Thread: Fire rating between condo garages

Are common/dividing walls between condo garages required to be fire rated. The walls and ceilings between living space and garages were sheetrocked, however the center wall between garages was covered with OSB at one side. Is this allowed?

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Originally Posted by Trent Tarter

Are common/dividing walls between condo garages required to be fire rated. The walls and ceilings between living space and garages were sheetrocked, however the center wall between garages was covered with OSB at one side. Is this allowed?

That would depend on the design and intent of the architect or designer.

The condo structure itself if one common owned (owned by the condo association, and the condo association is made up of all the condo owners) and the garage 'could' have been designed as one large structure for all of the owners vehicles.

There are too many variables which can come into play to definitively answer that as yes or no, but covering with OSB brings up questions for sure, such as: are the garages actually and properly separated from the living units by fire rated walls ("separation" is not allowed between the living space and the garage space in a condo, needs to be a proper fire-resistance rated wall assembly).

Then it comes down to the type of construction the structure is constructed to, and is it sprinklered or not, and if sprinklered is it sprinklered to the proper sprinkler design category, etc.

It really depends on the aplication like Jerry said. Sometimes it is just as simple as someone wanted to separate the 2 spaces. sometimes it is just to keep someone else's kids outta your space. this is where asking questions of the owners or realtors helps answer questions too. Not everything is code related sometimes it is just done for personal reasons. The garage might have been built to code but the wall was after market install. Imho