MikeH posted:George S posted:gftiv posted:We bought a used house and the basement was drywalled. This was on a outside wall of poured concrete. Firring strips were put on the concrete and the drywall next. some of the firring strips started to pull away from the wall. Firring strips and drywall were never meant to support that kind of load. 2x4 stud might have done much better.
That’s not the proper way to remodel a basement. I wonder if it’s code? I assume they were glued to the wall, not shot. When I did remodeling as a contractor, we built a stud wall and nailed it to a treated wood base plate that was shot into the floor. We nailed the top plate to the floor joists. Behind the wall was foil faced ridged insulation. The wall would have standard electrical in conduit. Those walls aren’t coming down easy.
George
I'm sure codes vary. Here's a video of Tom Silva doing the firring strip method. I did this on one wall in my old basement because it gained me a couple inches in the finished space. I needed every available inch for a 4.5 x 9 pool table.
Looks like Tom used 4" long concrete spikes to anchor the initial firing strips. Those wouldn't pull out from the wall. That looks like a suitable method. You should be able to hang loaded shelves on a wall like that. I suspect the do-it-yourself prior Iowa homeowner glued the firing strips to the concrete. Construction glue doesn't have a high sheer rating, at least in a concrete to wood application. We used to use it to mount spikes on the concrete and the spikes would hold the rigid foam insulation. We weren't trying to hang drywall on them.
George
