Comma use: "from the ground up" or "from the ground, up"?

Solution 1:

No comma.

http://thesaurus.com/browse/from+scratch

From the very beginning

Synonyms: from square one, from the ground up, from the top, initially

Solution 2:

There is no rule to be broken here. Your friend is wrong and you are right, unless we're talking about some special case here, but since you didn't provide any further info, I'll assume we aren't.

The comma in the phrase would normally be very displaced. To explain further:

A) If you want the phrase, then no comma!

The fire burnt the house from the ground up.

B) If they are two different sentences:

The plane took off from the ground, up.

The case with the comma, although grammatical, still sounds a bit strange.