A Fire Door from the Garage to the House
Today’s question is, “Does the door from my garage to my house have to be fireproof or different from the other doors in my house?”
The answer is definitely, “Yes.” Garages along with kitchens, are the places most likely to initiate a fire. Think about it. Your garage has gasoline in it along with paints, thinners, cleaning fluids and other flammables. If your car leaked some gasoline onto a hot engine, a fire could start. Or a bundle of rags with paint thinner might spontaneously ignite when bundled up on a shelf or in a cabinet. It happens all too frequently. You need a good door to keep the fire from spreading from the garage to the house too quickly.
If your garage is separated from your house, you have a built in fire separation by virtue of the space between the buildings. However, most garages are connected to the house and a fire could spread to the house in minutes. So in these cases, the door to the garage must be able to resist the fire for some period of time so you have a chance to escape and avoid injury or death. Most Building Codes require this. The International Residential Building Code, which has been adopted in many locales, requires a 20-minute fire rated door, or a solid wood, or solid or honeycomb core steel door of not less than 1 3/8″ thickness.
I recommend choosing the 20-minute door. The door should have a label that says this. Doors, along with many building products, are tested by the Underwriters Laboratory for safety. A 20-minute rated door has been tested to withstand penetration by a fire for at least twenty minutes. If you want more security, you can always exceed the minimum rating and install a door with an even higher rating.
Fire-rated doors, along with smoke alarms, will let you sleep at night knowing your family is safe.
I’m always interested in hearing your comments and experiences. Please feel free to post them and I’ll answer as many as I can.
If you would like to read more articles about house and home design, please visit my other website, www.about-home-design.com.
Tags: door, fire doors, garage, Residential Building Code
October 10th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
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November 3rd, 2009 at 3:14 am
What is the requirement for swing/hinge placement?
I am planning to install a fire door between my garage and home. The door needs to be outswing left-handed (viewing from within the home) due to the meeting of 3 doors (garage, exterior to backyard and finished basement/addition) at this location in a small amount of space. This places the hinges outside the home (although this is in the garage.) Do I purchase a RH outswing and is this safe or is it really a LH inswing and does it matter?
(Are the hinges non-removable in this type of door? I want to make the door as secure as possible to prevent unwanted entry should someone breech the garage door or a window.)
November 5th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Devenie – I do not know of any special requirement for hinges for a fire door for a garage. But the security issue is important. Using the type of hinges with non-removable hinges should provide the security you are wanting. These are a simple device utilizing a set screw that is only accessible when the door is open to lock the hinge pin in place.
November 12th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Does a side house door into carport that has a garage door added to front need a fire rated door ?
November 12th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
If the carport is completely enclosed, then it qualifies as a garage and should have a fire-rated door to the house. If the carport is not completely enclosed, it probably does not need to have a fire-rated door to the house. But check with your local building officials just to be sure.
April 18th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Hello,
We’re in Toronto, Canada, and live in a small condo. The basement-to-garage doors are proper fire doors, but there is an issue here as to which way they should open. Version A is they should open out into the garage, with the panic doors on the inside, and Version B says they should open into the building with the panice bars on the garage side. Which of these is the proper installation?
Thank you
Chris FootodyjRlon
April 28th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Chris – Your local Building Code will be the final authority on this question. But usually doors into garages of single family residences open swinging into the house. But in buildings like condos where multiple families share the same garage, the issue of emergency egress comes into play. In these cases, the door should swing in the direction of escape. Does your escape path go through the garage? That would be a bit unusual since a garage is a common source of a fire. Check where your fire and emergency exits are and you will probably see that the doors swing in their direction. And check with your local building officials to get the accurate answer for your jurisdiction.
August 10th, 2011 at 8:04 am
Hi,
I have an attached garage with a fire door leading into our dining room. Is it safe to paint it and if so, do I need special paint? It is a dark fake wood grain from the 70′s and I would like to paint it white without changing it’s fire-rating.
Thank you for your help,
K. Moore
August 10th, 2011 at 11:09 pm
K – You can safely paint the door. It will not affect the fire rating.