It does involve wood so I thought I'd start with the 'wreck.

As the only uncle in the family that knows which end of the hammer
to hold, I get, um "volunteered" to "help" the rest of the family
from time. In this case, I am being asked to frame a garage
that was updated with second floor living quarters above.

Ordinarily, I'd just build the framing, erect it, nail it to the floor
with a .22 nailer, and screw it into the joists above. Unfortunately,
the ceiling is already drywalled and there is no way to determine
exactly where the joists are, what is ductwork, what is conduit,
what is venting. The quality of construction in this house is so
uneven, I rather doubt I can count on it having been built to any
real standard. The walls of the garage are cinder block.
Is it feasible to put cleats on the cinder and secure the studding
to those cleats? I sort of don't think .22 nailing into cinder block
is a great idea so does this mean I have to use anchors to go into
the block.

One other stupid question. When I've seen foundations done with cinder
block, they got filled with concrete. Given this is a garage wall,
can I reasonably assume the same here or could I be dealing with
hollow centers? I kind of doubt it because they built this giant
master bedroom above the garage and I wonder if hollow cinder could
support the load.


Sigh...

And Thanks IN Advance,
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Daneliuk
PGP Key: http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/