Is An Attached Garage Requyired To Have An Exterior Door

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.

Is an attached garage requyired to have an exterior door.

In the garage there are two door types. 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. There are requirements for the walls and ceiling door to the house hvac ducts and any other garage house penetrations. 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.

Then you have the door that goes from inside the garage to inside the house this door is special and it s called a fire door. 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. Their entry beneath a door. I have an attached garage.

One example of a problem area is the entry door between the garage and the residence. Fire doors are equipped with self. While not required by the irc it is helpful if there is at least one step leading up to the door from the garage. One could make the argument that given the wording in irc 302 5 1 a fire rated door or its equivalent is required.

Walls and ceiling the wall between an attached garage and the house living area is required to be minimum 1 2 drywall. 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. Because houses don t have firewalls it is. Let s take them one at a time.

Most garages have a ceiling secured to the bottom chord of the roof. 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. No weatherstripping is required for entry doors. Fires that begin in attached garages are more likely to spread to living areas than fires that originate in detached garages.

This door assembly is not specifically required to be fire rated.