Found a city building code that makes no sense for fire-rated walls

I was looking up rules for a job in Phoenix last week and saw they require a full 5/8 inch board on both sides of a metal stud wall for a one-hour rating. Everywhere else I've worked, you can get that with 1/2 inch on one side and 5/8 on the other. It's right there in their 2021 code addendum PDF. That extra board adds cost and weight for no real safety gain, doesn't it? Has anyone else run into this and just had to eat the extra material cost?

2 comments

2 Comments

ericfox5d ago

Phoenix codes always seem to overbuild like that.

tara_williams15d ago

Ever wonder why they do that?