Five Wood Frame Partition Assemblies for Multifamily Projects

A wood framed corridor in an apartment building under construction. Photo by the author.

I’ve previously written about how to determine the required fire ratings of a number of common wall types used in multifamily residential projects. Here I’ll take a more detailed look at some actual wall assembly designs that satisfy the fire-resistance requirements previously discussed. In addition to meeting the International Building Code (IBC) requirements for fire resistance, these assemblies also exceed that code’s minimum requirements for acoustic performance.

Apartment buildings come in many shapes and sizes, and there are many different wall assemblies that are used in multifamily design. To limit the scope of this article, I am going to focus specifically on wood framed interior partitions that can be used in Type III and Type V construction. I’ll look at five assemblies that can be used for the following conditions:

• 1-Hour Unit/Unit Dwelling Separation Wall
• 1-Hour Unit/Stair & Unit/Corridor Wall
• 1-Hour General Use Partition
• 2-Hour Unit/Stair & Unit/Corridor Wall
• 2-Hour General Use Partition

Before getting to the specifics of each assembly, let’s take a look at what is required for an assembly to meet the code requirements for both fire and acoustic performance.