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Raised sill at Garage

8

87Ambler

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2011
Messages
1
I’m trying to find out if the 4” minimum sill is still required between an attached garage and a residence? It is not listed in section R309 of the IRC 2009. I was wondering if the requirement for a carbon monoxide detector, R315, replaces the need for a step? The situation is someone wanting to bisect their garage, half turned into a game room, the other half maintained as a garage. This new wall would have a door between the two spaces. If the owner is not worried about the slightly sloping floor in the game room, is it ok to have no raised sill? Thanks
 
In the 2003 IRC...yes...just might want to make sure if you are in snow and ice land thatthe pitch is good or might suck into drywall and insul....
 
87Ambler....

Welcome to the forum.

I think a lot of the discussion behind this change was accessibility.
 
What code and what section requires a 4" elevation change between the dwelling and an attached garage. This is something new to me. Thanks in advance.
 
ndtolearn said:
What code and what section requires a 4" elevation change between the dwelling and an attached garage. This is something new to me. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
It's not new....I believe it was in the old CABO code.....
 
This requirement last appeared in the 1996 BOCA National Building Code "407.5 Door sills: The sills of all door openings between private garages and adjacent interior spaces shall be raised not less than 4 inches (102 mm) above the garage floor."

Neither the 1995 CABO ONE AND TWO FAMILY DWELLING CODE nor the 2000 IRC contain(ed) this requirement.

The addition of CO alarms (R315) had nothing to do with its elimination.

Edit: Brain fart. I forgot about the 1999 BOCA since it was never adopted in MI. We went straight to the 2000 IRC/with amendments. Not sure what the code section would be since BOCA moved this around several times over the years.
 
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Thanks Roger. I was hoping this wasn't something I'd been missing for this long. I basically started code enforcement with the 2000 I-Codes. Before I came on board our office enforced the UBC. Was this requirement ever in the UBC?
 
nd, I plead ignorance. I am not familiar with UBC. It has been in BOCA since at least 1975. Also, see my edit above about about the BOCA Code edition year. I doubt very many, if any, jurisdictions ever adopted the 1999 because the development of the 2000 IRC was in its final stages at that time.
 
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Thanks again. Over the years I've had several people ask aobut this requirement. I've always responded "as far as we know it never was a code requirement". At least now I know it was required in other regions of the country.
 
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