Recessed garage lighting and FIRE blocking

[Weedwaka]

Does anybody know how recessed cans or florescent troffers are best dealt with in a ceiling with living quarters above ( that is required to have a 5/8 drywall finish for fire separation ) ?

Do you have to build little drywall boxes for each light ?

 

[cbfount]

Did you every get a response to this? I was looking to do the same thing and ended up bailing, because it looked like I would have to build boxes for my troffers due to the living space above.

 

[mrb]

you have to build boxes to maintain the fire rating of the ceiling.

 

[cbfount]

Thanks mrb, that's pretty much what I gathered from my research. Nobody had good ideas on how to construct them. I need light now, so I'm putting in a couple of strips to get by.

Any tips on how you would build those boxes?

My thought was screwing the long sides of the box to the joists and constructing the rest in place using fire rated caulking to seal the top and short sides. Top would be same width as joist spacing and would drop in place (with caulking). I'm not sure if that would meet code. I could attach small blocks to the long sides to screw it all together, but that sounds like overkill.

 

[PASSMORE]

you have to build boxes to maintain the fire rating of the ceiling.

Yup.

I just went with clean, enclosed, surface mounts.