Trimming Concrete/Foam Walls
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Making trim stick to a nail-unfriendly surface. February 25, 2005
Question
How do you install base when you have concrete walls with 2" of insulation on them? Glue it? What type of glue? Do you nail it at all? What about a steel studded wall? Will the 15 gauge gun work to put on base?
Forum Responses
(Cabinet and Millwork Installation Forum)
In commercial work, we generally glue it on with construction adhesive and use a trim nail gun to X nail the base to tighten it to the drywall. For metal studs, we generally do the same or use trim screws for lighter than 16 ga studs. If you have a trouble spot (bow), put a kicker, till adhesives kicks.
The only way I know is to glue it. The acid test is the foam. A regular construction adhesive should work, but read the label and test it on the foam first. As far as metal studs, I use trim screws, and the price of install about doubles (fasteners cost more and this is more labor intensive).
A friend of mine built a building using those concrete filled foam blocks. His had plastic strips built into the foam every 16" or so. Might try feeling around with a nail before you put on the base for something. You could trim screw or nail into them if you needed to if there was something there, but I would still glue it as suggested.
Liquid Nails.
As said above, glue and x-nail.
