I have a rated wall that needs to be built up to the deck, however there are water shut off valves imbedded in the wall that need to be accessible. The wall is hard lid with a fire rated access panel. Am I able to add a layer of gypsum to the hard lid and call it a 1Hr wall or would I have to build the wall up?
Samir,
Hilti does not design assemblies. Instead, Hilti restores the rating of fire-rated assemblies by installing firestop product(s) where a penetration runs through a rated assembly or where a joint between two rated assemblies occurs. However, it sounds like you are asking Hilti to confirm if adding elements to an assembly would help to achieve a fire-rating. As such, this would be outside the scope of Hilti to provide any guidance on how to achieve a fire-rating on the assembly itself. I would recommend reaching out to your local Authority Having Jurisdiction, code consultant, or the gypsum manufacturer to see if they have any guidance on this application.
Thank you,
Jessica Starks
Senior Fire Protection Engineer