Fire Blocking Floor Joists

The blocks must be as wide as the wall.

Fire blocking floor joists. Bonus rooms if the floor level ties into a stud wall. Any time a duct plumbing pipe or electrical wire goes through a floor or ceiling it must be sealed around it with some type of fire stop. The inspector may require you to cover the new insulation with drywall as a fire block or leave some areas uncovered to allow for termite inspections. Building code requires the use of blocking for floor joists that exceed 2 inches in width by 12 inches in depth.

Rigid foam is the best insulation for rim joists. The 2012 international residential code allows for the use of materials other than standard lumber although i do not recommend any of. Additional support for the floor joists is achieved by nailing the ends of the joists into headers. The most often used product is a expanding.

Typically inspectors are looking for fire blocking in the gaps between the foundation wall and the framed wall of your basement specifically at the top of that wall area. Fire blocking locations 2x fire blocking 2x fire blocking 2x fire blocking stringer header ceiling joist floor joist stair stringers the space between stringers must be separated from the upper story floor joist bays. Landings if the area underneath the landing is unfinished the wall bays must be blocked. It acts as a cap at the top of your framed basement wall to contain any fire in the wall long enough to alert the smoke alarms in the basement see illustration at bottom.

Blocking also needs to be provided at the supporting end of a joist. The drywall that is your ceiling is a form of fire blocking. For a 2 x 4 wall use a 2 x 4 block for a 2 x 6 wall use a 2 x 6 block. Section r502 10 of the international residential code states that header joists can be the same size as the floor joists when the header joist span isn t greater than 4 feet but if the header joist span is more than 4 feet you ll need to double the header joist and ensure that it s capable of.

You can insulate second floor rim joists following the same steps shown here if you happen to tear out a ceiling during remodeling. Fire blocking designed to slow down the spread of fire from one floor of your house to the next. Material for fire blocks. In addition to providing lateral support blocking helps transfer weight to adjacent joists so that the floor acts as a unified system.