Need advice on door size.

[NoPressure]

I'm having a 34x26x12 built. I've been planning on 2 10x10 garage doors but after laying it out in sketchup I don't like how they look. They look very out of proportion to the size of the building to me. I'm trying to make the shop match the house as much as I can. Should I just go with the same size that's on the house? They are 9x7 I think. Whatever I do I plan to use high lift tracks. Not sure if that's what they're called but I think y'all know what I mean. The ceiling is suppose to be 12' but I think I messed up and it's too short in this pic. Not sure by how much though.

 

[matt_i]

Personally I would always put in an 8ft door height minimum. 7s are too short for what I want to do.

 

[rvieceli]

What might be bothering you is the relationship of the garage doors to the man door. You might want to try sticking a window over the man door in line with the top of the garage door.

 

[MEngineer]

or you could put the man door in the middle between the garage doors - lends to symmetry.

 

[JohnK007]

What might be bothering you is the relationship of the garage doors to the man door. You might want to try sticking a window over the man door in line with the top of the garage door.

That or maybe a a short gable roof over the man door so you can be out of the rain when you unlock it.

 

[Kaizen]

I know what you mean. I have a few like this around me and it sticks out like a sore thumb. if you are only putting cars in there then not a big deal and go with smaller size. but if you have a truck or a lifted truck make sure its plenty of room for that no matter what size they end up being. can't imagine how dumb I'd feel building a whole garage and not leaving enough room to get my biggest vehicle in.

 

[astroracer]

Center the two overheads in the 34' wall. Move the man door around the corner.
Right now you have very little room between the left door and the inside wall and very little room between the doors. Spread them out as far as possible to improve working and storage room in the building.
You have to remember you are working with outside dimensions. Inside, the building is only about 33' long. Subtracting your two 10' doors from that leaves you with 13' to work with. 13/3 is about 4' at each side and in between doors. The absolute minimum I would recommend for spacing.
Mark

 

[Jlbc212]

I have a similar size garage setup, 36x28x12. The man door is to the left of the two 12x10 overhead doors. Since i built it two years ago i've received lots of compliments on how good it looks. Years ago I worked part-time doing residential designs. Some people liked hip roofs, some people thought a hip roof was ugly. How a structure looks is very subjective. I would make the overhead doors as wide as possible, minimum 10 ft. and at least 8 ft high. One of the advantages of having the overhead doors off-center is having space along one of the side walls for storage/workbench.

 

[pmiranda]

I'd scoot the man door over to be centered between the overhead door and the edge of the wall of you can. That will help the look. I'd also either extend the roofline or add a "lean-to" section to keep the rain off the man door.

 

[NoPressure]

Thanks for all the input. Very helpful. I have it laid out like this because I plan to put a lift in the left bay. This is also where the only car that will be stored in there will be. The right bay will be empty space for times when I need to get another car in there and extra Fabrication space. I have the doors pushed to one side because the remaining space on the right side will be my main fabrication space. My equipment/tools will go along the walls and my 4x8 welding table will be out in the middle of that section. I put the walk through door so close to the garage doors so I can use that corner for my drum set.

I think I'm going to down size the doors to 10'x8' tall. This will still be tall enough for the largest vehicle I or any friends/family has. I'll probably also add a short "lean to" across the garage doors and the walk through door. I really don't know why I was thinking 10x10 to begin with that was just in my head and I ran with it I guess lol

Edit: looking at it again I may go ahead and center the walk through between the right roll up door and the right wall

 

[Kevin54]

In my garage, I have 10' walls with a 4/12 pitch roof. My garage is 28' wide. I put in (2) 10'w x 8't doors. At first I thought they were going to look too tall after living with 7't doors forever it seems, but after a year, I'm used to the height, and they do not look out of place at all. So if you have a 12' ceiling, I would put in a 10't door if you need the height. If you don't need the height, I would go no less than 8' in height. At 8', you should be able to get a lifted truck inside. If you can't, then step up to a 10't door.

But either way, a 10' won't look out of proportion.

 

[pmiranda]

One thought... frame it for 10x10 doors, then in-frame it for 10x8's... if you (or the next owner) buys a monster truck it will be easier to knock out a little extra framing than to have to completely reframe it.

