Recommendations for an Airtight Fire-Rated Door for Between House and Garage
mpsterner
| Posted in General Questions on
Building a pretty good house in zone 7 Northern Wisconsin.
I’ve ordered Zola Thermo Clad triple pane windows for the entire house but they don’t offer a fire-rated solid door that would work for the connection from our house to attached garage.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a solid u-value, airtight fire rated solid door manufacturer for this application? It seems that this type of door is often lower quality and thus, doesn’t have the same airtightness or quality standards.
Thank you in advance!
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Replies
I went down a rabbit hole trying to find a door manufacturer to recommend. What I found was a lot of people on similar quests. It seems there’s a real gap in the door manufacturing industry to fit this bill. Take a look at this forum thread for related comments/suggestions.
Maybe it is a Canadian thing, this is a standard item from my local lumber yard. 20min rated door (Masonite) pre hung in a frame with seals and self closing hinge. The door also has a bottom seal if you want to install a threshold.
One option is to get an exterior door jamb kit and install a rated door panel in it.
If you want a really solid door, get a commercial 1 hour door. It won't be cheap, and it will be very heavy, but it will be solid and last forever.
Bill
I can find fire rated doors easily. I can’t find anything that gives me an airtightness rating so I have the confidence that my fire garage door won’t mess up all of the other meticulous air sealing details.
Airtightness information for doors seems to be very hard to find, especially for specifically a fire rated door.
I suppose I could probably reach out directly to a company like Masonite?
I would check with the manufacturers. I know they are available. I spec fire doors WITH AIR SEAL for generator rooms commerically, and a few other special locations (chiller rooms and battery rooms, places where we have to maintain negative pressure and/or use alarms to monitor for excessive concentrations of certain gasses). You end up with a door with a rubber seal around the perimeter that works pretty well. Note that the sill is usually a seperate piece though.
Unfortunatly I can't really help you with a "where do I get these", since I just spec them on the design -- the contractors then do the actual ordering and installation work.
Bill
This may not be the answer you are looking for and I'm pretty inexperienced with this sort of thing but I would think got a descent door and use weatherstripping so it seals when you close it. Maybe I also understand this incorrectly but is this an interior door? Get a good exterior door, it probably comes with some extra seal.
Michael,
What about these? https://www.tmhardware.com/Intumescent-Fire-Stop/
You want to search for "smoke and draft" door. These are rated for certain minimum leakage rate.
With most doors the weak point is the bottom seal, you can also order a regular positive pressure rated fire door (make sure ones with door seals not intumescent edge seal) and beef up the bottom seal if needed.
When you do place your order pay the extra money for the optional ball bearing hinges.
Walta