1st Post: Opinion on desired garage dimensions

[MWC104]

Hello All! Thanks for clicking on my post and to those who reply to it.

My wife and I are wanting to add an attached garage to our 60' x 27'6" home. She would like it to be a 3 car so I have been playing around with some ideas and was curious what you all thought of a 36'w x 32'd? Does that give enough room to open the car doors fully without hitting each other, the walls, or the 36" screen door where the entry is? My plan was to have 3 8x7 doors and 3' at each spacing from the walls to the openings and from opening to opening, but I was reading somewhere to get 9x7 doors. Would I be okay sticking with 8x7? I don't plan on owning anything bigger than a full size pickup (F150, Silverado, etc...).

I'd like to build it myself but I get very overwhelmed when thinking about the roof and the finishing details. Framing walls doesn't scare me, but tying it into our home (going to have the garage gable run opposite of the house gable and extend the house roof into the garage roof) does get me all worked up. I don't have experience with big construction projects. I'm pretty handy and a big DIY person, but I've only built a 12x16 shed and some deck stairs before...

 

[sammerdog]

Re: door sizes - you will need 9x7 openings if you wish to get a half-ton pick-up in there. A F-150 is 97" (8 feet, one inch) from mirror to mirror.

I have a 36x28 and wish it were larger. We have one 16x7 door and one 9x7 door. There have been numerous times I was glad to have one wider opening for trailers, etc....

 

[MWC104]

Re: door sizes - you will need 9x7 openings if you wish to get a half-ton pick-up in there. A F-150 is 97" (8 feet, one inch) from mirror to mirror.

I have a 36x28 and wish it were larger. We have one 16x7 door and one 9x7 door. There have been numerous times I was glad to have one wider opening for trailers, etc....

Ah, didn't realize they were that wide with the mirrors. Guess 9x7 is what I'll plan on. With that, what would your suggestion be on the spacing between each door opening and from the wall to opening? If I make them all even it would give me ~2' 4". Or, is it better to give the door to wall spacing bigger and the door opening dividers smaller?

 

[Dubya Tee]

I recently finished a 3-car with three separate openings as you have described. Dimensions of the garage are 36w x 28d with the center section bumped out another two feet. The center door is a 10 foot wide door, and the side bays are 9 feet wide. All the doors are 9 feet tall. I love the way the garage looks, however, it causes two consequences. First, there is sufficient room to open car doors against the standing external walls..... but that is about it. Unless it is relatively flat, those walls are out for storage. Space in between the cars is awesome. The other consequence is it caused my builder fits trying to satisfy the inspector regarding the sheer panels on the front of the garage. Lots of door and not much wall for support.

 

[Kevin54]

First off....MWC & DUBYA......Welcome to Garage Journal Be prepared to totally get lost in all of the good stuff on here.

As far as MWC's question.....I have a 28' deep x 36' wide garage, and it is very adequate for three cars wide. But if you start adding and cabinets onto the sides, then things will naturally start to get smaller. Now if you are going to open both of the doors on all three cars, then you will really have problems. But yes, 36' wide will handle three cars with ease.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Go taller on the doors. Seven foot isn't much.

Charles

 

[NKlamerus]

Welcome!

I would strongly recommend a taller door as well.

And plan for storage now, just because it may seem you have too much now doesn't mean it will be too much later.

 

[MWC104]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I'll look at going taller with my doors as well. My home is a modular with, I think, 8' foot walls and a 5/12 pitch on the gable roof. I want to make the garage pitch as close to that or a smidge higher for when it all ties in together. I'm hoping that with going 32' deep, that will give me a chance for some storage/shelves on the back wall and leave the sides bare. My wife is pretty picky on things looking too cluttered or busy XD.

As I said before, I'm pretty handy when it comes to doing many things, but I would like to get over being afraid of tackling this project myself. Any of you have any suggestions on books, videos, etc on how to do additions like a garage? Again, I feel very confident about building walls, but getting the roof pitch right so it lines up with my existing overhang and whatnot makes me feel dumbfounded.