# adding a mud room in the existing garage



## aimeeg

Hello, 

I'm planning on building a mudroom in the garage & I need some help.  We have 3 stairs that go up to the kitchen door.  I would like to raise the floor off the concrete so when we enter the mudroom it will be on the same level as the rest of the house.  Will this work ?  Or would it be easier to have the actual floor of the mudroom be the concrete garage floor ?  Also, how difficult would it be to run heat & ac into this small room, from the kitchen ?

Aimee


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## glennjanie

Hi Aimee:
If it were mine, I would use the concrete floor. You could cover it with a sheet vinyl if it makes you more comfy. Yes, it would be fairly simple to run the heat and a/c into the room. You may even want water which calls for a drain; will it be high enough to drain into your house drain?
Glenn


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## Daryl in Nanoose

I asked my wife what she would do in a case like this and she said to me
" If I was going to be in and out of there a lot from the house then I would want it at the same level as the house floor but if its just a room to come into from the gararge I would not care"
  Personaly myself I would want it at the same level as the house floor. Lots of time I have seen a couple of stairs comeing into the house from the garage and I would much perfer this.


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## Square Eye

If I am not mistaken, you will have to run the drywall all of the way down to the garage floor wether you leave the mudroom floor level at _garage level _or raise it to _house floor level_. There are areas where local building code will require a firewall between a garage and any living space. Running HVAC through a wall will make it living space. It's not legal in all areas to have exposed ductwork in a garage at all. Not the same everywhere. Check with a local building inspector or a trusted contractor.


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## Daryl in Nanoose

The last I herd was 5/8" fireguard had to be appied to any living space on the garage side floor to ceiling and any doors had to be installed with those spring loaded hinges so my thoughts on this thread was to frame the walls from garage floor to ceiling, and then fireguard the walls on the garage side then proceed with the inside. I did one of these a number of years ago and what I did was above then I attached ledgers with studding down to the concrete for the floor around the perimeter, brought the duct work in under the floor through the exsisting house as well as the electrical, and plumbing and had no problem with the Inspector but things may of changed in the codes since then so I will have to check into this but you know when all else fails check with the Building Inspectors office because one never knows.


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## Square Eye

Right. I never used 4x4s myself. I used a treated 2x6 for my bottom plate. 2x4 studs for a wall from the floor to the top plate. Then I nailed 2x6 cripples to the studs from the bottom plate to my joist bottoms. This gave the floor as much support as needed. Then I put blocks in between the studs right at floor level so I'd have an attachment point for the bottom of my drywall and any baseboards. The blocks also guard against pests climbing up the wall and getting into the wall space and eventually, into the house from there. 

I used the 5/8 drywall on the garage side and re-used the steel door that had been between the garage and the house.

Once again, Daryl and I are on the same page.


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## rtomsik

Do any of you have pictures of the framed room? How do you attach the floor joists to the wall studs if you want the mud room floor to be level with the door opening of the kitchen, instead of using the garage floor as the floor for the mud room?

Thanks!


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## Remodelguy

Hi Aimee,

The most convenient method for you to use the mud room would be to raise the floor to the house floor level. It is also very easy to insulate the area and the floor that way. Running heat to it from the house would be more work than you need to do as you could just use electric radiant heat wire in the floor and that would be enough for the small space. The fire protection is already in place with the existing firewall between the garage and the kitchen so that is not a factor. 

The best reason for raising the floor is comfort. If you leave it down on the concrete it will be colder and anything like shoes that are left on the floor will be cold to put on. Also the amount of space you will lose in the mud room for the stairs has to be considered. 

Another plus to raising the floor is the storage space you create under the mud room even if it is only 16" tall. There are always small items that need to be stashed away.

I hope this helps you decide.

Glenn Gehrke


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## Remodelguy

rtomsik

"Do any of you have pictures of the framed room? How do you attach the floor joists to the wall studs if you want the mud room floor to be level with the door opening of the kitchen, instead of using the garage floor as the floor for the mud room?"



One would fasten the floor joists to the wall just below the door's threshold with joist hangers on the existing rim joist of the house. Then you would build stilts out in the garage space to hold up the outer edge of the floor joists and build a floor on top of the floor joists.

Next you would frame up the walls on top of the new floor. This is the standard practice. Install any electrical. Then insulate and cover the walls with drywall.

For more info


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## handyguys

Conflicting advice here. 

