Garage Requirements

• House with attached garagebrown and white house image by Stephen Orsillo from Fotolia.com
  
  Building a garage is a great way to make room for extra storage and protect automobiles. Garages can be built as an attachment to the house for ultimate convenience, or be built separate from the house if the location is not suitable for attachment. In either case, there are requirements that have to be met when building a garage.
  
  

Electrical

• Garages are not required to have electrical outlets or lighting, but if the garage does have lighting or outlet circuits, they must be at least 18 inches from the finished floor height, and be GFCI protected. GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) breakers or outlets will trip if shorted by excess moisture. Dedicated circuit breakers are required for garages. In some jurisdictions, EMT (metal conduit) is required to house all electrical wiring.
  
  

Fire Coding

• Fire code requires that type X drywall be installed over the framing in certain situations. If the garage is less than 10 feet from a lot line or your own house, or attached to the house, type X drywall is required on the walls and ceilings. Some jurisdictions only require type X drywall on the wall that the garage and house share.
  
  All drywall seams require fire taping.
  
  

Power Lines

• Garage roofs mush have a minimum power line clearance from the peak of the roof of 3 feet or more if the roof slope is 4/12 or greater. If the roof is less than a 4/12 pitch, the power lines must be at least 8 feet from the roof surface.
  
  

Foundation

• Detached garages must be built on footings. The footings must have at least 6 inches of compacted gravel underneath them to provide proper drainage. The foundation requirements for attached garages are 4 feet deep frost walls. This prevents the garage from moving separate from the house. The frost walls sit on footings that are poured prior to the setting of the frost wall forms. The interior is filled with gravel and compacted.