Thread: Garage Utility Room

There was a lively thread here a while back about utility rooms in (or adjacent to) garages, and what constituted whether or not it was part of the garage, etc., but I couldn't find it. I wanted to refresh my memory on the finer points made in that thread that many of the posters here are so good at.

I ran across this situation today. A utility room built into the rear of a two car garage was where a boiler for a radiant floor heating system (visible through the jalousie window in the photo), and a gas water heater were located. The original garage fire resistant separation wall extended across the house end of the utility room as well. Neither of the gas appliances were raised up to 18 inches minimum, and the aforementioned jalousie window was the only source of combustion air for these appliances. This utility room was pretty much sealed from the garage with what appeared to be fire resistance construction, except for the door with the jalousie window, and this included a ceiling area that was visible from the open truss area of the upper garage (no garage attic).

I'm considering the utility room to be part of the garage because of the jalousie window "breach", so if I'm correct, the seller has a real problem here. What I'm wondering however, is can this be rectified by the installation of a proper fire rated door here, and the removal of at least a portion of the utility room ceiling, to open up an alternate (and safer) source of combustion air from the garage for the gas appliances in this utility room?

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Originally Posted by Michael Chambers

There was a lively thread here a while back about utility rooms in (or adjacent to) garages, and what constituted whether or not it was part of the garage, etc., but I couldn't find it. I wanted to refresh my memory on the finer points made in that thread that many of the posters here are so good at.

I ran across this situation today. A utility room built into the rear of a two car garage was where a boiler for a radiant floor heating system (visible through the jalousie window in the photo), and a gas water heater were located. The original garage fire resistant separation wall extended across the house end of the utility room as well. Neither of the gas appliances were raised up to 18 inches minimum, and the aforementioned jalousie window was the only source of combustion air for these appliances. This utility room was pretty much sealed from the garage with what appeared to be fire resistance construction, except for the door with the jalousie window, and this included a ceiling area that was visible from the open truss area of the upper garage (no garage attic).

I'm considering the utility room to be part of the garage because of the jalousie window "breach", so if I'm correct, the seller has a real problem here. What I'm wondering however, is can this be rectified by the installation of a proper fire rated door here, and the removal of at least a portion of the utility room ceiling, to open up an alternate (and safer) source of combustion air from the garage for the gas appliances in this utility room?

Yep, needs some air and the appliances raised.