Should My Garage Door Have Vents In South Florida? (air conditioning, heat, paint)

[Rumann Koch]

I live in South Florida and when they installed my garage door - they made sure it was heavily reinforced with cross beams, but they did not put in vents.

My question is two-fold:

1. should I install vents to keep the garage equally pressurized to the outside when hurricanes threaten?

2. would vents help keep the garage ventilated to inhibit mold and mildew?

[NC211]

Neither would be remotely impacted by vents. A hurricane’s winds will easily pierce around the doors seals anyway, and mold/mildew is a living condition of southern Florida regardless. Only thing to defeat it is air conditioning.

Now, to maybe keep the air moving - if you have the room - swap out the garage light with a ceiling fan that also has a light. That way, you can at least just leave the fan running to keep the air moving across the surfaces to help dry them out.

Also - vents will allow heavy rain water to get in, and depending where you place them - snakes. At a minimum, those roaches that basically look like the size of a VW!

[Rumann Koch]

Originally Posted by NC211

Neither would be remotely impacted by vents. A hurricane’s winds will easily pierce around the doors seals anyway, and mold/mildew is a living condition of southern Florida regardless. Only thing to defeat it is air conditioning.

Now, to maybe keep the air moving - if you have the room - swap out the garage light with a ceiling fan that also has a light. That way, you can at least just leave the fan running to keep the air moving across the surfaces to help dry them out.

Also - vents will allow heavy rain water to get in, and depending where you place them - snakes. At a minimum, those roaches that basically look like the size of a VW!

One of my neighbors did install a wall-mounted a/c unit. I was also considering installing an exhaust fan in the ceiling that would vent the moisture into the attic and out the vents in the soffits.

Another preventive measure is to paint the garage with mildew-resistant paint because when you drive into the garage after a heavy downpour and close the garage door the heat from the engine combined with the wet car create the perfect environment for mold/mildew.

I recently submitted a Post on Best Thing To Do To Prevent Roaches From Entering Your House

[K'ledgeBldr]

What would be the point of vents if the mandate is to have "windload" rated doors?

If you want some form of ventilation- I would strongly encourage you to use a passive convection system. Do Not Use the Attic with this system. If the garage has two opposite exterior walls, add two vents on each wall- one wall the vents are within 18" of the floor, the opposite wall has the vents within 12" of the ceiling.

Warm air exits the high placed vents as it pulls cooler air in through the lower vents. With the vents on opposite walls, the air is pulled through the entire space. The best part of a passive system- it requires NO FOSSIL FUEL to operate!