Single Family Residence Garage Door Fire Rating

While all of this is intended to create a fire barrier between garage and house it is not specified as one hour rating or fire wall by the residential editon of the florida building code fbc or the international residential code irc.

Single family residence garage door fire rating.

Code does not require a fire rated door in single family residences. One could make the argument that given the wording in irc 302 5 1 a fire rated door or its equivalent is required. For instance according to nfirs and on track garage door in phoenix here are several incidents that have occurred and the cause of residential garage fires. Heat spread from another fire 14 7.

When there is a living area habitable space above the garage the ceiling requirement ramps up to 5 8 type x fire rated drywall. Open flame or smoking material 16 9. This door assembly is not specifically required to be fire rated. Solid or honeycomb core steel at least 1 3 8 thick.

If you still want to replace the door a fire rated door is only one option to meet the fire separation requirement the garage and residence shall be equipped with solid wood doors not less than 1 3 8 inches in thickness solid or honeycomb core. In single family homes a fire rated door or fire rated frame assemblies are not a requirement thus the term fire door is not always accurate. Doors between a house and a garage can be one of three types take your pick. Back to top of page.

While the six panel door shown below gets awfully thin at the panels this is still a 20 minute fire rated door so there s nothing wrong with it being used. One example of a problem area is the entry door between the garage and the residence. Hot or smoldering objects 18 5. Solid wood at least 1 3 8 thick.