Customer wanted every cable hidden behind the wall - then the fire inspector showed up

I was doing a new build install up in Fishers last Tuesday. Guy wanted me to fish all the coax and ethernet inside the walls, no surface mount boxes, nothing visible. I told him it'd take extra time and he said fine. Got about halfway done running lines when the fire inspector walks in for a rough-in check. He sees me drilling through a fire block without putting in the putty pads and stops me cold. $250 fine for the builder and I had to pull all my work and redo it with proper fire stopping. Now I always check if there's an inspection scheduled before I start hacking through framing.

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver_ward141mo ago

Thing nobody talks about is how fire codes actually make it harder to do clean work. You get punished for trying to be neat because the foam or putty pads look like crap once they're installed. I've started leaving access panels near every firewall just to avoid this headache. Saves me from ripping out drywall later.

taylor.phoenix1mo agoMost Upvoted

Is the "fire code approved ugly" look just part of the job now, @oliver_ward14? Pretty sure my foam jobs have their own spot on the "before" page of a home improvement catalog.