38 Year Old Townhome Missing Firewall in Attic

[Nick Ostrowski]

I saw this house today. 38 year old townhome with other units attached on both sides. The right-hand side wall in the attic was concrete block but it had a very weak looking attempt at sealing the top of the block that had failed. The left-hand side of the attic was wide open to the neighboring house. There were a myriad of issues in the attic in addition to the firewall situation. The bath vent ducts were exhausting into the attic and dumping the neighbors' cigarette stench into the attic, the cast iron vent stacks are not properly supported, the dryers were exhausting into the attic, rotted truss member, etc.

Does anybody know when firewall separation between attached units like these became required?

[Jim Luttrall]

I have no idea but it is safe to say it was allowed even if oversight at the time of construction and there is no way to require to bring it up to current standards.
Short of tearing it down and starting over, I doubt the fire separation could even be done properly.
Next, it is possible it was allowed under a different occupancy classification and has been converted. Again, maybe not legally but it is what it is now. Call it and move on.

[Nick Ostrowski]

Nevermind. I found a thread on this very topic from 1 year ago.

http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_inspection/attic-areas-home-inspection-commercial-inspection/26836-townhome-attic.html

[Peter Louis]

Properly It was fine at that time. Also, I did not see any rot, condensate at pics. I would say it very well ventilated. I will give the suggesting but not be picky.