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Is it required by residential Building Codes to have air vents on top of garage?

GBA Editor | Posted in Building Code Questions on

I’m currently selling my 5 year old home (built in 2005) in Houston, TX and buyers had a 3rd party TREC inspector come out to perform routine inspection and he noted that since the attic over the garage is seperate than the house attic, the current soffit venting is not sufficient and is required to have additional ridge venting or something equivelent exhaust the air.
Obviously I did not build the home and the home builder is an energy star cerified builder in Houston and we had a 3rd party inspection completed upon us closing on the house 5 yrs ago and this issue was never raised. I have looked at identical floorplans within our same neighborhood and none of these homes have any additional venting on them either.

Is there a specific building code for Texas that would clarify this issue as the buyer is now insisting that we install additional venting based upon the TREC inspection (Which I noted to them that this by no means is an accurate code inspection)!

Thank you for any assistance you may offer!

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Replies

  1. Riversong | | #1

    Regardless of code requirements for a garage attic, it makes good sense to have both low intake and high exhaust vents in any roof. If the buyer wants a ridge vent installed, I would advise making them happy to save the sale.

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