Standard Garage Door Dimensions & Options
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Deciding on the right garage door dimensions can depend on several factors—many of which are based on your lifestyle and belongings. Other influences may depend on the style of your home and the aesthetic you’re trying to create. At Larry Myers Garage Doors, we deal with these questions every day.
We’ve put together some pointers that may come in handy as you do your homework for a new garage door.
Standard vs Custom Widths
While our team can get you custom sized garage doors in just about any configuration, garage door manufacturers typically offer a large portion of their doors in standard sizes. Naturally, the standard options come at a slightly lower cost while custom garage doors will vary by needs. Standard garage doors are typically offered in a range of single- or double-car options—and the choice you make will largely depend on your vehicles and intended use of the space in your garage.
Single Car Doors
- Standard Garage Door Width: 8’ and 9’
- Standard Garage Door Height: 7’ and 8 ‘
Double Car Doors
- Standard Garage Door Widths: 12’, 14’, and 16’ (Some manufacturers are beginning to offer 10’ and 18” options)
- Standard Garage Door Height: 7’ and 8 ‘
Garage Door Widths
We find that when contemplating sizes of garage doors to determine fit it’s best to consider real-world examples. Let’s look at a single car garage door with a width of 8 feet and a height of 7 feet. That garage door will be comfortable to navigate for the owner of a vehicle like a Subaru Legacy—measuring in at 6 feet wide by 5 feet tall. But, take a Ford F450 SuperDuty with a width of 8 feet exactly and you’re suddenly unable to enter the garage. Even a slightly narrower vehicle—perhaps around 7 feet wide—may make even the most confident drivers nervous.
The same exercise is helpful for planning the width of a double-car garage. A standard width of 12 feet may sound like a lot, but even two of the Subaru Legacies we mentioned above would fail to fit without excess garage space and awkward maneuvering after the door. In general, we recommend clearance of 2-3 feet between vehicles when parked to provide ample room to open doors and walk.
Finally, consider the most demanding of all scenarios—two or more heavy-duty trucks like the Ford F450—and now you’re in the market for a custom garage door solution!
Garage Door Heights
There tends to be less range of standard garage door heights—7 feet or 8 feet high is typically the go-to measurement from most manufacturers. Even for the tallest vehicles, this can work out just fine. For example, the 2019 Chevy Tahoe comes in at just over 6 feet tall—leaving about a foot of clearance. We usually find that customers need taller, custom doors for two main reasons:
- Heavy Duty Vehicles: As mentioned before, heavy-duty vehicles take up quite the footprint. The Ford F450 we used as an example is 6.75 feet tall—theoretically short enough to pass through a 7-foot clearing, but only if the door is completely open—flush with or above the top of the opening.
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Roof Attachments or Towing: Even some mid-sized sedans can struggle through standard height garage doors when accessories like cargo carriers or bike racks are installed. Even an SUV with a modest ski rack may be forced to unload in the cold weather because of clearance issues. In other cases, towables like boats or RVs may necessitate a taller opening.
Image source: https://www.clopaydoor.com/residential/buyingguide
Measuring Your Garage Structure
The Larry Myers Garage Door team is ready to help you pick out the right solution for your needs. If you already have a standing garage, you can get things started by taking a few measurements with a tape measure:
– Height and width of the opening
– Left & right side room
– Headroom
– Backroom (to the nearest wall past the garage opening)
Be sure to make note of obstructions in the garage when measuring as they could impact installation. For example, beams in the back, ducting, hat racks in the ceiling if there is living space above the garage, or soffits can cause issues with accurate measuring of the space.
To learn more about garage door dimensions and solutions, contact the Larry Myers Garage Door team today!
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