Garage Inspection

Though firewalls are one of the most important safety items in a home, they are also the least understood when checked by a home inspector, somewhat like an airbag we know it’s there, but hope we’ll never use it. The role of the firewall between the attached garage and the living space is to slow the spread of fire from the garage into the living space. For this to be successful, several components of a house must be made of fire resistive materials and they must all be working together for the system to work as a whole.

Drywall used on the garage side of walls shared with living space must have a one-hour fire resistive surface. If the garage ceiling is not covered in drywall, the common walls between the garage and living space must be covered all the way up to the underside to the underside of the roof sheating. Some garages also have some open rafters, which is OK as long as there is no living space above the garage. If there are breaches in the firewall, it is essential that they are addressed immediately to restore the integrity of the firewall.

There are cases when even if the fire-rated drywall extends up to the roof, a section of the drywall gets removed due to water damage. This must be patched, or else fire could race up the wall. In addition, the fire rated door must have a functional auto-closing device required to keep the door closed.

Once the garage is finished and no framing members are exposed, the ceiling of the garage should be covered with ⅝-inch thick fire-rated drywall. This is necessary especially in one-story houses, when the attic space over the house and the garage is open and there are no firewalls between the space over the garage and over the house. Many homeowners prefer to install pull-down ladders to access the attic space above the garage for storage, but pull-down ladders are not fire-rated. Typically, they are covered with a thin sheet of plywood, which would burn very quickly in case of a fire. Wood pull-down ladders are, however, acceptable, when a firewall exists in the attic between the areas above the garage and house. In addition, there are also fire-rated pull-down ladders available on the market.

A garage inspection every once in a while is essential to safety-check your garage and home to ensure there are no risks of fire hazards. A licensed home inspector station will handle garage inspections as well, including emissions inspection, roof trusses, vehicle emission testing, water penetration that could remove the firewall and any other safety violations that could jeopardize the safety of your garage and home. When it comes to garage safety inspection, home inspection standards include:

• attached garage inspection - checking exposed areas for condition and fire hazards with the doors, walls, ceiling and any other fire hazard that may occur, checking the condition and settlement of the garage foundation, checking the operation of the vehicle doors and if the doors are electrically operated, checking the automatic reversing mechanism, inspecting the door springs for safety wire through the springs;
• detached garage inspection - checking the condition and settlement of the garage foundation, inspecting the exposed areas of the walls, siding for deterioration, bulging, cracked, loose or rotted siding, inspecting the roof for cracked, rotted or sagging roof framing, checking the condition of the roof shingles, conducting a wood destroying insect inspection;
• driveway inspection must include:

1. slope of drive - the driveway is often sloped toward the house, thus bringing water to the house; such a driveway should have a level section and a drain just before the garage, because a negative sloped drive without a drain can do serious damage to the garage and house with wood rot; moreover, excessive water at the garage may deteriorate the drive and undermine the foundation in this area; a qualified inspection technician will detect the problem and recommend adequate measures to ensure safety;
2. gravel drive - if not maintained, gravel drives develop rust; a safety inspector will report deep rust as a maintenance problem;
3. asphalt drive and concrete drives - during a home and garage inspection, asphalt and concrete driveways must be inspected for cracked, broken or settled areas that need maintenance or repair work;
4. sidewalk inspection - checking the sidewalks that are in front of the dwelling or on the side of the dwelling that are exposed; such sidewalks will be inspected for serious deterioration and cracked or uneven sections, as they are a potential trip hazard

The Scope of a Garage Inspection

First of all, the structure should be inspected for evidence of movement, garage roofs should be checked for wear and wooden components should be inspected for evidence of rot or insect infestation. Wooden components should be stained or painted as required, floor drains should be cleared and tested. As for garage door openers, they should be tested monthly and adjusted to reverse in the event of an emergency.

A garage can pose several safety threats if not built properly, according to standards. There are specific steps in the approval process, and you need to contact a licensed inspector station, hire one of the inspection mechanics and request a licensed inspection that will check everything, meet all requirements and ensure there are no safety violations.