Against fire code

Garage Ventilation
 

Has anyone had mildew in their garage? I have had mildew show up on a car steering wheel and on various tools with rubber handles. This is after returning from a three month absence during which the garage doors were not opened at all.

Have investigated a fan that fits in between joists to pull air into the attic (create air movement) as well as split air conditioners and dehumidifiers. No decision made yet.

One a/c guy said the problem is lack air movement and suggested running a pedestal fan and to create air movement.

Any help and/or ideas are appreciated!

Hi, That is a good outcome.....can you furnish more detail on the company you used...
 

Hi, That is a good outcome.....can you furnish more detail on the company you used...
full name, phone, approx. cost?
TIA

Hot garage
 

One way to cool the garage is to spray foam to the underside of the roof of your house and over the garage. This will prevent the attic air from heating up and will turn your attic into conditioned space . It will be the temperature that your AC keeps your house and reduce your AC costs by 25 to 30 percent or more. It will extend the life of your shingles and strengthen your home. This will work but is expensive.

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I don't think this is correct. I have worked in the garage on a hot day. With the panel to the roof open, a stiff breeze blows from the garage up into the roof. I am sure, simply leaving the panel off would soon cool the garage to outside temps. However, after reading this thread, I am also sure that this would be a big fire hazard. in the event of a house fire, the open panel would turn your house into flue or chimney and burn your house down much faster.

I don't think that will work at all, you can't block your eve and/or roof vents, you have to get in an out of your garage by opening the garage door, it will never be cooler than the outside temp inside the garage unless air conditioned, would be a big wast of money. When I have to work in the garage on hot days I just run a large box fan to keep the air moving, doesn't cool it off but the movement makes it feel cooler.

We recently installed a Carrier split A/C system (actually a dehumidifier for permitting purposes) in our garage and a half, and I have trouble keeping the temperature ABOVE 78 degrees...I have the unit set for 80 Degrees, sometimes 81 or 82. So I'm a firm believer that it works. I insulated the attic above the garage myself (in the Feb/March timeframe) with 10" batt insulation (cost me $600ish) and without this, I'm certain that I couldn't have achieved this. Note that I also had a small solar roof mounted attic fan installed by SolarGuys. Why did we do all this? We were tired of the damage that the high heat was wrecking on the refrigerator, stand upright freezer, golf cart, and motorcycle seals. We should have done this years ago!!!

You’re garage probably already has vent to attic. Mine close to the Central A/C heat unit. Screen IMO would allow hotter air for the attic into the the garage depending on outside wind pressure? Fan might work to cool the attic from 130 plus to maybe 125 or so. But, IMO nothing but going to cool garage except portable swap cooler or some type of air conditioning. Even window fan won’t bring temperature down but make if feel better on the skin.

There should be no vent that allows air to vent from the garage space to the attic space, unless there is a fire wall separating the attic space above the garage from the rest of the house. That would be a fire code violation. Any vent in the garage should vent air to the outside of your house.

There one in my CYV, the house has been sold at least 4 times since 2002. No such violations from inspectors maybe depends on county?

This is an excerpt from the 2018 International Residential Code. I don't know about 2002, but, in my opinion, a vent that allows air to freely move from the garage into the attic would not comply with this requirement. The purpose of the requirement is that, if you have a fire in the garage, you don't want it to spread to the rest of the house.

TABLE R302.6 Dwelling/Garage Separation

Separation Material
From the residence and attics, not less than ½-inch gypsum board or equivalent applied to the garage side.

Who did your Carrier work? Thanks for your post

After reading this thread I did some searching on the Internet regarding DYI insulating of the garage door. There are several different type kits available for less than $100 bucks for a 9 foot door. People claim it works well and gives you up to a 30 degree temperature reduction inside the garage.

So I am considering a foam panel system from Home Depot (about $65). It seems like a pretty easy project. My door is 12 feet so I would need to double that or split one kit with someone who has the same size door. Check out the videos and let me know if you are interested in splitting a kit.

Access Denied (Won't let me post link - Look for Cellofoam Garage Door Insulation on the Home Depot site.)

I could see that helping if sun on garage door in afternoons? 30 degrees? My garage temps never over 100 degrees, probably less than 95 degrees majority of time and sun not shinning on it in the afternoons I don’t see how anything could lower temperature 30 degrees ( which would put it the low 70s or high 60s) other than air conditioning?

Did you have to specify that it was a dehumidifier because the permit would have been denied if you just got the permit as an air conditioner? Or, maybe something in the building code that discourages people from creating living space out of garages?

Do you have any idea how much it costs to air condition your garage? It sounds like a great solution to the garage heat problems if the ongoing operating costs aren't too high.