Framing out a door with floating basement walls

[Belegost]

So I've offered to help a friend finish his basement, and one thing that's an issue is that his place is built in an area with expansive soils, and code requires that basement framing be done floating - wall hangs from the ceiling joists with a 2" or so gap between the bottom of the wall frame and the bottom plate and 60d are nailed through drilled holes to keep the wall aligned.

The difficulty seems to be the door framing, I've looked around and the advice I've seen comes down to "frame the opening in the wall with 2" gap, secure the door frame solidly to the baseplate, and then use 20d finish nails to lightly attach the frame to the wall." The picture below demonstrates:

However, this seems a bit flimsy; my friend has 4 kids, and I imagine during years of them running around slamming doors and those finish nails are going to give at some point. Am I being too conservative, does it seem like this would hold up over time?

My thought was to setup the king and jacks on each side, with a normal header all tied to the baseplate, then frame out the floating wall with a couple inch gap to this full door frame, and shim the door frame as normal. The sheetrock would be attached to the floating wall to cover up to about 1" from the actual door frame with a wide moulding attached to the frame. Is there anything I'm overlooking going this way? Does it seem like it would be more secure over time?

 

[Blain]

I can't offer you specific remedies for this situation, but I can point you in the right direction...
These types of framing connections are used in log homes to allow for log shrinkage and movement.

 

[DanTML]

Man story of my life... What I don't understand here is as soon as the wall actually floats, the jamb will start to bow and not allow the door to close properly, even maybe start popping door casings off (that's another thread all together).

So let's say then you use an undercut saw to cut off the bottom 1/2"... Then if it floats back up, you have a 1/2" gap anyway.

I haven't honestly come up with a good solution, but that picture won't work if it actually moves. I would say just leave a gap at the bottom and then shim like a normal door. The gap if you spray white paint in there will be less noticeable. I always prefer function over beauty.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Sounds like the whole idea is that those nails are allowed to flex. If they "give", replace them. I don't see the problem.

But I'm curious why the door wouldn't also be floated along with the wall, and installed by solidly attaching it to the wall framing and not to the base plate at all?

 

[Humpy]

Sounds like the whole idea is that those nails are allowed to flex. If they "give", replace them. I don't see the problem.

But I'm curious why the door wouldn't also be floated along with the wall, and installed by solidly attaching it to the wall framing and not to the base plate at all?

Old thread, but I think that would work just fine. It would require a bigger gap at the bottom of the door/jamb. The pictured design is an attempt to make everything still look normal even though the house is getting bashed to pieces by soil movement.

A better method is to suspend the floor above the soil, or float the entire house.

 

[NoTine42]

Can you attach 2x4 "door framing" to the wall framing with bolts in slots to allow movement, like log cabin framing to allow shrinkage?

 

[Belegost]

Can you attach 2x4 "door framing" to the wall framing with bolts in slots to allow movement, like log cabin framing to allow shrinkage?

Just noticed this thread was revived. Anyhow that's the option we went with for most of the doors. The door is framed out with a single jack and king on each side, and double up 2*6 header, and this is attached to the baseplate. Then there are a pair of studs attached to the hanging wall on each side, and a very short cripple that hangs to about an inch above the header. Slots were cut in the studs and lags driven through to the door frame. I probably overdid it with 3 lags on each side, but after it was together the result was really solid. To hide it the drywall is hung on the floating wall and ends with a gap around the frame, then we used a wide craftsman style door casing attached to the frame that slides over the drywall. Obviously if you look closely at the casing you'll see a narrow gap with the wall, but from normal distances it looks decent.

The other way we tried first was for the utility closet door which is hidden in a corner. For that we attached the entire frame to the floating wall, as someone suggested above. The obvious downside to that is the big gap at the bottom of the door. We covered this up by getting a couple stainless toe kick plates, on the top we cut slots for the mounting screws, and then we held the bottom together with a strip of half inch MDF. This made a sort of sleeve that slides on the bottom of the door, as the floor moves you would just loosed the mounting screws in the slots and pull the sleeve up and down. This actually came out on, but the other method gave a much more finished look, even if it was a ton more work and lumber.