Finishing a Basement - Part 7 - Fire Blocking
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2020
- Part 7 of my basement finishing project.
This video discusses methods to meet IBC 2006 fire blocking requirements when using a foam insulation system on basement walls to create moisture and damp proofing as described in the previous videos of this series.
Prior to starting my project, I had a hard time finding useful information about how to design a basement with the best protection against water and the mold, mildew, mustiness, and rot that eventually come with it. This design is the result of quite a bit of research and discussion with building professionals. I hope this might be helpful to those of you embarking on your own basement finishing or remodeling project.
Video Links for this series
Part 7 - Fire Blocking: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 6e - Framing a Steel Beam: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 6d - Enclosing Support Posts: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 6b - Framing a Soffit: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 6a - Framing Challenges: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 5d - Setting and Plumbing: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 5c - Determining Stud Heights: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 5b - Locating Studs for you Wall: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 5a - Laying Out Interior Walls: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 4 - Laying Out Exterior Walls: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 3 - Attaching Walls to Floor: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 2 - Floor Insulation and Floating Sub Floor: • Finishing a Basement -...
Part 1 - Insulation & Damp-Proofing: • Finishing a Basement -...
Music Credits:
"Bustin Loose (with lead)" by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Artist: audionautix.com/.
"Heavy Drums Bass" by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/..., Artist: audionautix.com/
"Then a Left Turn" by Jeremy Korpas
"Impala Returns"
"Street Smart"
"Tied Up" by Silent Partner
"Tight Perm" by Silent Partner 
Хобби
An excellent explanation of proper fire-blocking and it's perposes for a finished basement!
Thanks for the positive feedback.
Go Sabres!!!! Thanks for the guide, going to be finishing my basement in the coming weeks
This series has been amazing, same system I’ve been using and it’s been a lifesaver for a first time basement finisher running into issues.thanks for putting it together.
Thanks for the feedback and glad it's useful!
Man. You explain it so well.
Thanks!
Nice video. Other than cost I see no downside to just loading every cavity with rockwool. Insulation, sound proofing, and fire resistance are all great features.
Thanks for the video, always wanted to see a video that went more into depth about fire blocking and draft stopping.
Glad it was useful. ...and apologies for very belated reply :)
I'm in the process of renovating the mother-in-law apartment that was in my basement when I bought this house. I removed some walls, combining the former bedroom and living area into a music studio with a new, modern, attached kitchen.
I sit down in my recliner with a cup of hot coffee and I select your video to watch. It's 0530 on a Sunday morning in March in Minnesota. It's quiet and cold and dark outside. My living room is warm and silent, except for the intermittent, distant sound of the furnace's fan. My wife is sound asleep in our bedroom down the hall. I only use this laptop for reading the news and for playing poker so when I hit play, I know that the sound will always be either off or set just loud enough for me to hear a talking head. (I prefer to read the news rather than listen to it because the printed news is more detailed and because I am a fast reader and I can skim over things that are skim-worthy. I avoid most news videos and I often use close captions for the few video news segments that I choose to watch.)
Your video starts. I notice that the sound is off and I leave it that way because I know that
the intros on RUclips are often excessively loud and annoying. You appear on the screen, so I turn on the sound. As I expected, the audio is set at a comfortably low volume and you begin telling me exactly what I want to know.
Then you abruptly cut to a graphic. The early morning peace is decimated by an explosion of rock guitar. OMG! OMG! I almost spill my coffee as my startled finger rockets to the volume button. Nope. Wrong button. OMG! Ah, that's the right one. Peaceful silence returns. After that shot of adrenaline, I won't be needing any more caffeine this morning. There is no way that my wife is still asleep.
You eventually appear back on the screen so I bump the volume up again... just enough for me to hear you. You provide a little more good information and then punish me for listening to it by cutting to another graphic. Holy $#%^&!!!
"Come on, Charlie! I'm trying to sleep!"
