Dricore and perimeter walls
I am planning to use Dricore (or Subfloor) for the subfloor in my basement reno. I will build the perimeter walls first and then install the Dricore, followed by finishing with a laminate floor. Dricore has a thickness of 7/8, the laminate is about 1/4, and I figure about 1/16 to 1/8 for the foam underlay for the laminate. This gives me a floor height of 1-3/16 to 1-1/4. With a 2x4 (w/t) as the wall base plate I am running out of nailing room for baseboards. It seems that it may be necessary to either plan on only nailing at studs, or to double the bottom plate to provide a nailing surface. Any thoughts or practical experiences are welcome. Get yourself a good finish nailer to do the baseboards, toe-nail at the bottom and hit the studs on the top, should work out fine. IMO, though, laminate flooring = junk, JMO, that's all, but I only do hardwood tile floors, so my opinion is biased. you can also add another 2x4 on top of your bottom plate to give you leeway in attaching the drywall and baseboard. DRICORE highly recomends to install your walls ON TOP of the DRICORE This way the DRICORE extends behind your walls an provides full air circulation under your floor and also behind your walls. I am in the very process of doing my basement with the DRICORE and installing the walls ontop. This will eliminate your problem..... Also if you ever have a small water problem you will be glad the whole floor is elevated. i have wondered about if it is better to build the walls on top of the dricore or butt the dricore up to the wall. i assume you are attaching the dricore to the concrete floor with tapcons or similar. do any of the resident experts have thoughts on the pros/cons of each approach? The DriCore is a floating subfloor, it is not attached to the floor. The panals are 2*2 tounge and groove panals with a polyetheyleen backing. That has cleats on it to raise it off of the floor. Check it out at www.dricore.com or at home depot To attach your sole plate to the floating floor, DriCore recomends minimal fasting as not to defeat the vapor barrier. A low velocity nail gun should be able to fasten the sole plate through the DriCore and into the concrete. If your using steel studs, 2 fastners should do the trick, if your using lumber, 3 should do. that gives you an inch into the concrete, an inch to 1 1/4 is what is usually suggested in fastening cases. For lumber you use one fastner every 8', for the steel track its the same, but since the track can be a little flimsy you can also use a couple of short screws 1/2 to fasten the track to the DriCore without puncturing the vapor barrier Hope this helps......... For what it's worth, when I finished my basement using Dricore as a subfloor, I emailed the what goes down first, the Dricore or the walls? question to Dricore customer service. THEY HAVE NO PREFERENCE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. Either way is suitable. Of course, the answer you get may depend on which Dricore customer service rep you talk to... so which way did you do it and why? AT the DRICORE WEBSITE, (www.dricore.com) look for the PDF file installation on page two, it deals with Making Interior Walls. it states here to place the walls on top of the DRICORE. The reason being it allows for air ciruclation under and behind you walls. By installing the walls first and the DriCore within this perimeter the walls will not have any circulation. If you ever have a water problem, odds are that the water will flow to the perimiter, if the whole floor floats, you can create a small access hole or two and use a shop vac to suck up the water. If the floor does not go under the walls, and you have a problem, how will you get back there ? My walls are on top........... To be picky, where water flows will depend on where the basement floor drains are. In most cases they are not around the perimeter of the basement, but positioned toward the center of the basement. I didn't mean to get this thread going again with my comment last night... The sentence that ERIKGENE refers to in the installation document on the Dricore website says interior walls CAN be (not should be or must be) installed right over top of the Dricore. This language is consistent with the cust svc rep's either/or advice. If you haven't already guessed, I put the walls down and then the Dricore. I did this mainly because there were certain items (support poles, HVAC unit, loadbearing stairway walls) that I was going to have to work around anyway. Also, the basement was finished in three phases. The product is great and the floors are warm and comfortable. I'm not lobbying one way or the other...I'm just saying to those that are considering using the product that Dricore's position is that either approach is OK. Also referencing the installation manuals for dri-core: If you're working in a basement where there is already a stud wall around the perimeter of the basement, a 1/4 space between the panel and the stud wall is also recommended. Now, this obviously won't give you as MUCH air flow as building your perimeter walls on top of the dri-core, it will still give you some airflow. Nothing here is air-tight. It just seems more solid to build the perimeter walls from concrete to the ceiling instead of on top of a self-proclaimed 'floating floor' But I imagine either way would probably be satisfactory. Just an FYI, Apparently if you are planning to install laminate flooring, an alternative would be just to lay down sheets of the polyethylene material and place the laminate directly on top of that (for floating floors). I am sure there are some advantages to having the wood subfloor as well, but if you are concerned about head room and nailing area to the bottom plate (and saving some $$ - 53 cents a sq ft for the material) this may be a good alternative. I am planning on trying it out this way myself. Will let you know how it turns out. I am in the planning process of finishing a basement on a 3 year old house. I will have a utility room containing my furnace, water heater, etc., that I will not finish. I may frame the perimeter in order to have stud walls to hang shelves, but I am not sure. Do any of you have opinions on whether I should continue the Dricore into that room? In other words, should I install the DriCore sub-floor in the whole basement? Thanks, Patrick
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