Fire-rated assembly submittals, with every wall that has no listing or a mismatch set aside for your project manager.

Each rated wall on a project starts as a line on the wall types sheet, with a rating and a design number. Your project manager pulls the listing, reads what it names for studs, board, fasteners, tape and joints, gathers product data for what you plan to buy, and works out the joint systems. The package goes to the architect with a log of which wall uses which assembly, and it comes back with marks.

In the test, AI reads copies of your wall types, the listings and the product data you used, and drafts the package: each rated wall type with its rating, the listing number it cites, each item that listing names beside the product sheet that answers it, and the joint system at the head of that wall. Walls with no listing, listed items with no matching product and any mismatch go on a separate list for your project manager. Nothing is submitted, and nothing is decided.

The listing names more than the wall type shows. A design in UL's public directory reads item by item: tracks and studs with a minimum thickness and a maximum spacing, board with its thickness, orientation and screw pattern, then tape, compound and any optional batts. An asterisk marks products that must carry UL's mark. The board item may name makers and type designations or point to boards eligible in other designs, and alternate items can change the fasteners. UL's published guidance says a design has to be followed as written except where an item is marked optional, and each design's header says to consult the authority having jurisdiction before construction. The draft sets each item beside the product sheet you supplied and shows where a sheet is silent.

One sheet can cite two designs. A 2025 Wyandotte County, Kansas, bid addendum cites one UL design for its A2 walls and another for every other A-series wall, and warns that fire and acoustic test references may vary with the manufacturer of the components actually used. BJC HealthCare's hospital standards go further and want complete reproductions of every UL design and its head and base joints on the sheets. GA-600 has file numbers of its own, so one package can cite two publishers. The draft carries each citation as written and marks any wall where the tag, the schedule and the listing don't agree.

Studs are where substitutions start. Notes published with UL's directory call the stud sizes in a design minimums, so a larger stud can replace the one named. Thinner is a different question. For design U465 the same notes set 25 gauge as the minimum for generic studs and runners, and say proprietary equivalent studs, which the industry calls EQ studs, may use thinner steel, must be evaluated for fire resistance and must carry UL's mark under their own framing category. A supplier quote that says EQ and a listing that names a gauge are two different statements. The draft sets what the listing names beside what the product sheet says and shows the gap, and your project manager takes it from there with the design team or authority having jurisdiction.

The top of the wall has its own listing. UL's directory numbers joint systems by type and movement: FF for floor to floor, WW for wall to wall, FW for floor to wall, HW for head of wall, BW for bottom of wall, then D for systems that allow movement and S for those that don't. The digits band the nominal joint width, so 0000 to 0999 means 2 inches or less, and the HW-D series moves to five digits after HW-D-0999. An April 2010 Walls & Ceilings article lists what to read first on a system: assembly rating, movement class, compression or extension, nominal joint width, L rating and revision date. It also warns that a system written for a standard wall may not cover a shaft wall. Where a rated wall meets a non-rated floor or roof, the International Firestop Council's table points to a different test, ASTM E2837. The draft ties each wall type to its joint system and lists every field the package leaves blank.

The field and the paper have to agree. Newport Beach's drywall checklist has every layer of a one-hour or two-hour wall inspected for fastener spacing, penetration and overlap, with fasteners on rated assemblies set by the design. The 2021 International Building Code calls for special inspection of fire-resistant joint systems in high-rise buildings and Risk Category III or IV buildings, among others, and ASTM E2393 is the standard practice for inspecting them on site. When nothing listed fits, the Council's 2024 guidelines say an engineering judgment shouldn't stand in for a tested system, should cover one job and location, and has to say plainly what it is. Your reviewer will look for the wrong listing on a wall, a product the listing doesn't name, a joint system with no wall behind it, and any sentence that sounds like a ruling. These rules are summarized for context only and are not code or legal advice.

Given your reviewer's yes, new rated wall packages get the same draft for about 30 days.

Your project manager reviews every package and decides every rated-assembly question before anything leaves, and anything unusual still goes to the design team or the authority having jurisdiction.

Drafts keep being compared with what you would have sent. Any further job is priced on its own.