I was wondering how fire caulking is handled in other areas. For residential what (if anything) is applied into the pipe penetrations. On commercial jobs it is srutinized much more. Also in commercial buildings the cost of fire proofing PVC (if even allowed)may exceed the cost of installing and fireproofing cast iron. Many commercial jobs in my area will install pvc underground and top out in cast iron. Just wondering. Thanks and GOOD LUCK

I let the home owner or general contractor handle it, but usually they pack fiberglass insulation or expanding foam in the holes.

I don't know about plumbing penetrations here. I assume its the same as for the HVAC. We use expanding foam to seal around the firedampers on the garage walls where we have to penetrate with ductwork.

pvc is not allowed for commercial applications in mass. if there is a residential requirement for fire caulking holes it is not enforced north of boston (that i know of).
as a related subject.. sometimes people building new homes don't want the laundry located upstairs but don't want to carry dirty laundry down to the basement either. so they ask the builder to cut in a laundry shute. this in mass is a no/no. i guess big holes are taboo but small holes around pipes are ignored.

Most Burb's in the Chicago area allow Structolite ( I think that's how it's spelled ) And fire caulk cost about 15 to 20 buck's a tube.
Rocky

Yea and 2000*furnace cement is $2.00 a tube!all fire caulk is not the same some is supposed to expand some does'nt but the price is still up there,Stopping a draft is the key to stopping a fire from spreading ,seems rather silly to have wooden floors & walls , caulk rated at 10,000*

If they didn't have wooden floor and walls, how could they blame the plumber when the place burns to the ground and he was working there 8 hours previously, if not the day before.

Only jobs larger then a duplex must be fire caulked, commerical jobs are ratted for one and two hour wall and floor assembles, we follow the UL listings for all applications, PVC pipe meets code in all buildings no matter the size.

You won't find fire caulking requirements in the plumbing code just the building code but the plumber gets stuck with meeting any code requirements.

One last thing after the building is occupied, it does not take long for maintence, communication cable installers and handymen to render the best fire caulked jobs useless after they punch there holes through walls and floors not having any idea what they are doing.

It is always electrical.

Have you ever read a fire report that said; they could not determine the cause of the fire because there was no electrical in the building?

Understanding fire rating, where it is used and how to protect penatrations is the key. UL dictates how the penatration is to be protected properly depending on what material is used (piping, wire, cable,ect.) You could encounter a fire rating in a duplex, the one hour wall between tenets, any penatrations in this wall would have to be protected. It would be strongly suggested to contact a supplier in your area to learn more about what a fire barrier is and how to protect it. If it ever came down to a fire investigation, the liability would probally fall on the trade that made the penatration.

Nope, that is why they fall back on the, "The plumber was soldering copper tubing at 8:00 a.m., and must have left a smoldering ember. The fire broke out a 4:31 p.m. just after the crew of 200 men had left for the day. By the time the fire crews arrived at 4:45 p.m. the stucture was completely engulfed and could not be saved before it burned to the ground." Fortunately the structure was fully insured.

Three business men were on the beach in Miami and were discussing why they were there. The first one said a pipe broke in my store and flooded the place and ruined everything the insurance company gave me a check, so I retired to Florida. The second said, "An electrical wire started a fire in my store and burned it to the ground. My insurance company gave me a check also, so I decided to retire an move here too." The third man said, "There was an earthquake that totaled my business. The insurance company gave me my settlement, so I decided to retire to Florida". The other two guys looked at him and asked, "Earthquake? How on earth do you create an earthquake?"

OH! You mean that huge "access hole" in the demising partition should not be there?