Two single doors or one double door?

[BrianS]

I've been lurking for a long time and have learned a bunch from you guys.

I'm planning the construction of my new home, new garage included! I'm going with a 25'x27' attached to the house and a 24'x32' detached building. I'm trying to decide what size doors to put on the detached building. My primary use will be to store my boat on one side and the other side will be for a working area and storage of the lawn mower and other tools.

I want to size the door for a future wakeboard boat with tower. I believe I need at least 10' of height to clear. My original plan called for 2 10'x12' doors. However, when I got the plans the doors overwhelmed the front view of the building. 20' of door width on 24' of wall just didn't look right. Now I'm thinking of backing off the height (from 12' to 10') and conflicted on the width. Should I go two 9' wide doors or one say 16' or 18' wide door? Do 2 single doors cost more than 1 double wide door?

Any thoughts?

 

[kbs2244]

2 doors will cost more.
Two times all the tracks, hardware, install labor, etc.
I think it is worth it.
You get a lot more flexibility.

 

[ddawg16]

I agree with 2 doors as well.....but, I don't think it will really cost more than one.

With one door....it's going to be big....and when you start going oversize...costs increase quickly....

Additionally, a single door is going to need a good size header beam....I would be willing to bet that the two single header beams will be cheaper than the larger single....

You also have some flexibility in size...no reason the one for your boat can't be larger than the other one.

 

[Fueler]

I would not give up the height. You can thank me later.
Paint the top 2 feet of the door(s) to look like the siding?

 

[oldtractors]

I don't think I can get my dually in a 9' door when the mirrors are extended. I know I couldn't back my 8.5' trailer into a 9' door without a lot of work.

My shop has a 16' wide x 12.5' tall door, but I don't usually have to pull things in side by side. That size calls for a commercial door so the price goes up.

Jim

 

[TONE]

I would never put two single doors in.

I had them at my last place and will never do it again.

I enjoy pulling my cars in dead center when I work on them or detail them. With the two doors its very hard to do so.

Even every day use they are a pain. My wife needs a bit more room to park her car. Shes not exactly an "ace"

 

[PCO6]

I work in the land development and home building industry. We produce urban design guidelines for our housing developments and it's been a long time since we last specified single 16' - 18' doors for double car garages. In simple terms, 2 doors look better ... or at least that's what the architects think. I on the other hand am much happier with 1 door on the double car garage of my own house. I have moved projects in and out frontwards, backwards, sides ways and on many angles. Having a centre post between 2 single doors wouldn't have allowed me to do all of that.

 

[jkeyser14]

I agree that two doors look better. And when you need to go in and out you aren't opening up as large of a whole in the side of the garage to let outside air and moisture in.

That being said, I've got a 17x7' door and it's very hand to have. I've had to back a trailer into it on multiple occassions to unload equipment. And once my workshop is done it will be more of a 1 car garage with a lot of metalworking equipment around the walls, so I'll still be able to pull a car into the center and work on it.

 

[rodnok1]

I would stick with your first idea of two doors, detail them so they look less overwhelming or possibly add trim/overhangs to less the doors. I personally like two 10 wide or one 16'. But with a 24' wide building it does pretty much leave you with no useable space on the sides, a 30' would be better.

 

[Rich1028]

I went with two doors on my addition (30x30)
my original garage (24 widex30 deep) has one door,and parking two cars in there is kinda tight door to door,you have to becarefull not to open the one door into the other one.

 

[zmotorsports]

If you have a straight shot into either bay then the two door setup work great, however if you have to come in at any kind of angle the single door is the way to go. My shop is 32' X 32' and I debated both ways because once you go to an oversize door the price goes up quick. I am very glad I went with a single door becuase of the angle going into my north bay going around the back of my house would require a little manuevering to get a very straight shot. Mike.

 

[Brad1234]

On the house I would go with a 18' x 8 ' door. I had a 16' door in my old house & the cars were too close. I put an 18' door in my new house & like it alot. Go with the heavy duty springs though. On the house I like to be able to open up the garage & not have the dividing wall that the 2 doors create. On the detached building I like my 10' x 8' doors although I kinda wish that I would have sprung for the 10' x 10' doors. On my detached workshop I don't always want to open up everything as is maybe the case with you storing the boat on one side.

