We have a utility room on our ground floor which contains the furnace, water heater and a few feet of storage room. It currently has a louvered door. Do we have to have a louvered door for ventilation or other reasons or can we replace it with a panelled interior door. I would appreciate any help on this.
KDEEM, I agree with you wanting to change that usually ugly louvered door, however if you have a gas furnace and water heater it does require ventilation. If you want to change to a paneled door, maybe you could add one or two decorative (wood)thru wall louvers near the storage area of the room for ventilation. I don't know what your adjoining rooms are but thats what I did to the laundry room and it looks fine.
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I'm in a townhouse and this "utility room" is a section spaced off from my living space. My husband was wondering if vents up by the ceiling would work...they would blend in with the heating/AC vents. Any idea how much venting in needed?
Originally posted by kdeem: Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I'm in a townhouse and this "utility room" is a section spaced off from my living space. My husband was wondering if vents up by the ceiling would work...they would blend in with the heating/AC vents. Any idea how much venting in needed?
Building codes require proper ventilation. Your safest forum would be a call to your county building inspector. After all, you've paid for the call with your property taxes. You can also consult with a licensed, insured HVAC professional.
We just encountered this problem yesterday when the county inspector came to inspect the gas clothes dryer that we are having installed. He told us that for ventilation we either had to have a fully louvered door or two 12x12inch vents in the wall (one near the floor and another near the ceiling).