Dude... that rock music audio assault doesn't add anything to your video. It detracts... a lot... because it's an exponentially different volume level than the rest of the video. And it subtracts because it is a completely different mood and flavor.
I won't ever watch that video again.
Loving this series! Can't wait for more! I'm glad you're including info about fire blocking. in researching finishing my basement, it all seems pretty straightforward until it comes to fire blocking, so I'm happy to see a video on it :) I like the music! The only issue is it seems the levels are quite a bit higher than your voice recording. I find myself turning the volume up to hear you, and then having to turn it back down when the music comes on, then back up to hear you again lol. Maybe tweak those levels a bit, and it'll be a lot more pleasant :)
Thanks for the feedback and glad this is helpful. for whatever reason I do not notice the volume difference until it's actually loaded and published...it doesn't come through that way on the very simplistic editor I use. In the end, my only purpose for spending time to publish these is to share what I've lived through and my experiences as I've been the beneficiary from many others in my life (not really too worried about video edits or winning an Oscar here :) ). Hope my experiences are helping others.
Great content!
Thanks, glad you're enjoying it!
This is a great video. Thank you for the detailed information. I'm curious what you did in and around your soffits.
In my project I actually filled the ceiling and soffit cavities completely as this provided some significant sound reduction on the most offending octave bands between the basement which has a gym, game room, and workshop from the first floor. If you have open cavities between one level / wall and another, you might have a lot more noise transmission than you might guess. And yes, for any others reading this, there are many other, better, and more expensive was to achieve much higher degrees of sound proofing, but I did not consider anything more necessary than what was done in this case :).
I should have mentioned, it also damped the breakout noise from the HVAC system itself when running so you essentially do not hear it al all any longer in the basement room with the ducts right over your head.
Any vids of this finished. Been following these vids. Nice work
I've been planning to do that, just haven't found the time yet to film and edit with work, kids, etc. :). Hopefully soon!
Thanks for the great video, this is really helpful. I am curious about foam insulation and a concealed spaces due to the framing not being flush against the foam. For horizontal fire blocking, have you been required to fire block all the way to the foundation wall since foam isn’t an approved material? Starting a DIY project now and am planning to block between the studs and the face of the foam with Rockwool like you’ve shown. Have you had any inspection issues blocking just to the face of the foam and not all the way to the foundation wall?
The primary fire blocking is the suffocation around the ignition points. This is the key to this entire solution to achieve both the fire blocking and the moisture proofing. Yes traditional fire blocking will require you to extend to the foundation but as stated in this series, you cannot do that and also achieve the moisture control with the foam insulation. Yes this will pass code IF your local inspector understands and agrees with the premise and purpose of fire blocking, which is to control / restrict a fire for a time period and this suffocation around the ignition sources serves that purpose. It could even be argued that this solution may be better as restricts the burn to a substantially smaller space than the 8ft. wide floor to top plate cavity the code allows for. Again, this not spelled out in the IBC code because it does not address how to achieve both the fire blocking and the moisture control combined, so this must be approved by your local inspector.
Do you need an air space between the lumber and the foam? If it wasn't for the PVC pipe you have running around your exterior, would you have built the wall right against the foam? or do you have the space for condensation?
Same question. The depiction shows space between 2x4 wall and foam, and I wonder why as well.
I would (and did) place framing up against the foam where practical. Remember as I described in my exterior wall framing videos not all foundation walls are plumb and square, therefore you need to be careful about just laying the framing up against the foam on the outside walls and then actually have the plumb and square in the end. Then there were some walls which had utilities like that waste pipe which caused some of the framing to be stepped out away from the foam and then had top square that up also. Please have a look at my framing videos for more info.
did you keep a space between the framing and 2 inch rigid styrofoam boards? If so, did you install rockwool in this gap?
The space is only if/what was required top ensure the framing is square (remember the foundation and therefore the foam is not necessarily square). There are three different methods of achieving the fire blocking so it will depend to what degree your local inspector requires it. Having said that, if your inspector insists on some barrier to segregate the 10' horizontal intervals of the wall, then you would need to likely backfill between the stud and foam at those studs nearest the 10' locations. If the inspector is not happy with that then your only choice may be to fill cavities completely including any spaces between studs and foam.
