Garage air vents

[Russell E. Napper]

Is there any code for the number and size of passive garage air vents "suicide vents"

[Michael R. Boyett]

Russell...those garage vents are a local thing...check with your AHJ..they are not used at all just up the road from you where I'm at. From briefly looking at your town's building ordnance they do not appear to be required and I don't know of any IRC requirement for them.

BTW, some folks might not know what you are referring to...do you have a photo of one? I might but it will take awhile to find it.

[David P. Valley]

Two documents that address natural or passive ventilation in garage door space are the International Mechanical Code (IMC) and ASHRAE 62 which is also referenced in the IMC.

The general requirement is 100 cubic feet per minute per vehicle allocation within a garage space; however, a comment based in ASHRAE 62 reads that garage space air ventilation requirements are “normally satisfied by infiltration or natural ventilation.”

In actuality, the garage door opening itself can be considered a “natural vent” not only because of its obvious capability of opening and closing but also because its area is usually more than 4% of the area of the affected garage space. Therefore, vents in garage doors should not be needed for natural or passive ventilation.

[Russell E. Napper]

Thanks for the replys. I was thinking that there was a requirment for the garage to have the vents installed and to be a certain size per the footage of the garage. I will go from here. Thanks for the help.

[Russell E. Napper]

Thanks Micheal

[Robert J. OConnor]

Originally Posted by dvalley

Two documents that address natural or passive ventilation in garage door space are the International Mechanical Code (IMC) and ASHRAE 62 which is also referenced in the IMC.

Doesn't apply to residential construction. Need to go to the IRC, which is different, and directly applies to homes.
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