I know that the wall between my home and attached garage is a double thickness of drywall for fire resistance purposes. Am I violating code or reducing the level of protection by drilling a hole to bring out a new electrical circuit? Can I place an outlet box in the firewall? Are there ways I can/should do this to remain code-compliant?
Thanks.
Both layers of gypsum board are required to meet code. They must be continuous or have special equipment. There are fire rated electric boxes. TB
I think that you'd be better off using surface-mount components and conduit. That way you only have the one hole where you're bringing the conduit through the wall.
I did this when I put a sub panel in our basement to service a back yard hot tub, and add circuits for a basement remodel project. I used a service elbow to turn the counduit that I was running along the wall into the basement ceiling. Inspector passed me, no questions asked. And he was a VERY thorough inspector. >
This is a tough set of questions to answer in a brief posting. First lets get one thing straight. The objective is to allow firefighters enough time to save your house from a fire that starts in the garage rather than to just avoid violating the code. The code contains the minimum standards of construction to achieve this. The one hour rated fire wall between your garage and your families home has been built to a design that has been tested to resist a standard test fire in a test furnace at a laboratory. In over thirty years of service in fire and rescue work I have yet to encounter a fire that looked even a little bit like a test furnace fire. Fire rated assemblies just buy some time for the fire service to arrive and defend the protected space.
In order to avoid compromising the walls integrity you must keep any penetrations of the fire wall as small as possible. Whatever you are running through the wall should just barely fit in the hole. Any gap around the cable or conduit should be filled with patching plaster if it is small and fire stopping compound if it is larger. Outlet boxes can be located in a fire wall but they must be a very tight fit in the opening. I will guess that you are talking about cutting in a new outlet using an old work box. If so you must cut the opening as tightly as possible and fill in any gap around the box with plaster that fills the gap rather than just dressing the surface. Boxes located in a fire wall must not be located back to back. Check to be sure that there is not another box on the other side of the wall located in the same stud channel.
If I misunderstood the intent of your question please don't give up just try again. I will help if I can.
-- Tom H
An alternative is surface mounted boxes and the proper conduit. Check out Wiremold products.
You don't necessarily need anything special. When I added receptacles to my garage, I used standard Pass & Seymour remodel boxes (from Home depot / Lowes). Their literature specifically stated that they were recognized for use in 2 hr fire walls.
My inspector required use of fire rated caulk in around wire penetrations through the wall or ceiling, for example for the cable running from the basement as well as cables running through the top plate of the wall.
Your local codes may be more stringent. You should always check with the local building department.
Tim
Provided this is a single family, detached house there will be no code issues with installing an outlet as you propose.
Dan
Thanks everyone for good answers--think it will be easiest to just drop a surface-mounted line down from the rafters where the line comes in.
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