I would (and did) place framing up against the foam where practical. Remember as I described in my exterior wall framing videos not all foundation walls are plumb and square, therefore you need to be careful about just laying the framing up against the foam on the outside walls and then actually have the plumb and square in the end. Then there were some walls which had utilities like that waste pipe which caused some of the framing to be stepped out away from the foam and then had top square that up also. Please have a look at my framing videos for more info.
So I know this video is a couple of years old now, and is addressing fireblocking vs additional R value.
I am in Atlantic Canada, and I'm tackling a similar project in my basement. The 2" xps is up, but when I've added batt insulation, I'm now getting condensation forming on the face of the foam, as it seems by adding the batt, I've moved the dew point closer to the interior.
This has made me wary of completing the insulation and drywall stage, in fear of creating a condensation and mold factory behind the finished drywall. It's been difficult to find any direct information on this, or how to address it. Do you have any thoughts on what I may be able to do?
So you have your 2 inch foam board up. You then put batt insulation. Did you then put the plastic sheeting over the bat insulation? And is the plastic sheeting completely sealed? As in, no air from inside your basement has contact with the air that is behind the plastic sheeting. Because the plastic sheeting is properly sealing in the bat insulation that also has the foam board under that as well. Hopefully, I articulated my questions correctly, lol. I am also in the same process you are except I am a little bit south from where you live. Hopefully my questions reach you because I am curious what you have come up with.
Hi. I have had my construction done for some years now as you've said and had no issues. The purpose of this design was to keep outside moisture from getting inside to the organic building materials. I describe this in the first videos of this series. If you use the foam you need to be sure that is also sealed at all gaps to create a vapor barrier on the exterior side. If you are then still getting condensation on the interior side your walls the surface of the insulation must still be very cold which means you may need higher insulating value and/or add another vapor barrier on the interior side. But it also then means you have a high humidity in the air inside your room, so even after you enclose the walls in sheetrock and paint it for example, without sufficient insulation and the interior surface so cold you'll continue to get condensation.
Great video overall. I am looking at throwing out some videos too for this since there's certainly some different ways to firelock but some practices are better than others.
Do you have to cover any joints created by 2x's that aren't long enough to extend the entire length (e.g., a two 4' sections of 2x to draft stop the height of an 8' stud)? The code doesn't specify, that I can tell.
I'm having a tough time picturing your specific case, so I'd recommend speaking with your local inspector.
@@Buffalo-J no worries! I was trying to ask is whether you need to seal gaps between 2x's if, for example, you create a butt joint. The code specifically mentions needing to do so for 3/4" plywood, but it doesn't specify for 2x lumber. For what it's worth, I didn't do it and the inspector didn't say anything.
By the way, this was the best fireblocking video I've yet seen. Many thanks for putting this together.
I am not aware that you need to do any sealing between butted 2x. The main idea behind fire blocking is to slow a burn so that people can identify and react to a fire before it spreads too quickly. ideally fire blocking would "stop" a fire but that's not going to the case in all circumstances. The rules on backing or not are generally established on how long it will take a fire on the inside wall face to burn through enough to allow flame and hot gas to pass through to the next chamber. Those who developed the rules have some basis on how long a butted 2x will last in a fire at the butt joint. Keep in mind all the materials are essentially butted against the inner and outer walls anyway as well as where the connect. The idea behind backing the other thinner materials is that first layer will burn through faster at the butt so the backing gives you more burn time --> reaction time to get people to safety and try to address the fire before it spreads more. I'm sure others who are experts building code and fire safety can add more.
This makes sense since all 2x are jointed together anyway. This allows us to nail the scrap 2x under the top plate as fire blocking. Reduce the amount of garbage and save the money!
did you use a vapour barrier or retarder or just drywall?
That's all described in the first few videos of this series which you can find from my channel or info on this video.
