Garage Firewall Attic Access

This also applies to structural members and this extends to the attic in a common sense type of way.

Garage firewall attic access. The door is required to be self closing. 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. Buildings with combustible ceiling or roof construction shall have an attic access opening to attic areas that have a vertical height of 30 inches 762 mm or greater over an area of not less than 30 square feet 2 8 m 2 the vertical height shall be measured from the top of the ceiling framing members to the underside of the roof framing members. The access cover on a folding ladder is usually a mere piece of inch plywood.

R302 6 dwelling garage fire separation. Each of these materials is combustible so having a wooden access cover separating an attic and garage compromises the fire separation. The wall between a house and garage must be separated by 1 2 drywall. The garage needs to be separated from the house.

In situations where there is attic access either to the house attic from the garage or to the garage attic through the ceiling difficulties can arise. There is a high incidence of fires started in garages due to the gasoline and other flammable materials often stored there and either way the intent is create a 1 2 drywall barrier between the garage and house for fire protection. If there is no ceiling and the roof structure is exposed in the garage then the wall separating the garage from the dwelling must extend up to the underside of the roof sheathing.