Pergo flooring and beam treatment?

Hi, I'm ramping up to start construction on the studio described and pictured here: http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9247 Basic design will be very much like the one's near the bottom of that thread. There is existing vapor barrier and pergo laminated flooring on the slab foundation. Though not my first choice of flooring, my plan was to leave it. It's durable, looks ok, and most importantly it's already there, so I don't need to buy or do anything with it. However, it just occurred to me that this might be an isolation issue when building the interior walls on top of it (as opposed to directly on the slab foundation). I'll be following construction techniques in Rod's book. I'm going to be taking out existing sheetrock this weekend, and it would be good to know if the pergo needs to come out at the same time. Any thoughts on this? Also, One of the weak links in my situation is the beam in the ceiling and the post. I'm planning on using http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/icw/index.aspx with two layers of sheetrock with green glue, + an added layer in the floor joists against the floor above. I really want to do what I can to isolate from above, and my suspicion is that flanking from these exposed beam and post are going to be the weak link in this system. Is there anything I can do? I've thought about adding a layer of green glue/sheet rock to the beam in the hope that this might help dampen it. Anyone have any ideas on this? I don't want to make the post any larger than it is. I'll probably wrap it in some absorbing material (to help with in room reflections, not flanking), but beyond that I think I'll have to live with it. Thanks!

To address your beam - more detail could be provided for the span needed from wall to wall or wall to column to beam. In my basement room, I boxed in a column support and used it as support for headers that spanned to the walls. The beam is never touched by any framing or drywall. It just stands on the floor around the pole and then the opposing walls. Walls If you are concerned with the walls being installed on the laminate, here's an option: Snap the lines for the walls where the baseplates would run. THen take a strong utility knife and cut along that line. Take out the laminate down to the slab. Then lay your baseplate down for the frame and nail/screw down to the foundation floor. With multiple layers of sheetrock you may be putting up - you'll have wiggle room for how sloppy the line you cut and dug down to the floor. Meaning that it would extend off the plate and cover your edge. Just a thought.

Thanks for the ideas. >Snap the lines for the walls where the baseplates would run. THen take a strong utility knife and cut along that line. Take out the laminate down to the slab. I thought of that after posting this. I think that's probably the safest bet. I hope it's not glued down. This does have the disadvantage of most likely breaking the vapor barrier that's under the pergo. I doubt there are moisture problems, but I don't know for sure. The beam runs the entire length of the room (25'). The ceilings are at 9.5', will be dropped a few inches when I hang a new ceiling from existing joists. The beam comes down to about 8 feet, but I want to keep higher ceilings so I'm not going to bring the ceiling down that low. The post is directly in the center of the room (entire room is 21' X 25'). Boxing in the post is option, but as it falls in the middle of a room in my design ( read my post linked above for a description of how that came about), I really don't want to make it any bigger than it has to be. Since the beam and post will be exposed, if they are causing a big problem, I can probably deal with them after other construction is done. I was mostly wondering whether anyone has had any luck with applying GG / drywall directly in this kind of situation.

benjas wrote:

Thanks for the ideas. I thought of that [cutting pergo] after posting this. I think that's probably the safest bet. I hope it's not glued down.

I've had to take these sort of floors up. PITA for sure... I would try a putty knife and perhaps a junk chissel or something like that...

benjas wrote:

This does have the disadvantage of most likely breaking the vapor barrier that's under the pergo. I doubt there are moisture problems, but I don't know for sure.

I wouldn't worry too much about the vaporbarrier on the baseplate. You'd be using pressure treated wood (code) and there are these rolls of buffer foam (I forget the name of the stuff right now...) But here's a picture of the peices I used for my center column plate: Vapor - One thing I learned from Rod on another studio build here was that vapor barrier concerns are at the point of where the heat combats with the cold on opposing sides. So if a room is hotter than the basement wall (as it will be) then the barrier goes against the studs between the wood and the sheetrock. that way moisture to the sheetrock is prevented when condensation occurs.

benjas wrote:

The beam runs the entire length of the room (25'). The ceilings are at 9.5', will be dropped a few inches when I hang a new ceiling from existing joists. The beam comes down to about 8 feet, but I want to keep higher ceilings so I'm not going to bring the ceiling down that low. The post is directly in the center of the room (entire room is 21' X 25'). Boxing in the post is option, but as it falls in the middle of a room in my design ( read my post linked above for a description of how that came about), I really don't want to make it any bigger than it has to be. Since the beam and post will be exposed, if they are causing a big problem, I can probably deal with them after other construction is done. I was mostly wondering whether anyone has had any luck with applying GG / drywall directly in this kind of situation.

Take a look at my example - This is where the detail of the column starts Perhaps it would give you an idea of what you could do... My decision was based in how the pole is in direct contact with the floor joists and why do all that work to put up drywall layers and decouple framing etc.. if I'm going to leave that pole and beam exposed? I'm not sure if I'm reading you right, but that seems to be what you're saying, no? If my span along the beam was a long one (greater than 12' or so) I'd use isolation clips to affix with the beam or the floor joists halfway in between... Consider this - with the pole being 12'' or so boxed in my room, I'm going to have a little beverage shelf... The bassist is so happy about this..