Thread: Detached or attached?

Had an interesting topic come up today in which I am not able to find documentation to support my opinion, (so maybe I'm wrong).

The question was if a garage is constructed next to a house and the roof of the garage is connected to the home, is it an attached garage?

My opinion is if there is a shared wall between the house and the garage it is attached, other wise someone built a breezeway between the house and the garage.

I realize a homeowners association and a taxing body might make thier own rules as to what they feel constitutes attached for their own purposes, but what do you think and do you have documentation to back it up?

Thanks!

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attached

Originally Posted by Bill Penn

what do you think and do you have documentation to back it up?

I'm going to say "sorta" and back it up with well established opinion.

Seriously - let the AHJ decide that one.

Originally Posted by Bill Penn

Had an interesting topic come up today in which I am not able to find documentation to support my opinion, (so maybe I'm wrong).

The question was if a garage is constructed next to a house and the roof of the garage is connected to the home, is it an attached garage?

My opinion is if there is a shared wall between the house and the garage it is attached, other wise someone built a breezeway between the house and the garage.

I realize a homeowners association and a taxing body might make thier own rules as to what they feel constitutes attached for their own purposes, but what do you think and do you have documentation to back it up?

Thanks!

Well, if the garage is connected to the house by a roof and a common wall then I would call it attached. If the garage is 15 feet or whatever away from the main house and a walkway with a roof (what I call a dog run) is connecting them then I would call it a detached garage.

Originally Posted by Scott Patterson

If the garage is 15 feet or whatever away from the main house and a walkway with a roof (what I call a dog run) is connecting them then I would call it a detached garage.

It is still attached.

If it is attached in any way structurally, not electrical conduit, etc., then it is attached. It could be attached by a footing, wall, roof, open beam walkway, etc., even if the attaching structure was 200 feet long.

Likewise, if nothing attached the house and the garage together structurally, then it is detached, even if only 1 inch apart. If you could, theoretically speaking here, swing a chain saw down between them, all the way down to the footings, and not hit anything (other than possibly electrical, phone, water piping, etc.), then it was be detached.

Originally Posted by Jerry Peck

It is still attached.

If it is attached in any way structurally, not electrical conduit, etc., then it is attached. It could be attached by a footing, wall, roof, open beam walkway, etc., even if the attaching structure was 200 feet long.

Likewise, if nothing attached the house and the garage together structurally, then it is detached, even if only 1 inch apart. If you could, theoretically speaking here, swing a chain saw down between them, all the way down to the footings, and not hit anything (other than possibly electrical, phone, water piping, etc.), then it was be detached.

I agree with ya, but.... In my book a detached structure is not attached in anyway to the main house..

There is a house I went to recently. There are two houses on one lot The houses are 8-10 feet apart. The roof of the one house is attached to the other house. They both have separate addresses.

Originally Posted by Scott Patterson

I agree with ya, but.... In my book a detached structure is not attached in anyway to the main house..

"In my book a detached structure is not attached in anyway to the main house."

That's what I said, but not what you said ... "a detached structure is not attached in anyway to the main house" ... and if there is a breezeway connecting the two together, regardless how long it is, it is attached as they are attached in some way - via that breezeway.

Unless the breezeway is not attached to at least one of them at one end or the other.

Originally Posted by Robert Ernst

There is a house I went to recently. There are two houses on one lot The houses are 8-10 feet apart. The roof of the one house is attached to the other house. They both have separate addresses.

You can have separate addresses and be attached, it is done all the time with townhouses, duplexes, triplexes, quads, row houses, etc., where they are attached such that they share one or more common walls.

The critical thing is this: how are they *separated*, i.e., what is the fire-separation, what was used, how was it done, etc.

I have seen that, two houses attached by a bit of roof, where the zoning allowed a duplex but not 2 SFD's.

Semantics again ? Look at it as some framing that was omitted / left out / removed. However; a good argument would be that with no shared foundation it is detached. Toe-may-toe - - - Toe-maw-toe.

Originally Posted by Garry Blankenship

Semantics again ? Look at it as some framing that was omitted / left out / removed. However; a good argument would be that with no shared foundation it is detached. Toe-may-toe - - - Toe-maw-toe.

Footing?

"Any" structural attachment which could allow for the transfer of loads would be "attached".

Originally Posted by Jerry Peck

"In my book a detached structure is not attached in anyway to the main house."

That's what I said, but not what you said ... "a detached structure is not attached in anyway to the main house" ... and if there is a breezeway connecting the two together, regardless how long it is, it is attached as they are attached in some way - via that breezeway.

Unless the breezeway is not attached to at least one of them at one end or the other.

I had a brain fart.

If you are asking the question in regards to fire separation then the answer would also be if the "detached" garage was within 3 feet of the main building, then that wall(s) would be subject to dwelling/garage separation codes.

The question did not start because of a firewall question. It came up when a home warrantee company refused to pay for a repair because they deemed the garage not attched, even though it shared a roof with the house.

Originally Posted by Robert Ernst

There is a house I went to recently. There are two houses on one lot The houses are 8-10 feet apart. The roof of the one house is attached to the other house. They both have separate addresses.

A builder here connects the houses with a 2x8 underground.