9 Ft garage doors over 8Ft opening

[Michael Johnston]

G'Day
I am building my garage with 2 8x7 garage doors on the front My width is 22 ft so I laid out the front with the 2 doors 2 feet apart .I now find a supper deal on two 9Ft doors .They would overhang 6 ins on each side .Is there any reason I should not just install a couple more studs at 9ft and save a bundle? Thanks
Michael

 

[larry4406]

Not sure what your approved plans show for shear wall details on the garage face of the wall. Assuming your 8' doors were equally spaced, you originally would have 2' wing walls on the ends and 2' separation between the doors. Assuming your 9' doors are now equally spaced, you end up with 16" wing walls and door separation (reduced from 24").

Your headers might need upsizing for the additional 1 foot span depending on what you have.

The wider doors will be more friendly to your pocket book and your ingress/egress.

So - shear wall and header capacity are the only concerns I would have.

Your garage is narrow width, so its not like the wider doors worsen your ability to have storage along the exterior side walls. Your vehicles would still be parked in the same centered bay locations. The wider door would provide easier pedestrian ingress/egress relative to a parked vehicle.

 

[tomroblee]

I can't think of any reason you couldn't use a 9 foot wide door with an 8 foot wide opening.

I'm not a builder, but I assume that the track needs to be attached to something that is very rigid. You might want to double the 2 x 4's just for added insurance. When you install the door tracks you might want to shim them out just a little bit to insure that the door won't rub against something where you framed your 8 foot opening. When you install the door trim, it will cover any gap that you create by shimming the tracks.

 

[Gary S]

My doors have metal frame edging along the sides. This metal edge slides along the opening of the door frame for smooth operation. If the door was wider than the opening, this frame of the door would no longer fit to the frame of the building, and the door panels themselves would be sliding on the building frame. That would cause a poor seal and wear on the door panels where they contact the building frame. Check out those doors and see if that will be an issue. If it is not, then do it. If it will be a problem, consider reframing the building openings to fit the new doors.

 

[upndown]

If they are raised panel doors, check the reveal on the ends..meaning where the first embossed panel starts. What you don't want is installing your stop moulding over the embossed panel. Looks like **** and you'll never get it to seal properly! As far as width, doesn't matter..That's why they use graduated track brackets, basically when the door starts to open it moves away from the opening, height is where you run into problems.There should be no dragging! Go for it..

 

[kbs2244]

You are talking about keeping the 8 foot wide openings?
If so, go for it.
Most overhead doors overlap the opening anyway.
As stated, depending on the style, ther may be an appearance issue, but not a performance one.

 

[NES]

Yes go with the 9' wide doors! It makes it easier getting in and out of the garage. I would make the center piilar between the garage doors 1' wide. at the ends you'll have 1' 6''. Be careful when you open up the door for your car. Sorry to burst your bubble if I were in your shoes I would've gone with at least a 24' wide garage.

 

[larry4406]

Nine foot doors in an existing eight foot opening? If so, I agree check the reveals to the panels to ensure the seals work and does not look bad.

In my prior post, I assumed you still had the framing option to change to 9' opening (typically 9'-1" in the rough).

 

[Michael Johnston]

thanks guys
Up here we use 2x6 consrtuction and the doors are raised panel but there is about 9 '' of clear space on both sides so a 6" overhang will still allow a smooth fit. I would have loved to go 26 wide but I have to meet code and 22 was a wide as i could go with out hitting setback rules .It is a bit narrow but so our the cars 2 mgbs and a 1936 Austin !0.I could reframe but that would mean new headers and lots of grief.These doors were bought for a development and not used I picked them up at auction for $125 ea I got all three they had and still in original box I am putting one in at 9'wide on the back wall.This give me a way to get ride on tractor from front yard to back yard
Thanks again Great help