Fire wall guidance, Restoring Fire Wall Properties

[DMcColl07]

Hi there,

I am an electrical & instrumentation engineer but I work predominantly in heavy industry therefore, I'm not entirely sure about this one.

I live in a semi detached house and am looking to mount a flat screen TV to the wall which separates me and the neighbor however, I have been advised by the developer that the wall in question is a fire wall hence the reason there is no electrical accessories located on it.

As it is a fire wall, I believe cutting out any area in the wall for a dry lining box or drilling any holes for cables would subsequently de-rate the wall's fire inhabitation properties, for example the wall may be rated for 1 hr pre disturbance.

From a previous life I recall being part of a commercial new build project where by the transformer pen was surrounded by fire walls however, the cables transits where filled with an intumescent foam.

None the less my question is, if I was to mount the TV and drill a 25mm hole to enable me to install cables in the cavity, would this be a clear violation of building standards or would it be fine as long as I used say FP200 and sealed the hole with intumescent fire rate foam to restore the walls fire inhibition properties?

 

[SparkyChick]

What's the construction of the wall beyond the plasterboard?

 

[Paul228]

I'm a little confused.
This is the wall between you and your neighbour.
When was the property built?
What material is the wall made of?
The bit of building regs that covers fire spread is part B, the only other one to consider is Part E, sound regs.
I would be amazed if sticking four BROWN plugs in a wall would seriously diminish the fire retardant properties of the wall.

 

[telectrix]

I'm a little confused.
This is the wall between you and your neighbour.
When was the property built?
What material is the wall made of?
The bit of building regs that covers fire spread is part B, the only other one to consider is Part E, sound regs.
I would be amazed if sticking four BROWN plugs in a wall would seriously diminish the fire retardant properties of the wall.

yes, but he wants to sink back boxes in as well and bury cables.

 

[telectrix]

if it's a "proper2 wall, i.e brick/block, should not be a problem. sometimes youneed to contact your local council, re: party wall act. this is where the council give permission to cut into/alter a party wall between properties. they charge for this. round here it's £100.

 

[DMcColl07]

What's the construction of the wall beyond the plasterboard?

Hi there,

It's a new build, from speaking to the joiner it's a standard timber kit construed fire wall (no brick).

I can get around cutting the hole for the dry linking box by mounting a pattess behind the TV, The bracket depth is sufficient to do so.

The tricky part......

I need to get a cable down the cavity to the
patress.

For this i was thinking of drilling a 20mm hole at the top of the wall, wiring it in FP200 and sealing the hole with intumescent foam at both ends

The next part, i need to get a hdmi & coax cable down the cavity.

Do give it some mechanical fire protection i was thinking of putting them in a copex and sealing as above.

Thoughts?

 

[D00DY_T00DY]

Don't know about keeping the fire rating however drilling a hole at the top, rod down; see where it gets blocked take a mark on the rod to see where there's a nogging... going to presume there's a few with it being a fire wall.

I can't see a problem with using fire rated foam to make good after turning the wall into Swiss cheese. But I'm no expert.

 

[Midwest]

Might be worth having a read of Electrical Safety First, Best Practise Guide no. 5;

http://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/mediafile/100500804/Best-Practice-Guide-5-Issue-2.pdf

Party walls are mentioned on page 9, (5. Legal)