 

[Oceandweller]

I may think a little different but am not a fan of the layout. I would do two shop doors that are larger one on each side of the building that way you can open and get a cross breeze on nice days, it also allows you to get stuff or move stuff behind the building a heck of a lot easier, or open your back door without as many people noticing if you need to vent out the garage. You can also move everything out of the middle and have a nice party in there with dual doors.

 

[NoPressure]

I may think a little different but am not a fan of the layout. I would do two shop doors that are larger one on each side of the building that way you can open and get a cross breeze on nice days, it also allows you to get stuff or move stuff behind the building a heck of a lot easier, or open your back door without as many people noticing if you need to vent out the garage. You can also move everything out of the middle and have a nice party in there with dual doors.

I hear you. There will be a walk through door on the back wall in line with the walk through on the front and I thought about adding a roll up back there but On the back of the building I'll have a lean-to that will serve as storage for my car hauler, mower, stuff like that. So you wouldn't be able to drive through and i don't think I want to spend the money on a door to look out at my unorganized junk. Also, I'll have a material rack on the back wall for 20' material.

 

[NoPressure]

In my garage, I have 10' walls with a 4/12 pitch roof. My garage is 28' wide. I put in (2) 10'w x 8't doors. At first I thought they were going to look too tall after living with 7't doors forever it seems, but after a year, I'm used to the height, and they do not look out of place at all. So if you have a 12' ceiling, I would put in a 10't door if you need the height. If you don't need the height, I would go no less than 8' in height. At 8', you should be able to get a lifted truck inside. If you can't, then step up to a 10't door.

But either way, a 10' won't look out of proportion.

Yeah I have a GMC Sierra with a leveling kit and 35s. It fits in my 7' tall doors other than the antenna catching the header. I'm definitely switching to 10'w x 8' t doors.

 

[pmiranda]

Maybe you could put in another walk door or a window on the left wall to get a cross breeze going? Otherwise I see a shop fan in your future

 

[NoPressure]

Maybe you could put in another walk door or a window on the left wall to get a cross breeze going? Otherwise I see a shop fan in your future

I'm not crazy about putting anything on the left wall because I can't see it from the house. Although I'm sure if anybody wanted in there bad enough they could get in there regardless.

I'm not too worried about getting a breeze because it will definitely get some type of air conditioning. As I'm sure you know being in Texas, summers in the south are brutal. I decided early on if I was going to build a shop I was going to make it as comfortable as possible.

I get zero breeze in my garage so most of the time it's less exhausting to work in the driveway.

 

[davidhansen]

I agree that I would never go shorter than 8' tall doors. Especially if you're putting a lift in. While it may not seem necessary, you might want to be able to see more with a car up on the lift and you're walking up to it. Let's in a bit more light too.

And I think the layout looks great- you don't need to put the man door in the middle like others say. It looks fine as it is.

 

[pmiranda]

I hear you about biting the bullet on air con. My plan is to do housewrap or bubble before the tin, then sprayfoam on the inside, and a mini split.

 

[NoPressure]

I agree that I would never go shorter than 8' tall doors. Especially if you're putting a lift in. While it may not seem necessary, you might want to be able to see more with a car up on the lift and you're walking up to it. Let's in a bit more light too.

And I think the layout looks great- you don't need to put the man door in the middle like others say. It looks fine as it is.

Thanks. Im pretty sure I'm going to change to 8' tall doors. Only other thing I might do is shift everything to the right 1'-2' To gain some space between the lift and the wall.

 

[NoPressure]

I hear you about biting the bullet on air con. My plan is to do housewrap or bubble before the tin, then sprayfoam on the inside, and a mini split.

I've just started looking into a/c options. Do you have a minisplit picked out?

 

[NoPressure]

Update: builder is coming out next Monday to have a final meeting and iron out all the details before he puts the order in. Says he should be able to start dirt work in about 2 weeks. I can't think of the last time I was this excited lol.

 

[pmiranda]

Unfortunately I lost the link for the mini-split company I was looking at. All I can find now on google are Mr Cool and Panasonic but I thought there was a European brand that looked better.

 

[Moose97]

If it were me I would want the biggest doors I could. You never know what the future holds. I also agree with placing a cover of some kind over the man-door.