I am planning a basement finishing project and I want to construct a wall under the center support steel beam. I know I should construct a floating wall in case of floor movement. What is the best way to attach the top of the wall to the steel beam. The beam is an I beam profile.

You have a few options. Drill the beam, and use bolts. Very hard to do. Or get a power nailer that shoots special nails through the lumber and into the beam.
As far as worring about the movement of the floor in relationship to the steel beam. You should not worry about that. Any movement that is there is so little you will never see it. If its enough to see, you have other issues you need to address then before you begin your construction project.
The trick to finishing a wall like this if there is movement is the way you finish the wall with the sheetrock. The edge of the ceiling rock if your using this should not be screwed to the ceiling. It should be allowd to float. Then push the wall rock tight against it and leve the wall rock off the floor about a 1/2 inch.

quote:

Originally posted by Jammer:
I am planning a basement finishing project and I want to construct a wall under the center support steel beam. I know I should construct a floating wall in case of floor movement. What is the best way to attach the top of the wall to the steel beam. The beam is an I beam profile.

Since any 'wall' or 'partition' one would construct below such an existing beam is not 'bearing'...there is no reason to 'drill' or 'shoot' fasteners from the parition into the beam under any circumstance.

The simplest way to 'attach' this non-bearing partition is to "glue" it to the underside of the beam....

YIKES!