Old heating duct to code?

[akdiesel]

I am remodeling an older house (1984) that was originally built utilizing the forced air furnace that heats the house as well as the attached two car garage. It has two ducts (4" x 10" vents) that come into the garage ceiling.
My question is do I have to remove these ducts and cap them off and put some alternative heating system or is this still ok?

 

[rickairmedic]

That is a tricky question. While it is currently against code to run ducts to a garage it wasnt when your house was built and as long as you are not replacing the duct itself you shouldnt have any problems with the inspector .


Rick

 

[mrb]

this is one of those times where common sense should prevail over being able to get away with something because it may be grandfathered. You never ever want a duct connecting the garage to the house. Those ducts should be disconnected and sheetrocked over to maintain the fire seperation.

 

[destroked]

Fire barrier is only one of the issues, recirculating various garage fumes such as fuels, vehicle exhaust and any unintentional airborn pesticides or workshop dust is more a concern to me.
If you want A/C in your garage, I would take a serious look at a mini split unit. They are compact and very affordable, much more so when you factor any ductwork cleaning to prevent things like sawdust build up and static ignition of a fire in your home's ductwork.

I would not keep the garage ducts in place, but if you do decide you wish to retain them, please at least install CO alarms in the house and ensure the vents have filters in the garage return inlet to keep the dust I mentioned out of your newly renovated home.

 

[akdiesel]

Thanks for the quick replies.
It was my goal to go ahead and cap off the duct work and fix the sheet rock holes. Just trying to get a little more reinforcement to motivate my increasingly tired *** on this nightmare of a house to get done and on the market.
I figured the fumes were the biggest issue and forgot about fire guards.
A/C is not a big factor in my location as much as heat. A gas line or hot water lines can be routed fairly easily to the garage for separate heat source.
Most of these damn houses in the 80's should have been torn down and redone.

 

[rickairmedic]

I would bet he only has supplies and not returns in the garage as thats how most mid 60's houses here are that have attatched garages . I will agree if they are easy to get to go ahead and pull them out but if its going to be a royal pain they should be grandfathered as long as you are not replacing the other ductwork. I will say if you do have returns then they should deffinately be removed from the system as you dont want to draw air from the garage into the house.


Rick

 

[akdiesel]

No returns, just heat ducts. The lines are about 4' long from the main trunk so not to much sheet rock rework.

 

[akdiesel]

this is one of those times where common sense should prevail over being able to get away with something because it may be grandfathered. You never ever want a duct connecting the garage to the house. Those ducts should be disconnected and sheetrocked over to maintain the fire seperation.

I will agree with the "Common Sense" phrase. Too many times have things been done that could have caused problems down the line even when it has been up to code. A common statement made by the Mr. Homes and he is correct in most cases. Cost and Safety play a major tug-of-war in construction.

 

[Mike007]

No returns, just heat ducts. The lines are about 4' long from the main trunk so not to much sheet rock rework.

Either way you want to remove them. If you only have supplies, then you are taking air out of the house and pressurizing the garage. The air removed from the house will get replaced with unconditioned air from outside through infiltration.

 

[destroked]

Either way you want to remove them. If you only have supplies, then you are taking air out of the house and pressurizing the garage. The air removed from the house will get replaced with unconditioned air from outside through infiltration.

Correct, if there are not returns and supplies both, the system is unbalanced. You will be surprised at how much your heating bill will go down when you block the vents off. It's not just the lost heat going into the garage, it's the suction that it causes on the rest of the home. Every single gap, crack and leaking window will be drawing outside air in if there is not 100% recirculation of the HVAC's supply and return. The code was revised to ban this for several reasons. If we kill ourselves running a car in the garage, it's self correcting behavior. If we waste energy trying to heat a leaky house, the environmental energy lobbyists want to prevent it.