So what happened to 6b and 6c?
Sorry to say just haven been able to get to them yet. Had lots of requests to get to fire blocking for this plan so I jumped ahead. Hope to get more done in the near future.
You’re doubling up Safe N Sound (R12x2) PLUS foam board (R2.5 per half inch thickness) so you’re somewhere around R30 which is more than double what’s recommended. Not cost effective, and not really beneficial over other fireblocking methods. Plus, with double soundproofing you’re creating a different danger where if a kid is in trouble their parents will never hear them. Everything is overkill here.
I was thinking just that, for the horizontal draft, perhaps using Great Stuff "big gap" will be more than enough (every 10' per code) and "window and door" version on a strip of foam on the top plate, yes, the rockwool in the cavities of the framing and around (not necessarily also behind) the electrical boxes. So the R-10 for the board (2" thick formular 250) + the R12 of the Rockwool = R22, more than most of the required code for basements generally speaking.
@@yvanahernandez and @"c": All good comments. Just keep in mind the primary objective of this project was achieving effective was moisture proofing in a basement; not to achieve a high insulation rating. In creating a true moisture proofing solution, this compromises our ability to perform fire blocking as described in the building code which must must also be approved by an inspector. Fire blocking to code would force us to install approved materials as a barrier between the wood framing and the concrete wall, and hence break the moisture barrier which was the primary objective of the first place. The vapor barrier foam and any other spray foam are not approved fire blocking materials. You can use a fire blocking rated spray foam for some applications as I stated in the video, but fire rated spray foam against a non-fire rated foam panel still will not meet the purpose of fire blocking. Therefore, the three degrees of using the Rockwool described herein are to provide alternatives which achieve the intent of the fire blocking code requirements while maintaining the integrity of the moisture proofing. In the end, it all comes down to what your local inspector will approve as how to achieve both moisture barrier and fire blocking together to meet the fire blocking code this is not covered in the building code.
The background racket aka music he is so obnoxious. Does not enhance the tutorial whatsoever in fact it is distraction. I muted it every freaking time.
Sorry you didn't like that selection. I try to use different music in different videos and it will not suit everyone's taste. Hope the video content was informative regardless.
Buffalo J thank you for your kind reply. Why do RUclipsrs think that crap enhances or even contributes to the content? Do they have that nonsense in any other type of educational format? it’s been 50 years since I’ve been in school but I’m going to take a wild guess and say I doubt it. What I was able to focus on I did appreciate.
@@Buffalo-J The "music" truly is horrible, but that's not the real problem. The big annoyance is the fact that the music plays at a much higher volume than your voice. As you say, not everyone is going to like your selections, but if you at least present it at a sound level consistent with the rest of the video I doubt anyone would even notice. I'm sure this one cost you viewers who didn't bother to comment, but won't be back because of it.
Thanks for the feedback. I really don't even notice the volume differences until the video is published; the really simplistic editor I use must not handle that well. Regardless, my only purpose for spending time to publish these is to share my experiences in developing and building this basement finishing concept, as I found there was a pretty big void out there about how to tie al of these things I discuss together so just trying to pass on the concept and my experiences so they hopefully can help others. I'm really not concerned with how many viewers or who likes the edits or not, and frankly this takes a ton of time to make these since I need to splice segments of video from various days / weeks of work, so if the info gets across to those who are looking for and can use it, that's all I look for. I add some music to fill in silence and make it a little more fun but not expecting to win an Oscar ! :) . Thanks again.
Thanks for replying however that is not music it’s just noise IMO. What people don’t realize how the entertainment industry has controlled the minds and the concept of introducing “fun “to a great learning experience. Do you think they play that crap in schools and universities???
I’ve been in construction for 30 years and when I became a foreman I unplugged all the music from various trades and told them they could turn it back on at 4:30 when they go home. Incredibly they were able to function. And perform their jobs very well. As I said the entertainment industry is just turning the culture into a bunch of puppets. Keep up the good work. I have plenty of other sources to choose from.