Self Closing Door Between Garage And House

Door s between garage s and house s 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.

Self closing door between garage and house.

The purpose is to keep a garage fire from spreading to the house. Of course this door can never lead to a bedroom. 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. This device is installed to limit the free flow of carbon monoxide or other combustible fumes from entering the living area.

R302 6 dwelling garage fire separation. The wall between a house and garage must be separated by 1 2 drywall. Any glass in the door must be fixed and have a 20 minute fire rating. One theory is that it is inconvenient to have a self closing door in that location.

It s code in most areas that the entry door to an attached garage be fire rated and have self closing hinges. This also applies to structural members and this extends to the attic in a. The self closing door can hinder the flow of harmful fumes into the house. However it also depends on the code adopted by your town.

So you must abide by the irc safety standards. For the door between the house and the garage all that is necessary is to install a door that meets the fire separation requirements of the code. There is nothing that says it has to be a fire rated door as frequently reported by home inspectors. For example if a 20 minute fire rated door is installed in an opening between a garage and the house it must be self closing.

Self closing hinges replace two of the existing hinges with self closing hinges. If the door meets other safety requirements then it may be satisfactory to use without the self closing hinges. The irc already included a requirement for these doors to be self closing equipped with a closer or spring hinges but for some reason it is still common to find garage doors that are not self closing.