[warrenP]

Hey,


Just recently moved to Colorado (Colorado Springs area) from the misery of Illinois - and very happy to be out here! I know that the basement wall framing is different here, in that you float the walls, leaving a 3 inch gap at the bottom. Is it right to call them floating walls? For 'normal' rooms, covering the gap with molding obviously works, but how did you manage the loss of sound isolation with the gap?


Is there anything else unique about building here that you can shed some light on? Fireblocking? We're in temporary housing while we decide on our final location, but I might frame out the basement and put in a basic theater while here.


Would love to hear some personal experience.... thanks!

 

[dingofarmer]

I live up north, but used to be stationed in the springs. floating walls are 1.5 inch minimum. 3 is way to much. if you get a soil test you may not even have to float. my experience with my basement is that the Floor moved about 1/4 over the years. fire blocking for weld is 1/2 drywall or unfaced insulation, you can download the el Paso county guide if your un-sure. I'm about 50 % done with my basement.

 

[warrenP]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dingofarmer  /t/1421885/any-colorado-builders-here#post_22251109


I live up north, but used to be stationed in the springs. floating walls are 1.5 inch minimum. 3 is way to much. if you get a soil test you may not even have to float. my experience with my basement is that the Floor moved about 1/4 over the years. fire blocking for weld is 1/2 drywall or unfaced insulation, you can download the el Paso county guide if your un-sure. I'm about 50 % done with my basement.

We need 3 inches here. The walls around the stairwell were framed out by the builder and they all have 3 inch floats. The neighbors on either side also have 3 inch floats. I agree it is nuts to have that large of a gap... Not too many Colorado folks on the forum so far... will need to start a group!

 

[phisch]

Warren


I believe just about all (if not all) counties in Colorado require floating walls when building on a concrete slab, irregardless of what the soil report finds. I was told the reason for this is because of the Bentonite in the soil out here. Even if the initial soils report does not detect any Bentonite, it can show up later in time because Bentonite travels through the soil like water in a river. This information comes from papers from the State of Colorado, which was included in the soils report from my house in suburban Denver. Code requires a minimum of a 1-1/2" gap at the bottom of the floating wall. I agree with the previous poster that a 3" gap is a little overkill. If your soils report indicated the possibility of 3" movement of the slab, then the foundation engineer would have required an engineered floor be built in the basement instead of a poured concrete slab.The engineer probably also would have recommended a pier and beam foundation if the soil report indicated a high degree of expansive soil.


In the theater I am currently in the process of building, I used a double layer of OSB and drywall on the ceiling and walls (most use double layers of drywall, but I wanted the extended nailing surface). To sound proof the inch and a half gap, I ran the OSB board down to the bottom of the framed wall, left the gap exposed, and then nailed 1-1/2" strip of OSB to the 2x4 sole plate that was secured to the concrete slab. I then placed insulation into the gap between the bottom of the framed wall and sole plate. I then had the drywallers run the drywall to within a half inch of the concrete slab, covering the gap, and then caulked the 1/2" gap between the bottom of the drywall and top of the slab. Doing it this way, I maitained the 1-1/2" gap in the framed floating wall required by code, but was still able to get decent soundproofing at the gap at the bottom of the wall. Granted, if I get more than a 1/2" movement in my slab, I may experience some compression at the bottom of the drywall behind the base moulding, but I will not have to worry about the framed wall pushing up on the main floor joists. This was the best solution I could come up with in regards to framing and sound proofing the theater walls in my basement. I will be curious if anyone posts a better solution in your thread. Anyway welcome to Colorado, I think you'll like it here!

 

[dingofarmer]

when I say 1.5 inch I'm talking from the top of the pt to the bottom of your wall frame. if you were to measure from the floor to the bottom of your wall it would be 3inches including the float. is there an actual 3 inch gap between the two boards? After 7 years my neighbor finished his basement with non float. the inspectors were happy with his soil sample report and signed off. I however not trusting the ground here went with the float. he finished his basement 4 years ago so the code may have changed. good to see some Colorado post.

