I need some advice from you guys on a home improvement project I have planned. When we bought our townhouse, we noticed that the back half of the garage was finished with panelling and the front half was still cinderblock. The previous owners said that the owner before them had finished the back half of the garage and actually had a wall put in so that they could use the back half as a den. The previous owners then knocked down the wall so that they could use the garage for storage and their car. I want to keep it as a garage, but this poses two issues for me:
I noticed that the HVAC is connected to the garage (finished half) through a vent coming from our furnace. The vent is covered up with plastic, but I was considering trying to remove the vent and cap off the duct since we don’t need heat going to the garage. I feel like the furnace is not being efficient because it is pushing hot air into that duct that goes into the garage, even if it does not have an escape through the vent. How hard would it be for me to remove the duct work and close it off? Is this something that a professional should do?
When they made the garage a “room” they removed the door that leads from our basement to the garage and replaced it with a standard interior door. They actually made the door frame smaller as interior doors are narrower and shorter than typical garage/exterior doors that lead from the house to the garage. I have noticed that this causes a draft in our basement because #1 the door is cheap wood and does not insulate well and #2 it is not a tight seal in the frame because they did not do a good job modifying the original frame. I actually want to get rid of the door and return the door frame to it’s original size and put a real basement door in that actually has a tight seal and a deadbolt. I know that I can’t do this myself, but how much do you guys think it would cost to have someone else do this for me?
Good idea to replace that door between the basement and garage. Building code says it should be fire-rated. I had an interior door like that when I bought my first house and had to replace it to fulfill the mortgage requirements.
You can get one at Lowe’s for around $100-ish. Probably $200-ish for the installation. Lowe’s subs out their installations and I had them do a front door on my house this year. Usually I do home projects myself but it worked out better to have them do it. The contractor picked the door up at lowes and brought it with him, so I didn’t need to go get the truck. Also, you don’t pay sales tax on installed products. I figured that effectively cut down the installation cost.
That doesn’t sound too bad. We actually had all of the windows and exterior doors on the house replaced last year and our utility bills have been extremely low. The only part of the house that gets cold is the entry area by the garage door because of the thin door that is there. I figured if I switched that out, it would keep the downstairs a little warmer. I’ll have to go to lowes and see what type of selection they have. Did you have to widen your door frame when you switched from an interior door to a fire-rated door?
Pretty sure you can get a steel fire-rated door that’s 32", same as an interior door. I widened mine to 36", like and exterior door, so I could push my bike into the basement. You want to buy one with the frame or it will never seal right.
Cool. Thanks for the info, that really helps. I was actually surprised that the door passed inspection considering it is a cheap wooden door. I thought those needed to be fire-rated, but I didn’t notice it during our inspection.
Now I just need to figure out what to do with the heating/cooling ducts going to the garage.
Double check this but im pretty sure its against code to have a vent going to a functional garage. The reason being is they say that carbon monoxide can get into the vent and backflow through the rest of the house. so if you do uncap the vent and don’t remove it, that may cuase a problem should you decide to sell your townhome. There is also something in the code against selling a townhome with a “finished” garage. In new developments with front entry garages on townhomes where they use the garage as the sales office for the development, they must remove the carpet on the floor and take out anything office related, even if it is requested by the buyer to leave it as an office. Again this is code in SOME areas so just check with your local municipality for exact regulations and codes.
Thanks for that info. I did think it was weird that anyone would half way finish a garage in a townhouse. When you walk into the garage, it is cinderblock for the first 10 or so feet, and the final 20 feet or so of garage are paneled walls with a dropped ceiling. We use it as a garage and keep an eliptical machine and stereo in the back of the garage for exercising during the summer.
In the dropped ceiling, there is an air vent to pump in hot/cool air but it is covered in plastic. I just want to hack off that part of the duct and cap it off before it goes into the garage.
Easy as pie. No need for a professional to do it. Just get some sheet metal, remove the piece from whatever main duct (trunk line) its connected to, then just cut a patch piece of metal and cover the hole.
You cant have any vents from the garage leading into the house for Carbon monoxide or Radon gasses …and if you get a piece of metal to make a patch get the metal tape for duct work
There is a metal pressure tape made specifically for duct work. You’ll see it at home depot. Very shiny, basically like chrome. You’ll see written on it “Pressure Sensitive Tape for Metal Duct” thats what you want.
Will I have to worry about condensation in the ducts or any types of leaks do you think? We don’t have any of those issues now, but I don’t want to make any changes by myself that could mess up our ducts.