Did my first inspection over the weekend. Went well overall. Question is on the floating wall. It was floated at the top instead of the bottom. This is a defect correct because if the floor were to move it would still move the drywall? I have always seen walls floated at the bottom. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks is advance for constructive criticism.
Hello Eric,
Not quite sure what you mean with your “floating” description?? There really isn’t a wide enough view to possibly SWAG at the purpose for the wall and the flue pipes are obstructing a key point.
Best guess from what is seen here is this is a basement finish out or partial finish out and the framing displayed is nothing more than a non load bearing partition wall. In the bottom left I see a steel column that leads me to believe the strucutral supports were already in place. The two newer pine members (horizontal with the vertical support between them) might have been put in place only as a nailer point for gypsum board or other purpose.
Do you have any wider out pictures?
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It is not a typical framing method but homeowners/carpenters must improvise to make room for existing mechanical roughing and electrical home-runs.
Hope you have more pictures available.
Thanks for the input Roy.
Roy
I’m just putting this out here in case someone is researching this in the future.
In Colorado we need to have floating walls on anything attached to the basement or crawlspace floors. We have expansive soil here and when it gets wet, the slabs can raise up. If the wall isn’t floating, then the rising floor pushes up on the whole house. Putting blocking here, in essence, would defeat the floating wall/floor requirement. Normally the base plate is attached directly to the floor and a second base plate rides these nails so that the floor can raise and lower without causing structural damage. Drywall is connected to the top plate and the floating baseplate. The baseboards are attached to the base plate fastened to the floor. the joint between the drywall and baseboards isn’t caulked so that they can float without even damaging the drywall. In this case, if the floor was to raise, it would damage the drywall but it wouldn’t damage the house.
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Not if the foundation is back filled on the interior with washed gravel. The soil will expand into the voids of the gravel and will not affect the floor. 3/8" pea gravel is typically used for this since it’s plentiful and cheaper than larger gravel. Example:
Another option common in Colorado is a structural floor with what I refer to as turtle shells underneath:
This one is missing the rebar though.
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