Drywall + Bottom Plate
CZ 3A/4A
2001 gut reno
We were planning to glue the drywall to help create an interior air barrier, but I’m wondering if we will have the room/ability with our flooring choice. We would like to go with LVP on top of Dricore on our main floor (our slab has some moisture issues in some spots). However, Dricore is 3/4″ thick, plus around 1/4″ for LVP & underlayment. Then we need 1/2″ gap between the drywall and the finished floor. With 2×4 bottom plates, we are out of room to be able to glue & seal the drywall at the bottom. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Our other flooring option was to do tile. This would solve our floor height issue for being able to glue/seal drywall, but we can’t afford the labor for an uncoupling membrane. They mentioned installing the tile directly to the slab, but I know the tile and grout could eventually crack without an uncoupling membrane.
Thanks so much!
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Replies
You can just add some blocking between the studs tight to the bottom plate. Since you want to maintain an air barrier with that new blocking, you need to seal it too, so I'd run a bead of sealant around the bottom side and both ends of the pieces as you install them. A pair of nails holding it to the bottom plate should be fine since you're just using it to secure the bottom edge of drywall. Easy to do, and gains you 1.5" to work with.
Bill
Great idea! Any particular kind of sealant you recommend?
I usually use polyurethane sealants for this sort of thing. I used to use Loctite's PL line a lot, but lately I've been using Tremco products, because they're cheaper and seem to work just as well. I have a case of Vulkem 1100 that's going into air sealing projects soon. The color doesn't matter, but I usually use white because it's easy to see while applying in most cases.
Bill