VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions Car Storage In Unfinished Basement

We're moving to a home with a large 50' x 35' unfinished basement.

Basement has access, via an overhead garage door.

Present owner stores a small sail boat in this basement area.

A Natural gas furnace AND natural gas water heater are in the basement.

I have seen home-made and pro built risers to raise the water heater 18" from the floor, but what about the natural gas furnace?

Furnace and its ductwork are a more "permanent fixture" than the water heater.

Certainly don't want to park my '51's in there, with any risk of explosions or such.

Any and all help is appreciated.

I don't know the layout of the basement but it may be possible to isolate the furnace & water heater in a separate "mechanical room" so that fumes can't get to them. For that to be effective you'd need to provide it's own source of fresh air for combustion.

I would be skeptical unless you can truly vent all the exhaust fumes and such out, if not they may permeate through the floor into the living area above, not just the basement area.

Would agree to build up the equipment up off the floor, especially if prone to water. Also a mechanical room would be ideal for equipment to separate from the room.

Does your '51 gas tank have a drain in it? My '49 does. I drain the tank outside. Once the tank is drained I disconnect the fuel line at the fuel pump and attach a small metal can that I soldered in a shut off valve in the bottom with a short section of pipe and a fitting which I connect to the fuel pump inlet fitting. Turn the valve on and drive the vehicle into the basement. I don't put much fuel in the can , a quart or so max. Once in the basement I remove the can, re-connect the fuel line to the pump and disconnect the battery. In the spring I reverse the process and drive the vehicle out of the basement.

I would not store a car there until the area is divided with a fireproof wall. Many split entry houses in this area have the garage area on the lower level. I would check with the local building inspection dept to see what the building codes require for the purpose of vehicle storage.

I would go the drain the tank and run out of gas route.
The gas fumes are the dangerous part.

Are you looking to "store" the vheicles for a length of time or "park" one or more for short periods-like overnight on a regular basis. If storing without making any building changes then I would follow Gene's advise.

drain gas tank for sure

I would like to store them in the basement, but have them available for week end driving.

Seems I need to contact the County building dept., as suggested, to see what's needed to make this a SAFE storage area.

My garage is under my house. I store 3 cars there that are active. I built it 30 years ago, in New York State, a state with some of most aggresive fire codes in the country. Garages under the house or basement are rather common here, real estate is tight and parking on the street is even worse in some areas. I never heard of a house blowing up from gasoline in a tank yet!

My boiler room is seperate room and partitioned off with double 5/8" sheetrock on each side. Door is steel and the ceiling in the garage must be finished in sheet 5/8" sheetrock. I don't have smoke detectors but rather fire detectors with sound alarms for each living floor of the home. I exceeded the electrical code limits with that. I also have a CO detector (disconected most of the year goes off everytime I start a car)

I had a problem once with full tank of gas which could have been bad. I left the garage door open and when the sun heated up the car, I guess the fuel expanded and started coming out of the vented cap. Quite a bit of it. We noticed the odor in the house so we found it right away. I had a real bad habit of putting carpet scraps under my cars that had soaked with gasoline and really could have been a problem. I don't even put cardboard under them anymore for that reason. I use tin drip trays with some speedy dry. That was with my 60 Impala with low filler neck about 25 years ago.
It did happen again this summer again with a full tank and the sun hitting the car. This time it was with my Cosworth Vega. Same thing I had just topped of the tank, so now I just bring it up to 3/4, just in case. I always leave the area behind the car free from storage, if it has to get out quick I have no time to be moving stuff out of the way. I throw the garbage outside every day, no piles of oily rags. A few fire extinguishers are a good idea (big ones) If you ever had a fire the last thing you want to do is run out. Fire Detectors, (not smoke detectors) with an audible alarm in the living space. By time a smoke head will go off from a gasoline fed fire it would be too late. Disconnect the battery. You should be good to go

You can believe nothing will go in there until all bases are covered.

With all the hoop la that goes with buying a house, the natural gas vs gasoline never entered my mind until recently.

Just wondered how any of you handled this issue.

Not certain if house has a high efficiency furnace. House was built in '86, but furnace and a/c were replaced.

House is 175 miles from my present location, unable to check furnace facts now, for certain.

Yes, the '51's have gas tank drains. Your suggested process is good for storage, and I say "thanks", however I want them available .... or not, for driving whenever.

John, your info is well taken, can't imagine what could have happened at your home, with the expanding fuel in the tank.

I will contact the County, see what info they can provide to make the area a good, safe, storage and parking area ..... based on their requirements.

Thanks, Gene.

The bsmt area is 50' by 35'.

If you drew imaginary lines, connecting opposite corners of bsmt., the intersecting lines would almost be where the furnace and hot water tank are located, close to the center of bsmt. area, due to steps going up to main level.

Proposed mechanical room would almost be in center of room, as well.

Yea, Tiny, see my comments about layout, proposed mechanical room and high efficiency furnace.

This will be a bugger to fix up, I believe. Nuts.

Draining tank is good idea for long term storage, but my idea was for shorter term parking. :-(

Is there a garage door entering the basement now?

I just took a drive to the cigar shop, and must have driven past 40 homes with garages underneath, the others were attached, I really don't think anyone drains their gasoline they put a car in it.

In your new home check and see it the furnace draws it's air for combustion from out side the house or from inside air. The gas heater I have in my work shop draws it's from outside and only uses the air inside to heat the shop, but it is a forced air type heater.

Yes, most modern heating systems draw the combustion air from out of doors. I'm not sure about gas water heaters, but like John said, I also doubt many people drain their gas tank before putting the car in the garage. If you don't have any fuel leaks I doubt there will be enough fumes to be a hazard.
PS. Make sure the gas tank has room for expansion if bring the car in from the cold to a heated area.

Andy,
A workshop heater must take in outside air, a home heating unit does not. That is why the boiler room must be in a seperate enclosed area.

If the space in the home in question is not designated to be a garage then if there is ever a fire, no matter what the cause you will have a tough time with the insurance company if they found a car in the space. If there is garage door and it was installed at the time of the C.O. inspection then more then likely it was approved for automotive storage at the time of inspection. The size and type of door on the drawing would dictate what the space was intended to be used as, and yes even taxed as. If it were added after without a permit and there is no record of it, then that is something that should be addressed prior to purchase, and the present owners job to bring it up to current code. With out a doubt that the local building department will advise you what is what and what can be used for what.

My new Lennox high efficiency furnace has a sealed combustion chamber as did the 14 year old unit it replaced. They are forced air systems but I do not know how the newer boiler type heating systems are set up as far as where they get the combustion air.

Most of the newer high efficiency furnaces and boilers for residential use are of the sealed combustion design. I know that the Lennox pulse furnace was one of the first to have sealed type combustion for residential use. As John points out a person should check with the local building inspector about your tuck under garage. If you don't have a local building inspector that can help you call a real estate office and ask them for a contact for a company that does home inspections. They would be able to come out and look things over for you and give you advise if you can safely store cars inside your basement garage.

Yes, overhead garage door to unfinished basement.