I think most jurisdictions would consider a mudroom, carved from a garage space, and tied in with the house's HVAC to be considered part of the house and that it needs to be separated, from a fire perspective, from the garage.

I would build it as an addition to the house anyway.

I have considered doing this at my house. I'm not going to because I want the shop, er, ah, garage space. In my case I would only be adding 6 feet to an existing mud/laundry room and would utilize existing HVAC in that space.


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## Daryl in Nanoose

If your going to use hangers against the skirt board here is a little trick to get the floors to match right on. Cut a piece of your new joist and attach a hanger to it then place it up against the rim joist on one side so the top of the new joist matches up with the old one and mark the bottom of the hanger and then do the otner end, now snap a chalk line, then attach with a few screws a 1x4 to the chalk line ( cover the chalk line) . Now all you do is place the hanger on the 1x4 and attach it   and you have a perfect line up.
Another way to do this is same idea but just use a cut off of new joist and line it up with the top edge level with the rim joist and make a mark then do the otherside, snap a line, srew a 1x4 and then place your joist in place on top of the 1x4 edge and toenail the top of the new joist and then after they are all in place remove the 1x4 and put all the joist hangers on.


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## inspectorD

Huh..wha??? daryll...is that you????

Good advice , as usual. BACK


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## Daryl in Nanoose

Hey Inspector, thanks and yah back again  I's been a real rollercoaster ride around here for the past 2 years . Nice to be back now let's see what kinda trouble I can get into :


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## marley2984

Hey all.  I stumbled across this thread because I'm trying to gather information for the same thing.   Home access from the house is through 2 steps from the garage floor and we enter into a small laundry room.  An option when the home was built called for a mud room which would have been extended into the garage and would have relocated the W&D to the other side.   I'm trying to figure if this is something my wife and I can do as a DIY project and employ a plumber and electrician as necessary.  I attached 2 pictures of the house plans when we purchased the home and  you will see it was an option in the same spot.   has anyone completed this and can offer any help or pictures.. guidance maybe?   Possibly one of you are in VA also


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## Daryl in Nanoose

The biggest thing here is do you have any framing experience?
You will need to expose the wall under the door to see whats what, 
How is the dryer vented, the longer the run the worst it is and stay away from 2 many 90's because this just kills air flow.
The best thing for you to do is just ask questions before you start, gather all the info you need and fly at er


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## chrishallowell

I'm looking at extending my existing mudroom into the garage.

1st question:  How would I brace underneath the new door?  (The old door has cinder blocks under it.)  Also what does the new door rest on?

2nd question:  Any ideas on how to get the water pipes/drain from the garage back into the basement?  I'm assuming it has to flow downhill and there is a 12" cinder block wall in the way.

Plan:
Attach a ledger(2x8) to the wall studs on near and far walls (9ft span)
2x4 wall studs <---washer & lag bolt---Ledger<----Joist hanger---Joist
Any comments/concerns with this?

Thanks for any help/guidance/suggestions!


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## chrishallowell

Ok, for bracing under the door I'm thinking of a 2x4 running horizontal and resting on the jack studs.  And then have a 2x4 running vertically 16" OC on the bottom, like the top.

I'm guessing the door can just sit on this 2x4 running horizontal.

For the pipes, I'm guessing I can use a hammer drill to drill holes in the cinder block for the pipes.  I haven't been able to find a "safe" maximum hole size though.  The cinder blocks are supporting a load bearing wall.  I need 2 holes for the water pipes, 1 hole for the DWV, 1 hole for the heating vent.  I'm assuming if I space these out over several blocks I should be ok but I could really use some advice.


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## marley2984

has there been any advances on anyones projects for adding a mud room ?? If so can you post some pictures.   We havent done anything yet on ours and now I think are just looking at leaving the W&D at alone and just make the extension (see pictures I attached in previous posting).  We'll use that extension for coats/jackets shoes etc.   Since we wont have to reroute water/gas lines etc for the W&D we were thinking it might be more of a DIY project.  There is an existing AC vent located near the existing door anyway so we would just need to extend electrical.

I know you would have to tie into the rim joist with hangers and it wouldnt be that high we were going up to match current floor height but is it something where treated posts would be sitting on a preformed concrete form in the front to get the wood off the garage floor.   I gotta think the framing part is elementary in theory... just need to figure out the theory.


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