Is An Attached Garage Requyired To Have An Exterior Door

I have an attached garage.

Is an attached garage requyired to have an exterior door. We recommend that the door between garage and residence should be equipped with a self closing device although no longer required by the irc and fbc. Not to be a killjoy because every town state is different but enclosing a car port to make a garage often won t meet building codes. The point is while it might be a good idea to seal the door leading into the garage to conserve energy it has nothing to do with the code intent to slow done the spread of a potential fire in the garage which is the only safety issue the code is addressing. Because houses don t have firewalls it is.

This door assembly is not specifically required to be fire rated. For instance there are fire rated doors that have a 20 minute several hours rating and they can be selected to meet fire department code requirements for residential spaces check your condo or townhouse local building codes for any requirements of fire rated entry or house to garage doors. While not required by the irc it is helpful if there is at least one step leading up to the door from the garage. A remodeler doing a flip house changes out all the doors in the home to update the interior and replaces the old door to the garage with a hollow core interior door.

One example of a problem area is the entry door between the garage and the residence. Walls and ceiling the wall between an attached garage and the house living area is required to be minimum 1 2 drywall. One could make the argument that given the wording in irc 302 5 1 a fire rated door or its equivalent is required. Most garages have a ceiling secured to the bottom chord of the roof.

Fire doors are equipped with self. There is the door that goes from the inside of the garage to the outside yard this is just a regular exterior door you can buy easily. In the garage there are two door types. Because garages inherently have a greater risk of fires cars engines etc there can t be any openings between the garage and the dwelling door or window unless they re sealed with a fireproof door or barrier.

There are requirements for the walls and ceiling door to the house hvac ducts and any other garage house penetrations. Their entry beneath a door. An attached garage is a garage that is physically attached to a house. Doors between garages and houses or dwelling units 1 a door between an attached or built in garage and a dwelling unit shall be tight fitting and weatherstripped to provide an effective barrier against the passage of gases and exhaust fumes and shall be fitted with a self closing device.

Let s take them one at a time.