Fire Wall needed to Duplex my Single family home.

[Ryscha Williams Campbell]

I would like to make my split level property (with mother-in law suite on the lower level) into two separate living spaces and use one unit for AirBnB.  I checked with Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement and they said the units would I would have to have fire walls between the living spaces and would have to submit drawings before I had the work done.  I'll need th e drawing and someone to do the work.Where is the best place to find individuals who do this type of work.

[Eric Teran]

@Ryscha Williams you will need any wall or ceiling that are shared to be at least 1-hour fire rated. Usually an Architect would do this.

However, it is pretty easy for residential. You basically need a 5/8” layer of type X gypsum board. Sometimes you may need two. You can google the national gypsum association, USG, or UL listing for 1-hour rated assemblies. The jurisdiction may request a UL number for the rated assembly. UL stands for underwriters Laboratories and they do all the testing for different types of assemblies. Any of those websites I mentioned will have the UL listing.

Also, if you are splitting the units there may be some requirements for splitting the utilities and entrances. Good Luck.