Ok so I have come across the following two things while I am prep'ing my concrete floor for a floating hardwood floor install....
First: I have noticed these metal brackets that are coming out of the concrete and going into the walls. Normally they don't bother me, but quite a few of them are actually higher than the concrete floor, so it seems the floor will never be able to expand in that direction because it will be constricted by the bracket. So what can I do about them? Do I pull them out? Do I pound them further down? Any suggestions would be welcome... Here is a picture of it (The metal bracket is in the center of the picture):



Second: After removing the baseboards and carpet in one of my rooms I came across about a one inch gap between one of my outside walls and the floor. Should I be concerned about this? I was thinking it really shouldn't make a difference if the floors are floating... but I just wanted to get someone elses opinion. It looks like this (the picture is a close-up so it looks bigger than a one inch gap... also it seems the builders decided to just dump a bunch of broken concrete in there... Im really not that messy ):


Any info/comments would be welcome. Thanks in advance!