How to Ventilate a Garage


Ever walked into a neighbor’s garage and instantly observed a frowsty odor? Was the inside wickedly sultry during summer and bitingly chilly in winter? Garages tend to be disregarded. People usually neglect them as storage units and second-rated rooms in their households. However, if you don’t ventilate your garage well, it’ll have several issues.

A garage that’s poorly ventilated is bad news for two crucial reasons. First of all, vehicle fumes, chemicals, and tools or machinery you may operate in the garage are hazardous if they get into the other parts of your household.

Secondly, the heat that accumulates in a garage in the summer months will also make the rest of your household uncomfortable. The garage may have the same effect during winter.

Also check: How can I make my Garage Smell Good?

For proper garage ventilation, numerous homeowners invest in an item such as an exhaust fan to assist in airflow. Here are several things you can do to ventilate your garage. Ensure that you use the right materials to get the task done.

Install an Exhaust Fan

This is an excellent option because most garages tend to develop powerful odors or fumes caused by exhaust from vehicles, which you keep in there, or the lack of windows and fans.

Make sure you connect an exhaust fan in the garage ceiling, where you also have to run cables cautiously to the exhaust fan from a junction box. Numerous exhaust fan kits are equipped with all the hardware you would require and directions on how you can do it yourself.

Exhaust fans can go a long way in ventilating your garage. However, there are other factors to take into account when figuring out why your garage is sultry. If your garage faces towards the south or west, it’ll get more warm sunlight. A fan helps keep your garage cool. However, it can be tricky in the summer months.

Check deal on Amazon

Install Windows

Windows bring fresh air through your garage and remove fumes and chemicals. Mounting two windows across from each other on opposite walls provide optimum ventilation. Ensure that you open the two windows to produce an air current that flows from one side of the garage to the next, drawing injurious gases out through one window and letting in fresh air via the other one.

However, this option doesn’t work with attached garages as one or two of the walls are attached to the house, where you cannot construct a window. When leaving your windows open during the night, be careful because this may attract thieves.

Check deal on Amazon

Connect Roof Turbine Vents

If you’re unable to construct windows, then mounting vents is another excellent option. Mounting vents on the roof of your garage or high up in the walls is preferred because warm air rises, letting this warm air escape from the vents.

Ensure the vents are connected in a way that stops rain from getting into your garage. Turbine vents are a perfect solution because they can efficiently draw air out of your garage.

Check latest deal on Amazon

Mount Static Vents

Static vents may appear similar to air vents in your house. However, they’re connected to the walls of your garage. Ensure that they’re mounted with angled louvers so that the rain falls from the vents instead of pointing up and letting rain seep in.

They work well if one is put high on a wall, and the other is low on the opposite wall. It creates an airflow that draws fresh air through the whole garage from the base vent and pushes contaminated air up via the higher vent.

It’s the same as using two windows. However, you can let the vents remain open throughout the day and night without getting concerned with unauthorized access via an open window.

Check latest deal on Amazon

Make Use of Trees

If you plant trees around your garage, they’ll also help keep the temperature within the building constant. Planting a row of deciduous trees between your garage and the sun obstructs sunlight during the daytime in summer (if the trees have leaves) and allows it in when it’s winter (and the trees have shed leaves), and you require warming the room.

However, be cautious not to plant the trees near the building as the roots would pose a long-term issue.

On the Sunny Side of the Garage, Mount a Rollaway Awning

Take into account connecting a rollaway awning on the outside of the garage. During summer, it can help keep the heat outside by sheltering the outside of the garage.

If you’ve transformed your garage into part of your household’s living space, then this is also an excellent way as it’ll widen the area. It can also create a “veranda†effect.

Check latest deal on Amazon

Using Overhead Doors

This is the easiest one. By opening your garage door, the room will be ventilated, provided you’re using some sort of garage fan to help in air circulation. In nearly every home, overhead garage doors are standard.

After all, you require a method of getting in your car in and out of your garage. The main challenge with this is that you should have another ventilation type also. An open garage door will allow animals, insects, leaves, and other foreign objects to get into your garage. It’ll also neutralize any active heating or cooling you’re using in your garage.

Bottom Line

People’s style of living has changed and, therefore, the garage has been transformed into a premium-sized room. It can be changed into anything from a leisure room or gymnasium to a home office.

One thing that frequently stops people from utilizing this room is that garages aren’t designed to be cozy living rooms. Garages are intended as places to keep your vehicle or store other possessions. Coziness is a secondary concern.

Therefore, if you want to use your garage for other intentions, you have to do something to enhance ventilation and regulate the temperature in the room. Fortunately, in this article, we’ve discussed a couple of simple things that you can do that have a dramatic effect, with minimal costs involved.

How Can I Cool My Garage Without AC?