By: Barry Stone
Dear Barry,
Our home has a detached garage. We're planning to add an extra bedroom, thereby connecting the garage to the house. But I seem to remember something about direct access from a garage to a bedroom being prohibited. Is there any way to work this out? What if we call the room something other than a bedroom when we apply for a building permit? - Carl
Dear Carl,
It is not uncommon for people to call an addition one kind of room when applying for a permit, but then using it for another, after the project is finished and approved. However, it would be wise to consider the intent of the building code when restricting direct access from a garage to a bedroom. The purpose of this prohibition is to prevent exhaust fumes from a car or smoke from a garage fire from entering a room where someone might be sleeping. Circumvention of this safety standard would not be wise. Additionally, your added room would never constitute a legal bedroom, and this could raise concerns when you finally sell the property.
A simple solution would be to build an ante-room - a small entry room - between the new bedroom and the garage. This could be a small closet-sized space, with a fire-rated, self-closing door on the garage side, for firewall compliance. In this way, you could have your attached garage, your added bedroom, and no direct access between the two. Check with your local building department to see if they would accept this approach.
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