I need to caulk around several wire penetrations. The holes vary from about 1/2″ to an inch. Trying to apply expensive fire rated caulk to some of these holes often proves to be wasteful as the caulk tends to fall through the hole as I’m trying to seal it off. Is there a trick to minimizing the waste? Is there another material besides caulk — some kind of putty for instance — that would be fire resistant and code compliant?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Replies
Hilti makes a foam that is accepted here.
Great Stuff makes a fire block foam also. I'm not pushing that, but I've seen it at Lowe's.
http://greatstuff.dow.com/products/index.htm
Can you use fire rated foam?
http://www.jvfirestop.com/fire-resistant/fp200-fire-rated-foam.html
Don't know what you mean by "expensive". I did my whole house with two tubes, which might have cost $40. Not a big deal when you're spending $300K.
I can't remember the product name, but it guns out of the tube looking like spaghetti sauce, and hardens to a rust colored plastic. It is rated for fire prevention for penetrations.
You're right about the "falling through" part. I had the luxury of time... multiple passes with rest time between (not much time though).
There are non slump intumescent sealants, also a rope type ( the one I've seen used is green, about 3/4" diam).
Here all fire related issues have to done to code and by a licensed operator. No one can touch it other than them.
regards
Mark