Suspended ceilings and fire codes..?

[spinjector]

The new place I work at has a suspended ceiling in the rack room.

The drywall walls of the rack room go from floor to ceiling, so it's all a completely enclosed space.

Would it be safe to rip out the suspended ceiling? It's a massive pain in the ***.

Or would this be a problem for the fire code, even though it's an enclosed space?

 

[RadioMan203]

While I am in no way a qualified building professional so take this for what it's worth. It depends on if the ceiling is there strictly for aesthetics or if it's part of the building's systems (i.e., some older buildings I've seen use that space as part of the return for the HVAC system).

 

[Brian Bowers]

Usually if the space above the drop ceiling is used as a plenum (return or supply from heating, A/C), to satisfy fire codes and insurance companies, all cabling run in this area should be plenum rated. I'm almost positive that if the area above the drop ceiling isn't used as a plenum, any type of non-plenum cabling can be used. That is why (IMO) it pays to run ductwork for heating and cooling supplies and returns, and not use that area as an open plenum, right from the start.

 

[grich]

I helped wire and have seen at least one other station that avoided the plenum-rated cable issue by running all of the house cables in the hallways outside the studios neatly in wire rack cable trays below the tiles visible to God and Country . Conduits poked through the ceiling tiles above the trays and ran into the studios, ending in a pull box in the wall next to the console. All audio wiring was CAT5, and the station used the whole color palette Belden offered assigning color to function (Blue was generic Internet, yellow was Wheatnet, etc.)