# Shop Partition Wall Construction Questions



## playsk8r (Oct 29, 2012)

I am building a new wall to partition my shop. THe area that I wan to partition from the basement is 11'(roughly) wide. Normally, I would have just proceeded with the construction and have been done two weeks ago. But there's a problem. About 8 feet down the wall area, on the underside of an I beam there the main duct from my furnace. It gets extremely hot, and putting raw wood beside it wouldn't be a good idea. I have two thoughts on how to proceed.

Idea 1: I just build 1/2 of the wall, stopping about three inches away from the duct, and use some sort of curtain like material for the rest of the wall

Idea 2: Use some sort of insulating material around the ductwork and then build the wall like normal, framing around the main duct

Thanks in advance for any help you guys could give me


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

Disclaimer: I am not a wood scientist or a firefighter, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn last night. lol

However, according to the info provided in this article (scroll down to the section titled "Ignition Studies") you will see that the lowest ignition point was 315*.

I don't know how warm you keep your house, but hopefully, the info presented will be of some use to you.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Your description leaves a lot open to interpretation, but why not frame around it, staying a foot or so away, then close it in with sheet metal like you were putting. A stove pipe through a wall.

if that doesn't make sense, take a picture for use.


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## Kazooman (Jan 20, 2013)

If by "main duct" you are referring to the hot air supply to the house, then AandC is on the right track. The temperatures are not as hot as you might think. You can easily measure them to be certain. If by "main duct" you mean the chimney exhaust, then it is a different story. You could get a section of the sort of pipe they use for chimney flues on wood burning stoves. The kind with two concentric pipes with an air gap in between. They are made to pass through wooden construction with fireplace temperature exhaust passing through.

Or as an alternative you could just wrap the existing pipe with about 50 pounds of asbestos. That's a classic solution from days gone by.


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## playsk8r (Oct 29, 2012)

Alright, clearly I need to clarify. This is the main duct coming from the furnace, so yes, it is the hot air supply to the house. I think that it's about 65-75 c(I'm in canada, sorry). Although this really isn't that hot, I'm just a tad over concerned about going around the duct. I think that I will just fame around the pipe leaving about 3-4 inches on each side, and about 7 inches of clearance below.

Here's a photo


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

What you're planning is fine.


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## GerryB (May 1, 2011)

Do yourself a favor and deal in reality, not by guess & by golly! Get a cheap thermometer & find out what the surface temp is! Once you find that, then procede to build, knowing the facts!


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