Double vs single garage doors

[TwoCoasts]

I could use feedback about ease of pulling cars into and out of a 16’ wide garage door when parking two side-by-side. Even with my fairly narrow cars, I find eight foot wide doors uncomfortably tight. Nine foot doors are fine. For those who park two cars side by side using a 16’ door, how is it? As narrow-feeling as single 8’ doors to pull in and back out? Or easier than 8’ doors? Uncomfortably close between the two cars, or no problem? Thanks for any advice!

 

[Jinks]

I understand your problem. I had one 8' door years ago, it was almost useless. I currently have one 10' door, & one 16'. The 16' is on the garage where we park my wife's car & our SUV. The door is not the problem. The width of the entire garage is the issue. There is no way to get both cars in the garage & open doors on both sides. We solve it by both backing in, leaving my wife room to open both right & left doors, & me backing in close to an outer wall & opening only the driver side doors. There's plenty of door room, but the garage needs to be wider to be really comfortable.

BTW, if you even consider an 8', measure any trailer or other vehicle you may need to get through that door, it not REALLY 8' wide....

 

[TwoCoasts]

I understand your problem. I had one 8' door years ago, it was almost useless. I currently have one 10' door, & one 16'. The 16' is on the gar The door is not the problem. The width of the entire garage is the issue. There is no way to get both cars in the garage & open doors on both sides. We solve it by both backing in, leaving my wife room to open both right & left doors, & me backing in close to an outer wall & opening only the driver side doors. There's plenty of door room, but the garage needs to be wider to be really comfortable.

BTW, if you even consider an 8', measure any trailer or other vehicle you may need to get through that door, it not REALLY 8' wide....

That’s helpful, thank you. I’ve definitely decided against 8’ doors, so the choice for the 24’ wide garage is between two 9’s vs one 16’. This will be storage for a couple of old cars that get driven only in the summer, not where we park daily drivers. I could fit two 9’ doors, but one 16’ door placed off-center would give me a wider storage area to one side, and let me pull one vehicle into the middle if needed temporarily (or if I ever swap the two old small cars for one big truck). I’m thinking those advantages may be worth the tradeoff for not being able to open doors on both sides of both cars, at least for this use case.

 

[Higgins]

That’s helpful, thank you. I’ve definitely decided against 8’ doors, so the choice for the 24’ wide garage is between two 9’s vs one 16’. This will be storage for a couple of old cars that get driven only in the summer, not where we park daily drivers. I could fit two 9’ doors, but one 16’ door placed off-center would give me a wider storage area to one side, and let me pull one vehicle into the middle if needed temporarily (or if I ever swap the two old small cars for one big truck). I’m thinking those advantages may be worth the tradeoff for not being able to open doors on both sides of both cars, at least for this use case.

Have the same issue here. Go for the 16 and put if offset. Works wonders......

 

[CraigStu]

Go with the one 16 or even an 18. My garage is actually 32 wide but this is what it looks like.
20190320_125351 by craig stuard, on Flickr
Wife pulls in on the left and all the way forward. That leaves me a little room to pull in and angle to the right a bit so it's easier to get out of my car w/o worry the door will hit her car. Since yours are not daily drivers you could make it even a little easier by backing one into the left side tight against the wall. Drive the other into the right side angling a bit to the right. This way the extra space between works for the driver door for both cars.

 

[05snopro440]

That’s helpful, thank you. I’ve definitely decided against 8’ doors, so the choice for the 24’ wide garage is between two 9’s vs one 16’. This will be storage for a couple of old cars that get driven only in the summer, not where we park daily drivers. I could fit two 9’ doors, but one 16’ door placed off-center would give me a wider storage area to one side, and let me pull one vehicle into the middle if needed temporarily (or if I ever swap the two old small cars for one big truck). I’m thinking those advantages may be worth the tradeoff for not being able to open doors on both sides of both cars, at least for this use case.

I had one 16 in my last garage and it was tight, even with one non-daily driver backed in against the wall. Since your garage is only 24' wide, what about one 18' wide door? It would give you the flexibility and some extra breathing room, plus you could still offset it.

My current garage is 38 wide and I have three 10' doors and wouldn't go back to smaller.

 

[TwoCoasts]

Hmm, both of these last posts help me think this through. In my case the offset 16’ (or 18’) would be on the right side of the garage, which I think means both cars pull straight in instead of backing in (assuming no passenger, which is fine for non-DDs). The left car pulls in tight to the left side of the door and opens its driver’s door into the wide area on the left, and the right car pulls in tight to the right wall and opens driver’s door into the space between cars. An 18’ might work—there’s a window detail left of the garage door that helps balance out the design and makes it work with the house, and I’ll ask the guy who’s drawing it if an 18’ would fit with that.

 

[bottom feeder]

I have one door, and recommend one door over two separate doors. There are times when I'm working on a vehicle and want to have a lot of room on both sides and having one door makes it easier to position it in the center, especially if the garage is not very deep.

My garage is wide enough that I was able to go with an 18 ft X8 ft door. This allows for two cars to fit easily and open doors on all sides. Typically we park one mid-size car and one full-size pickup, but have to fold a mirror on the truck when pulling it in. If you think you'll ever want to put a full-size truck in your garage you'll want to have an 8 ft tall door.

 

[yeldogt]

MIne is 18'

 

[PassnThru]

I can't imagine doing one 16' or even an 18' over two 9' doors on a 24' wide garage. Sure - two 9s make an 18 but the space is centered rather than being evenly distributed. With 2' in between - my two 9s are more equivalent to a 20'. Roughly, with a 24' width garage - two 9s give you 2' on each side and in the middle - rather than 3' on each side so you basically have a built in buffer of 2' on each side just pulling straight in. If you want to hang deep shelves on the sides and don't mind the cars being tight against each other then that's fine. But if you want to comfortably open doors even with some shallow storage without worrying about how you pull in then two doors just work better.

 

[firebirdparts]

I always thought 9 by 7 were standard for boring suburban construction where you're not trying to stifle everything, but after hearing so many people say 8 foot doors are common, I guess it's just my local bias. Anyway, I've never had to park two cars through one door. Don't want to. Seems ugly. I've never owned an 8 foot wide door. Don't want to. Seems ugly.

 

[PassnThru]

I always thought 9 by 7 were standard for boring suburban construction where you're not trying to stifle everything, but after hearing so many people say 8 foot doors are common, I guess it's just my local bias. Anyway, I've never had to park two cars through one door. Don't want to. Seems ugly. I've never owned an 8 foot wide door. Don't want to. Seems ugly.

Conspiracy theory incoming - you can hang two 8' doors on what should be a minimum 24' wide two car garage and cut 2 or more feet from it without it being obvious because it still 'looks' right. Visually, I seriously doubt that I would see the difference and I like to think I know better.

 

[TwoCoasts]

Conspiracy theory incoming - you can hang two 8' doors on what should be a minimum 24' wide two car garage and cut 2 or more feet from it without it being obvious because it still 'looks' right. Visually, I seriously doubt that I would see the difference and I like to think I know better.

According to my contractor, because of standard dimensions of lumber and pre-fabricated trusses, it’s actually cheaper to build a 24’ wide garage than a 22’ wide one (less cuts=less labor). But I don’t know enough myself to be sure if that only applies to this one-off garage, or it also applies to tract houses built by the hundreds.