We want to use the attic of the house we re buying for additional storage space and were planning to install a folding ladder in the garage.
Garage attic firewall.
In one story houses this is necessary when the attic space over the house and garage are open and there is no firewall between the space over the garage and over the house.
Walls and ceiling the wall between an attached garage and the house living area is required to be minimum 1 2 drywall.
Twitterfacebooklinkedingoogle modern construction standards require fire separation sometimes called a firewall in an attached garage to separate the garage from living space and or an attic.
When the garage is finished and no framing members are exposed the ceiling of the garage should be covered with 5 8 inch thick fire rated drywall.
In such case the attached garage firewall house separation wall should extend all the way to the roof decking or garage section should have a 5 8 drywall ceiling installed.
This also applies to structural members and this extends to the attic in a common sense type of way.
Typical garage attic access at least in the majority of chicago land homes including new construction is a square drywall section usually set on four pieces of trim.
Protect garage firewall if installing ladder.
The living space should be separated from the garage by a firewall that extends from the floor to the roof.
R302 6 dwelling garage fire separation.
If the ceiling material is fire rated the firewall can terminate at the ceiling.
Most garages have a ceiling secured to the bottom chord of the roof trusses or rafters and that has to be 1 2 drywall also.
It can consist of 1 2 inch gypsum drywall.
If the garage has no ceiling the firewall between the house and garage must extend from the floor all the way up to the underside of the roof deck.