Garage/House Shared Wall

[FarmerPete]

So, I'm starting to do some demo to redo my garage. I punched a hole in the shared wall between the garage and the house to see what was behind the walls. The house was built in the mid 60's. The wall was drywalled, and behind that, there is some kind of fiberboard with a black fabricish stuff built into it. I'm really not sure what it is, or why it's there. There was insulation in the 2x4 wall cavity, so I'm not sure yet if I'm going to take down the entire wall yet.

Here are my questions.

1. Anyone know what this fiberboard is, and more importantly what function it performs?
2. Who thinks I should take the wall down? Is it worth it to redo the insulation? My main workbench wall is going to be a different wall, so I don't need to run any electric in this wall (except I'm planning on putting a subpanel near where I made my exploratory cut)
3. If I take down everything, get down to studs, and remove the insulation, what should I put back up to properly insulate, vapor barrier, and fire seperate my garage and house? I'm planning on using OSB for the other walls. I figured Thermafiber mineral wool insulation, and then get some fire rated OSB (OUCH, this stuff is expensive). Not sure if I'd need to put up some plastic as a vapor barrier.

Thoughts?

 

[astroracer]

That's "fiber board". Run of the mill construction method for the age of the house. This was applied under any siding to "seal" the wall. I wouldn't be concerned with it of you don't have to demo the wall.
Mark

 

[FarmerPete]

Well, I don't HAVE to demo the wall I suppose. I'm just wanting to make sure that it's done well. If I ever wanted to do so, now would be the time to do it.

 

[Zeke]

The dry wall is your fire barrier. Why not redo it in fire rated DW instead of the expensive OSB? If the fiberboard is left and covered, no problem. You might want to consider a surface mount sub panel or boxing out the cavity with fire rated drywall.

 

[FarmerPete]

Are there any requirements for how far a subpanel has to be from an outside door? The spot I wanted to use would be blocked if the outside man door was opened all the way.

 

[joeysh03]

like stated before drywall is your fire barrier. I think its rated for 30min. I would just move your sub panel one joist space over so that when your door is open its not blocked. If you do a google search you can find your local building codes just takes time and wording it right to find what you need

 

[Stuart in MN]

Are there any requirements for how far a subpanel has to be from an outside door? The spot I wanted to use would be blocked if the outside man door was opened all the way.

There aren't any restrictions on how far away the subpanel can be from an outside door, it just needs to have a clear working space in front of it.

I'm not sure from your description just how the door is situated, but it's common practice to locate the panel so it's behind the door when it's opened; the reason being that you're unlikely to let stuff pile up behind the door, so when the door is closed the panel is easily accessible. Note that it's possible there are local regulations against this, so it's best to check with your local inspector.

 

[FarmerPete]

I'm not sure from your description just how the door is situated, but it's common practice to locate the panel so it's behind the door when it's opened;

Here are the best pictures I have on me right now. The location is between the two doors on the drywalled wall, to the left of the hanging cabinet that's there. Everything is being moved, so there wont be the pile of stuff in front of it any more. The only other place I could put it is to the left of the door on the studded wall. I wouldn't mind doing that if I could keep it right next to the door, but I was planning on building some storage there, so having the subpanel would be an issue.