Isolated Cement Slabs for Each room

Hello, My studio construction has been held up a number of times in Regional NSW due to recurring flooding over the last few months. It now seems all has cleared an the ground is drying out and work can commence again. The building is a 21m x 10m building. We have constructed a bedroom, lounge room and bathroom in the end part, leaving 16m x 10m for the CR and Live Room. Anyway, when we layed the slab, we layed 5 slabs which sit together with a layer of foam running vertically between each slab. So the 5 slabs join together to make one large slab but aren't actually touching due to the foam (foam is a standard cementers foam strip).' The Double Walls will be built with one leaf on either side of each seam of cement slab. What I am wondering, is this in effect a floating floor in terms of, can I screw my walls into the cement floor as I would rather not build any other flooring except for the cement and rugs. Appreciate any assistance that can be given. Regards Vic

Viccy wrote:

What I am wondering, is this in effect a floating floor in terms of, can I screw my walls into the cement floor as I would rather not build any other flooring except for the cement and rugs.

Yes it is. Acoustically there is no reason you could not attach the walls directly to each independent slab. Structurally you will have to make certain the slab can take the concentrated loads. Andre

HI Andre, Thanks for the reply. The cement slab is very thick and has been laid to withstand the whole structure. Regards Vic

"is this in effect a floating floor in terms of," No sir it is not a floating floor. What it is, is an isolated slab. But even that or rather the ability of the slabs to actually maintain isolation, depends on several factors. The substrate or existing ground is the first thing. If it is one large rock, then it may well be a futile effort since each slab will connect to the hard ground and re-distribute vibration directly back into the other slabs. But if the process was that there is intent for these concrete slabs to maintain isolation, then you may have a better than average chance. A typical bed material for a typical isolation slab configuration would be sand that has been wetted down and tamped, as the last thing before the vapor diffuser retarder is installed and concrete placed.