 

[bolamite]

Welcome to CO, Chiaheads build is pretty detailed. He used mass loaded vinyl to cover the gap.
Chiaheads man cave

I'm finishing my basement right now but since I decided to have too many kids, it's no longer going to have a theater room. I am still using IB3 clips to isolate the interior walls and using the clips with the floating walls is a pain in the ass. The minimum gap per code is 1.5 inches and 3 seems like a bit much but I don't think it would hurt.

 

[Nick in Manitou]

I hope that I am not too late to chime in about floating walls in Colorado.


We live in the Colorado Springs area (address is actually in Manitou Springs) and had to deal with the code requirement for floating walls even though we are in an area where expansive soil is not a problem.


Building the floating walls was not a real problem and actually did assist us in reducing sound transmission to the rest of the house.


Although most folks assume that the gap for the floating wall needs to be at the bottom of the wall, that is not the case per the local building inspectors. Our H.T. is in the lower level of the house with the master bedroom directly above it. By building a stud wall that sat on the floor slab and had its "floating wall" gap at the top, we felt that the vibrations created by the sound from the speakers hitting the wall would be significantly isolated from the ceiling joists.


We used mass loaded vinyl and fiberglass rolled up in the gap to help reduce sound transmission and are very pleased with the result.


There are photos in the thread I posted on the construction of our room and if anyone has any questions about what we did or how we did it, I would be pleased to assist.


I was resentful when I found out that code forced me to build the floating walls, but ended up pleased that we did! It really was not a lot of additional work. (I also resented the requirement for ventilation (supply and powered exhaust) to the room, but ended up grateful for that too!)


I actually still have some mass loaded vinyl, some Green Glue and some SC-175 Acoustic Caulk to give away to anyone who lives close enough (or comes to see Pikes Peak) who can use it!


Nick

 

[Nick in Manitou]

I know that this thread has not been active for a while, but I thought posting here might be a way to let folks know that I have some 2" OC703 that I will not be able to use before we have to MOVE!!!


A job change is taking us away from Colorado (for a while, anyway) and I have most of the OC703 that I picked up for the HT.


22 pieces, 2'x4', 2" thick. One bundle of 12 pieces has never been opened and the other bundle has been opened and 2 pieces have been removed but the rest are in the original packaging.


This is an opportunity to get your OC703 without having to worry about minimum orders, etc.


Also have the supplies mentioned in my last post to give away.


I hope that I am not breaking some major rules by mentioning this here, but I wanted to get this out to a local audience.


Thanks,

Nick

 

[loddie]

Nick,


Sent you a PM.

 

[Nick in Manitou]

Since there had been no interest in the materials for a year, when I did force them on a friend last week, it didn't occur to me to update this thread to indicate that I no longer had the material.


Sorry about that.


They are gone, but I would have preferred that they go to someone on the forum.


Thanks,

Nick

 

[cRock HT]

Anyone know where to locate some MLV around here? Just got done ordering my soundproofing stuff for the build and it was about 100$ for shipping from them.

 

[Nick in Manitou]

I passed the 49 lbs +/- of MLV I had, along with the other materials, to a friend that lives in Denver.


His name is Jeff and his phone # is 303-722-0636. He is looking to sell the materials and said that it was OK to post his number here.

 

[djkest]

Colorado person here as well. Didn't think much about the floating walls issue. I was planning on stuffing some insulation in that gap since it's compressible, and then putting the drywall low to the ground, like 1/4" or so. I don't think you get your drywall inspected so I don't think it's a huge deal. I have floating walls on 2 sides of my theater.


I found a good place for Drywall in the springs, they also sell 7/8" hat channel for about $3 for 12'. Drywall Material Sales just off Garden of the Gods and I-25.

Also a decent place for insulation: Powers Insulation although they are a pain to get to.