Keeping odors in the garage

[rmorse]

Hi all,

My garage door leading into the house opens up into the laundry room, which is directly next to the kitchen. Whenever I have to do anything with fuel or any odor, my better half can smell it in the kitchen. Any suggestions for containing the smell in the garage? I do feel a slight draft around the garage door when it's closed, so I'm assuming that's where the majority of the odor is entering the house. Thank you!

 

[bdbecker]

Sealing up the garage door to the house is probably where I would start as well. Next step is to create some sort of negative pressure (relative to the house) in the garage so that if air does leak between the spaces, its pulling from the house and into the garage, not the other way around.

 

[ripperd]

Sealing up the garage door to the house is probably where I would start as well. Next step is to create some sort of negative pressure (relative to the house) in the garage so that if air does leak between the spaces, its pulling from the house and into the garage, not the other way around.

This exactly.

 

[Two Speed]

The only thing that works for me is open up the outside doors to the garage if I'm doing anything noxious and avoiding opening the door going into the house as long as possible.

 

[SGKent]

add a small exit fan to the garage. It will create a little negative air pressure in the garage.

 

[Slednut]

I constantly had this problem with my old door between the garage and house. I added onto my garage and installed a new door. Totally fixed the problem.

 

[wssix99]

It sounds like you have a negative pressure problem. Do you have the issue every day? Or just on some days? (That will help you determine if it is due to wind.)

https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/negative-pressure-causing-problem-your-home

 

[Pluribus]

It sounds like you have a negative pressure problem. Do you have the issue every day? Or just on some days? (That will help you determine if it is due to wind.)

https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/negative-pressure-causing-problem-your-home

Knew most of this at least in concept, but this article did an excellent job of explaining it. Best takeaway was the summary: "Remember: You need both a pressure difference and a pathway to have air movement, so eliminate one or the other or both and you solve the problem."

 

[ard]

Doesnt take much of a breeze against a garage door (and filtering in around the edges) to create a large pressure differential into the house. Just a light 1-2 mph of air moving across the home can pressurize the garage over the house

Sealing the human door will help, but reducing air into the garage around the large 'car door' will be more important, IMO.

 

[Slednut]

IMO if the man door is not sealed and there is a temperature difference between the garage and the living space fumes will pass into the living space.

 

[jmarkwolf]

Play your cards right and you can use this as leverage with missus to build that detached shop you always wanted!

Your floor plan sounds just like mine and any spray painting I did in the attached garage would infiltrate into the house making the missus nauseous. Helped getting her approval for my detached shop as a result!

 

[signcrafter]

Sealing up the garage door to the house is probably where I would start as well. Next step is to create some sort of negative pressure (relative to the house) in the garage so that if air does leak between the spaces, its pulling from the house and into the garage, not the other way around.

This. When we would do hospital remodels we would plastic and tape off everything we could between the construction area and the working hospital. Then would put some good size ventilation fans out a window to make the construction area negative pressure and basically pull a vacuum so no dust could make it to the functioning part of the hospital. This was taken very seriously since you had patients right next to where we were working. Depending on the size of your garage you probably wouldn't need to big of a fan to create negative pressure in your garage. My garage is attached to the house and I use an old furnace cage fan and it does a good job with keeping smells out of the house. I even bought an exhaust hose for cars and piped it so that I can run a car in there without filling house with fumes.