boiler room/steel door

We were told by a home inspector that, for fire safety, boilers need to be behind a steel door. If not, we chance running into a problem down the road with an appraiser.

Anyone know if that is true?

Re: boiler room/steel door

I believe it is true.

But, if you think about it, if the walls around that steel door are wood and sheetrock and there is a fire...what in the world is a steel door going to do?

My inlaws once said this to me about a front door....that it needs to be steel in case of a fire. I was like what difference does that make if the house is burnt down?

Re: boiler room/steel door

The boiler door/garage door should be self closing and fire rated. The walls and ceiling around the boiler should also be type x to give you the best chance of survival by slowing down the spread of the fire.

Re: boiler room/steel door

we heard this too.... but I don't think they are very strict about it. When we bought our house there was NO door near the boiler room whatsoever and only wood paneling around the doorway and just beams on above. a contractor was shocked we bought the house that way and made me all nervous about it.

when we recently did our basement we put the door and required sheetrock just cause it scared me and to block out the noise

Re: boiler room/steel door

It may be if the boiler is on the same floor as "living space". When we did 2nd floor renovations they also inspected the basement. The former owners had finished half the basement, but didn't do it to code. We had to put in a self closing door, seal off the stairs with sheetrock and add a sheet of fire resistant sheetrock over the furnace. The inspector told DH it was to allow for 25 minutes time for people to get up the stairs and out of the house if there was ever a fire. It's a rec-room, not sleeping quarters. It would take about 2.5 minutes, not 25 minutes, to get out of there. All we had to do for the door was put sheet metal on the back and change the hinges to self closing.

Re: boiler room/steel door

our house didn't have that and everything went fine with the appraisal...

Re: boiler room/steel door

Our boiler is in the laundry room and we don't have one-- our inspector didn't mention either. We put up doors to keep it separate and out of sight of little eyes and hands, but there is definitely not any steel around there!!

Re: boiler room/steel door

We were told this to. I don't think its mandatory but more then a recommendation just to be safe ya know.

Re: boiler room/steel door

1 layer of sheetrock is a 1/2 half rating for the boiler room u should hate a rating. A cheap way is to get a peice of 5/8 rock and screw it to the back of the door

Re: boiler room/steel door

My boiler is in my mud room which is adjacent to the den. We don't have a steel door.

Re: boiler room/steel door

It could be a newer regulation and older construction without it is grandfathered in, but if you do any renovations then you need to bring things up to code.