Self Closing Garage Door Code

Where a door opens over a landing the landing shall be at least as wide as the door and at least 5 feet long.

Self closing garage door code.

The purpose is to keep a garage fire from spreading to the house. Where the door opens into the stairway of a smokeproof enclosure the landing need not have a length of 5 feet. Vision panels shall be limited to 1 296 square inches for each door. It s code in most areas that the entry door to an attached garage be fire rated and have self closing hinges.

The doors shall close the openings with only the clearance necessary for proper operation under self closing or automatic closing and self latching and shall be without undercuts louvers or grilles. Building owners have until july 31 2021 to comply with this requirement and failure to maintain self closing doors results in a class c immediately hazardous violation which must be corrected within 21 days. We recommend that the door between garage and residence should be equipped with a self closing device although no longer required by the irc and fbc. A remodeler doing a flip house changes out all the doors in the home to update the interior and replaces the old door to the garage with a hollow core interior door.

Here is the applicable section from the 2018 irc. Installing an automatic closing device on a garage door or a bedroom door would allow the door to be opened and closed manually but would help to ensure that the door is closed if there is a fire. Title 24 part 2 section 2 3303 i 1 and i 2 exception.