2” gap under baseboard heating unit and

3 years ago

I’m renovating a home with balloon construction. Built in 1900.
All of the plaster walls were gutted, insulated and then drywalled. New baseboard covers were installed on the exterior walls and there are gaps underneath that are at least 2” high between the floor and bottom of the wall. Some areas insulation can be seen and others it’s just open space into the wall cavity. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way and best materials to use to fill this. I feel like the drywallers should have made sure the material came down to within the 1/2” from the floor. Please help.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (4)

Michelle Roberts
Original Author
3 years ago
This is what the gaps look like.
PRO
GN Builders L.L.C
3 years ago
Yes, the drywall should go down to the floor. Baseboards can be easily removed to fill that gap and re-attached, that would be the easiest and the right way to do this.

Is there another floor layer that goes on top of the existing one or this is it?
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Travis Johnson
3 years ago
I am assuming the room was 8 ft 2” and that is why they did not go all the way to the floor? But i would have thought the baseboard could be lower too?

Its not professional but if that is the case I can see why they did it but can not justify their professionalism of course.

If it was my house i would just rip down a pine board and fill the gap that way. Before i did that though i would make sure i got outlets everywhere that i wanted them. What a great place to run wires for new outlets
3onthetree
3 years ago
Baseboard heating needs a space at bottom to allow air movement to circulate. Not sure if your cover allows for that being integrated into the shape.

What is critical is that a balloon framed house needs to have fireblocking installed between floors, and that would be in between the vertical studs. Your batt insulation is acceptable for that purpose, if it is closing any spaces between floors (including the floor which looks to fall shy of the wall). To accomplish that the batts may need to be compressed and stuffed, which then compromises it's insulation capacity for your wall. You can see in the pic the variation in workmanship, so I do not know of inspectors who would allow the batts to be open in a situation like this, without any drywall covering it.

Even if there is wood fireblocking under the batts, the drywall should really extend to the floor, so as GN said remove baseboads and try again.