Powder driven fastners or tapcons.

Brickeyee, what's the trick to using tapcons for that use?

I was using 1/4 thick tapcons, predrilled the wood, put some adhesive down, layed the plate down, used the bit that came with the tapcons in a hamerdrill to bore the concrete hole....and then couldn't get those screws down all the way down into the hole. I tried with a regualer drill, then a 1/2 inch drill, then a hammerdrill, then by hand, all to no avail.

(So I decided the heck with it and used the ramset instead - infinitely easier)

Just drill a hole using a good masonry bit and hammer drill. Make sure the bit is the right size for the tapcon and that it's deep enough. Important - make sure you run the bit in and out of the hole a number of times in order to completely clear out the concrete dust. I'd bet your problem was that a lot of the dust from the created from drilling ended up in the bottom of the hole, effectively making the it too shallow.

Get the right sized hole, make it deep enough, and clear it out (maybe a shop vac?), and you shouldn't have any problems.

Jeff

Thanks. From what you say, I apparently didn't clear out the dust enough.

I'm going to unscrew a couple of them, vacuum, and see what happens.

I bought a device that shoots nails through the board and into the concrete with a .22 caliber charge. I am not sure what the name of the device is but it worked nicely. I bought the tool at Home Depot for about 20 dollars. Basically you put the nail (need to buy special nails for the gun) into the tool, put the charge into the other end, then hit it with a hammer which sets of the charge driving it into the concrete. My home is 50 years old so the conrete was very hard; it works even better on concrete that is 20 years or newer.

I used the same device that ajj157 used. I think it was called Ramset. Saved me a lot of time. If you use it make sure you use hearing and eye protection.

Remingont Power Driver, Ramset makes one, Hilti used to have a hammer type bnut I think all they have now are the ;gun' type with a trigger.
You may be able to rent one.
The Hilti uses .27 caliber (they may also have some smaller ones) and can drive into older concrete a lot better than the .22 caliber tools.
A .27 caliber Hilti with the corerct loads and pins can fasten 1/4 inch steel to concrete with a 2.5 inch pin (it will NOT come out) and even fasten steel to steel.

I have a basement that had a drain put in around the permiter, foilled and concreted over. done about 13 years ago. THe Compnay, dry-basements, reccomends glueing the bottm plate done due to the concrete being thinner and more fragile. would anyone hear have any comments about doing that?

How thin did they leave the concrete over the drainage pipe?
You really only need about one inch for Tapcons.
Using powder actuated stuff might cause some cracking and would not be a good idea.
Epoxy would hold better than the typical construction mastic, but stinks even worse (but at least is not flammable).
Larger quantities of epoxy are available from West Systems and other vendors.

I'll take a pic tomorrow and post it. It was contracted out by the original owners, thus I am not how thick the concrete is, however I do see many hairline cracks.

If you do not have any place to tell how thick it is I would not drive any fasteners.
Mr. Murphy never sleeps and you will end up wiith a hole in an undesired spot.

I would use either epoxy or polyurethane construction adhesive.
The poly is easier to use and sets up very solid. It also holds on both concrete and wood very well.