Attic airflow

[Genofish]

I have a rambler style house with a attached heated garage. The house has a ridge vent with soffit vents & the garage has roof vents with soffit vents. There is a 3x3 opening in the wall that seperates the house & garage to access the house attic. Is it best to have this open or close it off for maxinum air flow?

[sparcebag]

Close it! Its also fire stop just incase a fire would start.The air flow will let a fire run.

It sounds like the attic has proper air ventilation.

[bryguy247]

Right on sparcebag. Better to keep it closed.

[apegs]

any of you guys tinners?

[Roofer]

If the garage is heated, the maybe you have the garage ceiling sheetrocked. Then you won't have to worry about that opening. It won't hurt anything if the garage ceiling is done.

[fastkaw]

That hole should definitely be closed...The previous posts are spot on.

Where I come from, it has to be 5/8 drywall in-between the house and garage.

Heated garages are notorious for fires in the fire service.

If you want to build a door and still have access, plywood or steel

covered with drywall would be best.

DISCLAIMER: i am in no way an expert, at anyting. anything i say is my own opinion and/or observation, and should never be regarded as fact, unless otherwise stated.

[Roofer]

That's the old thing to do. We don't sheetrock the wall all the way up anymore in the attic. It's easier and more fire proof to do the ceiling in the garage.

[sparcebag]

Seeing he has sufficient vents for attic air flow,Dont ya think its safer with it closed, just incase a fire starts in either the garage or house,just to retard the fire and slow it.Containment save something.

[Roofer]

How would it spread to the attic though if the ceilings are rocked? Did I misread something?

[fastkaw]

I think we all need to know more about the house and it's construction

before much more is said. We are most likely, all jumping to conclusions.

[sparcebag]

fast any way its constructed The safest thing to do with a attic entry is keep it closed

[Roofer]

There are plenty of houses with not only an opening, but the whole thing is just OSB or buildrite.

There are also plenty of houses from the 70's and 80's that have the attic access in the garage. The only problem I have seen is if the garage ceiling is not finished. Then it will short circuit the venting and actually suck snow and rain in the vents on the roof. One guy had a pile of snow under his vents. This was with some older vents that had no screens in them. The screens helped, but the ventilation was the problem. Finish the ceiling in the garage, problem solved and still have attic access.

[fastkaw]

sparcebag---- Yes 100%

Unless I misted something, I don't know if the garage has drywall or is finished

in any way. The garage could be a addition for all I know. That would account

for a 3x3 opening. Is it a old roof line that had a hole cut in it? Is there

access to the garage attic through a scudel hole as well? Are there two holes,

one in the garage celling and one in a wall between two attic spaces?

Is one hole open and one have a cover?

Roofer:

I am not arguing any of your points. I would just like to know more about the

homes construction. I think we all jumped in and didn't have all the facts.

Thats why I said, we may be all jumping to conclusions.

DISCLAIMER: i am in no way an expert, at anyting. anything i say is my own opinion and/or observation, and should never be regarded as fact, unless otherwise stated.