Furring out a brick wall.

[MFortie]

Hi All,

Our ongoing rehab project has us needing to furr out some very old brick walls in one of the houses.

The house (part of it anyway) is reputed to be over 100 years old and I did find building permits from the early 1940's for some of the add-ons.

The walls in question are built of 8" wide bricks; the previous owner had furred out the walls with 1"x pressboard material and did a very poor job. They covered the walls with interior paneling and painted the paneling.

My thought is to furr the walls with metal furring channels (hat channel) and apply drywall (gyp board, Sheetrock or whatever term you use). I need power on these walls, so I'll use 1-1/2" channel and shallow old work boxes.

The PO fastened the furring to the brick using concrete nails and since the walls are spalling when we try to pull the nails, I thought I'd just cut them flush (the pressboard is just falling apart).

My options to secure the hat channel are Tapcon screws or Ramset -- what would be my best bet considering the age of the walls?

Seems like Ramset would be quicker, but Tapcons more forgiving to the bricks themselves...

Thanks,

Mark

 

[JasonW]

Without having seen it, I'd go with whatever is going to be easier on the brick. A lot of that older brick started out soft and has only degraded with time. Had you considered using steel studs, floor to ceiling, instead of hat channel? I'm guessing the rooms are small and you don't want to give up space but they do offer 2x3 versions. This would also provide some room for insulation assuming these are exterior walls.

 

[KenC]

What Jason said!

I'd do most anything but drive that many Tapcons or powder driven nails into old brick.

Even a 2x3 wall fastened to the brick in the middle only, shimmed straight if needed.

 

[Mickey O]

I've done something similar before (brick outside wall that had wood furring strips), I used 2x2 metal studs, all screwed together (not sure of exact size now, this was years ago) and framed it out like you would a wood stud wall and attached at the top, bottom and both sides and attached it a few places with L brackets to the brick wall (used tapcons). You lose a little bit of space but you get a good solid straight wall with room for electric and foam insulation.

I have pictures somewhere if I find them I'll post them.

 

[Mickey O]

You won't believe this, I picked up a negative to picture scanner yesterday and the second negative I put in it was of the steel studs on the brick wall I was talking about. First pic is bad (before digital cameras) but you get the idea, the second one is after the insulation but you can see where you can attach the top plate to the ceiling joists. You could even put the "hat channel" inside a top and bottom plate to attach them and use a few shims and tapcons to also attach to the brick wall.

 

[NOVA87Wrangler]

I'm currently doing the same thing, thought in a newer house (1960s). I decided to forgo the furring strips though and do 2x4 walls (topand bottom plates anchored to floor and bottom of joists) to get the insulation values up. Any reason you're choosing furring over 2x4 walls?

 

[MFortie]

I was hoping to keep a little extra space in the rooms, and I'm wondering how the doors/windows would look in a 12" thick wall?

The main room has (4) old 3050 single hung wood windows that I'll have to replace. ('Cause the FHA guy says the windows need to be operable...)

Sounds like building a wall (stick or steel) might end up being my best bet...

 

[fury9]

Make sure you use some type of construction adhesive like some PL400 or something