By the way cutting a hole in the door to install a pet door flap voids the 20 minute rating.
Single family residence garage door fire rating.
The international residential code table is similar.
This formal technical opinion is intended to deal.
Other openings between the garage and residence shall be equipped with solid wood doors not less than 13 8 inches 35 mm.
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.
Particularly when the home can be built with fire rated door and door housing as a solution to eliminate being a part of these statistics doors must be properly maintained and are closed and latched in the event of a fire.
The department of community affairs has been made aware of inconsistent enforcement of the requirements for fire separation when private garages are located beneath living space in single family home construction.
To be clear fire doors are minute and hourly rated assemblies.
1 where a required door is operated by power such as a door with photo electric actuated mechanism that opens the door upon the approach of a person or a door with power assisted manual operation the design shall be such that in event of power failure the door may be opened manually to permit exit travel or closed to safeguard means of egress.
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.
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.
Door to house this is the only place where any fire rating is specified.
The door cannot open directly onto a room used for sleeping purposes bedroom and must be one of the following types.
Likely needs a self closure device.
Additionally with a fire rated garage door installed on the home the owner can take advantage of the numerous features.
So for all these reasons the international residential code irc and residential edition of the florida building code fbc r302 5 have safety standards for a door that separates the garage from the house interior.
Doors between a house and a garage can be one of three types take your pick.
Openings from a private garage directly into a room used for sleeping purposes shall not be permitted.
Solid wood at least 1 3 8 thick.
Solid or honeycomb core steel at least 1 3 8 thick.
3 21 one and two family dwelling subcode sections r302 5 r302 6.
If the door is not solid wood or steel honeycomb and at least 1 3 8 thick then it must have a 20 minute fire rating.