There are many different parts to a house, and many different tasks that go into building one. This has become much more complicated in the days since my grandfather built his own family home 50 years ago. Many things like framing and roofing would be readily recognizable. Others like home network wiring and spray foam insulation would be foreign. To improve efficiency, comfort, and safety we’ve accreted a thousand new individual details that must be attended to – at least if you live in a city with rigorous code enforcement.

Along the way I’ve often been tired or stressed from the pressure of deadlines or the mental juggling act required, but generally I’ve enjoyed most all of the construction work itself. If we didn’t enjoy these kinds of projects then we certainly would never have survived our first two homes, let alone taken on a project like this one! Framing operates in the macro, making large, visible changes very fast. Roofing can be scary due to the heights, and its physically taxing, but it tends to go quickly and also makes a big visible impact. Other things like trimwork or installing lighting are more time consuming, but offer a sense of polish and refinement that’s quite satisfying. Trades like electrical, plumbing, and HVAC require focus and detailed attention because they have substantial practical impact on the livability of the final home. The tasks are varied, but all have their appeal.

And then there are those few building tasks which offer none of these attractions. Those rare tasks that are slow, fiddly, and ultimately completely invisible. Its like when you go on a wonderful vacation in an exotic locale, but it requires a 16 hour flight on each end. There’s nothing redeeming about that part of the trip.

Which brings me to the subject of fireblocking. Over time as various hazards have been identified, the code has been modified to try to defend against those hazards. You can’t prevent a wooden house from burning down, but you can limit the ways in which it can catch fire, increase the time it takes for fire to spread, and improve the alerting methods to drive inhabitants to safety. Code has multiple requirements in each of these categories. For example, our house requires no less than 7 different detectors, which must have both hard-wired power and battery backup, and which must be inter-linked so when one goes off they all go off.

So what is fireblocking about? A solid piece of 2X lumber will take awhile to burn through. Drywall is generally non combustible, so it will keep fire at bay for awhile too. Normally a wall is made up of 2X lumber on four sides and drywall on the remaining two sides. A sealed-up box that will contain a fire within for at least a little while. Fire will spread quickly up a given wall, and will spread laterally through the floor joists once it gets in there. So anywhere that something leaves a hole in one of those 6 sides of the “box” that is your traditional wall assembly, that gives fire a chance to slip through and spread through the house before you can escape. Fireblocking is all the work you have to do to contain that hypothetical fire once again.

That means every penetration for a wire, pipe, duct, etc must be sealed up. And anywhere that a wall is open to a ceiling or floor area also presents a problem. In most houses this doesn’t come up too often. The most common are soffit areas say over a kitchen counter where the ceiling is lowered and some can lights are put in. Well, our house has a lot of both types of openings. I designed a lowered ceiling thorough the hallways of the entire first floor, which cleverly conceals nearly all our mechanicals for both floors. I’m quite proud of that design as it not only serves an important architectural purpose of varying ceiling height to create visual interest, but also is exceptionally efficient in distributing the mechanical services throughout the house. However, such a design creates a lot of open wall / ceiling interfaces. And as for penetrations, all those outlets, lights, and switches have to come from somewhere.

I spent two days alone on the job site just… installing… fireblocking. It was absolutely the most tedious, uninspiring work. I think its the work I hated the most since we trenched that power line in the backyard in frozen ground. But persevere I must because not only is this detail required to pass inspection, but its a legitimate safety feature that we don’t want to skimp on. Its two days of my life I’ll never get back, to do work nobody would normally ever see. Which is why I’ve now immortalized it in these pictures. 🙂