Garage Fire Resistive Construction and Exhaust Fans.
Sometimes I have to ask myself, really! What are we doing. I was performing an one year warranty inspection for a client and ran into a bit of a backlash from the contractor.
Here is the story, my client had the washer and dryer moved to the garage to free up some interior space. The contractor put an exhaust fan in the garage to for these appliances. The problem is this now breaches the fire resistive barrier.
In my report I state “ A fan was installed for the laundry in the ceiling that compromised the fire separation.”
The contractor did not see it this way and even went so far to have a “Construction Consultant” state that it was okay.
Well maybe I am not the brightest bulb but I think I get what the meaning and intent of the fire separation of the garage from the home. An regular exhaust fan does not meet that standard and I am pretty darn sure this fan it is not listed for use in a fire resistive assembly.
In this picture the arrows point to slots in the fan housing that I can see light and the grill through. Yeah that will work wonders in a fire.
So I did find a fan that would meet the criteria for fire separation (*cost a lot around $300 to $400). This bad boy comes with a fusible link and a thermal shut off and is a listed item.
The irony of this they could of just put a fan on the exterior wall of the garage and all is well, no fire separation needed, easier to install and no duct work. But the contractor went out of his way to try to prove the home inspector is incorrect. Can we just accept that a mistake was made and correct it?
“If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”
Red Adair
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