place.
3.
Step 3

Measure and pop chalk lines on the floor where the walls will lie. Cut and install 2-inch-by-4-inch treated lumber for the floor plates (also known as sill plates). Any time wood comes into contact with concrete, use treated lumber to reduce the risk of moisture damage. Bolt the bottom plates into place by predrilling through the wood and concrete with a concrete drill bit and hammer drill. Then install Tapcons (concrete screws) every 12 inches.
4.
Step 4

Install the ceiling plates directly above the floor plates. This time you can use regular 2-inch-by-4-inch lumber. Use framing nails to attach the plates to the underside of the ground floor joists. A laser level is handy at this point to determine the exact spot to install your ceiling plates, but a simple plumb bob will suffice: Hold the top end of a string with the plumb bob nearly touching the edge of the floor plate below as a reference.
5.
Step 5

Set your wall studs 16 inches on center, using the studs in the floor joists as a guide, if possible. The reason for lining up the studs is to provide easy access for future plumbing, venting and wiring to pass through the stud space from one floor to the next with a minimum of cutting and drilling.
6.
Step 6

Measure each stud before you cut it. This is the biggest difference between framing an above-grade wall and a basement wall. Since the concrete floor will likely have slight variations in level, you must measure and cut each stud individually. Use a framing nail gun or a hammer and nails to attach the top and bottom of the studs to the ceiling plates and the floor plates. Insert nails at a 45-degree angle through the stud and into the floor or ceiling plate. This is known as "toe-nailing." You should use three nails at every point you attach the stud, two from one side and one from the other.
7.
Step 7

Maintain a minimum of a 1/2 inch between your new framed walls and the concrete walls in the basement. Because there is always a chance of moisture forming on the inside of the concrete, the wood must stay a safe distance away. In addition, with the studs connected to both the floor plate and the ceiling plate, there is no need to attach them to the concrete wall.
Click to expand...

How to Frame Basement Walls | eHow.com

Does this not sound logical to anyone but me? I don't believe that my husband and I would be able to do this by simply laying the lumber on the floor and building it, then raising the wall because I don't believe there is enough room to do so. After I read this, it made perfect sense to me. The only thing that might be an issue as far as I can tell is how to make sure that both plates are plumb and flush with one another.
Am I wrong or would this be the proper way to approach this task?
 
Last edited:
The only thing that might be an issue as far as I can tell is how to make sure that both plates are plumb and flush with one another.
Click to expand...

You would be way ahead if you were to build the walls on the floor then lay them up in a single unit. Construct the units 3/4" short of your top to bottom measurement so they will lay up and clear the floor joists above. Then, use shims to drive between the top plate and the floor joist before nailing the unit in place at each joist. This way you won't have to plumb the plates and you can easily adjust for existing errors that you will miss otherwise.:)
 
I don't believe we have the necessary space to be able to construct, then raise the wall. The ceilings are 10 ft high. I also believe we are going to run into another problem, and that would be with those what I am assuming are headers at the top of three of the walls. You can see the foam green paint on them at the top of the walls. We want to hang drywall around the entire room. How do we adjust for those headers having an overhang from the rest of the wall?

http://www.houserepairtalk.com/members/scarymary/albums/beginning-living-room-remodel/316-sdc10310/
 
Last edited:
Those things you think are headers are just 2x6s or a trim piece. I doubt they are structural unless they are holding up the ends of the joists at the wall ends.
What is with the brick behind the 2x4s on the wall? The walls are brick and hold the joists is my bet.
You need to find what you have there, more pics of those connections will help.
 
Are you saying those are fascia? Those aren't two by fours on the wall. They are furring strips. They were attached to the wall for hanging paneling when the conversion was done. Those two brick walls at one time were the exterior walls I believe of a carport. It's not that hard to understand if you first understand how people used to convert their garages or carports to living space back in the 70s. Surely this isn't new to you guys.
 
Bud, people around here used to convert their garages/carports to living areas all the time back in the 70s. My parents did. But their garage was drywalled all around expect where the garage door was. They just carpeted and hung that yucky dark brown paneling around the room after the remodel. It looked ok for that time era. We even had the old green/gold/brown low shag carpet in the room. It was a huge room. We had a pool table in there because my dad loved to play pool. I had a lot of fun growing up in that house.
 
I can't begin to remember how many garage conversions I have done.

I was lost with the "headers" comment. I'm thinking those things are someone's idea of a decorative trim.:) Sorta like a poor mans crown molding.:) They certainly aren't headers.:)
 
What is that then in that picture with the foam green paint? Is it fascia? That would have been the exterior of the house before the previous owners converted it to a living area. If it is not some type of header, then what exactly is it? It is only covered by paint. It's not crown molding. We removed crown molding from the walls when we removed the paneling. Everything on the outside of the house used to be that foam green color until we had new gutters and fascia installed a few years ago. With all due respect, I am no home building expert, but I know enough to know that those are furring strips attached to the brick as a measure for securing the old paneling. I know that we are going to have to frame a wall at least on that side of the room. I also know that is not crown molding in the picture. I know all that looks primitive to someone who might be younger and might know all the new technology that can be utilized in building today, but I'm sure when whomever owned the home before we did, most likely didn't have access to all of the fancy stuff and knowledge that builders have today.
 
Last edited:
Bud, you will be happy to hear that my husband and I have decided to follow your suggestion of building the wall first, then raising and shimming into place. He removed all the furring strips from the long wall last week. I am wondering if we should remove that board that was being used as some type of fascia or molding before doing so. I don't believe it is actually serving any kind of structural purpose. But I do have a question to ask about something else..........we have an attic door that is exposed that I would somehow like to conceal from the rest of the room. Would framing some type of small interior soffit be an option? Here is a picture:

SDC10318.JPG

SDC10319.JPG
 
Last edited:
I have uploaded pictures of the ongoing progress in an album here on the forum.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top