 

[Shocker]

I like my 16x9. I like the idea of being able to pull in to the side or something like that.

 

[tdkkart]

You might go measure a couple boat trailers, they tend to be WIDE,bordering on the DOT limits, even a 10' door might be a PIA to back into.
I think with a 24' building a single 16' door would be your best option, gives you 4' on either side. 2 10ft doors in a 24' building gives you almost no space on the sides or the middle. I've got 2 10ft doors in a 30' building and there's really not alot of space left over, especially on the sides.

After having 2, one with an 18' door and another with a 16', I always said I'd never have another double garage with a single door, but now that I have a 24' garage with 2 9' doors I'm not sure I like that either. I know the space isn't tight, but it sure makes it seem like it is, I constantly find myself watching the clearance when going in and out, and I kinda miss being able to open the door and hauling stuff up between the 2 stalls.

 

[chadman]

I would go with a single 18' wide door. I think two doors looks better and that was what I wanted until I had it on my last garage. I like being able to pull in the center to work on the cars. The one wide door also allows you to back a trailer in on an angle and tuck it up against the wall.

 

[viper86]

if you do a single door, consider using a steel header over the opening. Wood will sag over time, and I can't tell you how many garages I've seen where there was a noticeable sag above the garage door. LVL's may not sag as much, but at that span, the cost difference may be negligible.

 

[SteveP]

Two doors but consider how wide you can go. Built a house about 4 years ago- didn't even give the doors a thought until the first time we used them. Can barely get an Explorer through them- I think they are 8' wide. Looking at the framing and surrounding walls, I could have easily gone 10' wide. Oh well, next house.....

 

[Shadowdog500]

I have one 16' wide door and really like it. I used to have several big trucks and I would hate to have to fold my mirrors in every time I pull in and out.

Chris

 

[Cobra4B]

I'm considering converting my two doors to one 18' door on my 20x20 garage... the doors need to be replaced anyway and I want to be able to pull right into the center to work on the cars/detail etc.

 

[bazzateer]

Single door every time is best in my book. Beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that! Anyway, what do the architects know? It's your place, do want makes you happy and stuff everyone else.

 

[must8657]

my detached garage had 3 9' wide doors. i replaced two of them with one 16' wide door. now i have 2 ft more of storage space and i can get my vehicles and trailers in and out of the garage a lot easier.
jason

 

[PCO6]

Single door every time is best in my book. Beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that! Anyway, what do the architects know? It's your place, do want makes you happy and stuff everyone else.

Personally, I agree, 1 big door vs. 2 little ones. Form follows function in my case. In a housing project though the Architects are dealing with the masses, most of which actually park their cars in their garage ... which is totally foreign to me. We build about 3,000 to 4,000 houses a year and none of them have double wide doors. It's what new home buyers want, or at least what they and the Architects think they want.

 

[BrianS]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I'm designing the home from scratch so there isn't really any pressure from architects or developers to go one way or the other. We have very little in the way of covenants as well, mostly that it must have a natural siding material (brick, stone, or cement siding, no vinyl or aluminum). I'm going with HardiPlank to match the house.

While I do agree that 2 single doors look better, I'm trying to figure out what works best. Also, the building size isn't fixed at 24'x32', that is just the size that fit into my budget. I could easily go a little wider and give up some length. Say maybe do 28'x30' to better fit 2 10'x12' doors and leave some room on the sides.

I think I'm leaning toward a 18'x12' double door. Seems more practical, you can park in the middle, more room on the sides, easier in and out with a wide load.

Any guesses on what a door that size costs? I'm not planning on having an electric opener at first either, is that size door too much to handle raising and lowering manually?

 

[benjamming]

I would certainly have an electical opener. I agree with the increased function of a larger single door. I went with an 18' wide & an 8' wide. I had thought about (3) 8 or 10' doors but glad I went with one of them wide. I had thought about even a 20' wide door. I bought Raynor doors.

 

[NUTTSGT]

When I built the new attached garage on our house (24x32) I put in 2 9x8 doors. Instead of the usual 16" between the door, I spaced them 32" apart, 2 blocks inthe foundation. This gave more room between the vehicles lessening the chance of a door ding at home.

In addition to this, the first door is spaced 4' from the wall, allowing door swing from that wall. No this does take up some valuable floor space, but this garage is to park in and for the mower storage. I have my garage to work in.