Question on garage doors

[Iplayfarmer]

Some time in the future I'll be building a Garage/Barn/Shop/Office. I'm just in the initial planning stages right now, and I want some input into how wide to make it.

The garage portion will house my truck, my car, and my tractor. I'd like three doors, and I'd like them all to be the same size.

The question is...What is a good width for a garage door? What's a good space between the doors?

 

[rickster]

I'm not sure what the standards are but my barn door to my shop has a
9' wide by 8' height. Main door is 12" wide by 11' height.
Its all personal preference with how you want it to look. Draw it out on paper
and see how it looks. A standard garage door size will be cheaper than a custom
ordered size!

 

[whodat90]

FWIW I have a 16x8 and two 9x8 doors on mine. 9x8 is really the minumum size I'd want, especially if you look at bringing a tractor in with any kind of implement on the back. Another thing that'll sway your decision (probably) is what kind of door are you looking at, standard garage door or rollup? I went with the standard garage doors for the appearance, but this leaves me with a bunch of garage door tracks taking up headroom in the barn, and when the doors are open they block a lot of the lights. Garage doors are available in different standard sizes than rollups (9' garage door, 10' rollup for example) so that's something else to consider.

 

[RPK]

I have a 10x10 overhead door on my 32x48 heated shop. At the time I had a tall pickup with a ladder rack and wanted to make sure I would always be able to park a tall vehicle inside. I designed the building around that door size. Try not to make the door(s) to small or you will regret it

If you build a wood frame structure and the doors are in the wall section that supports the roof load, you may want to have about 3 feet between the doors to allow for the appropriate framing and enough room for light switches, air lines etc. to fit in between the framing of the doors.

RPK

 

[EddieWalker]

My last shop had a ten foot wide and twelve foot tall roll up door. The height was perfect, but the width was more then I needed. My current shop has a 10x10 roll up door, and that's really a good size for getting in and out of with plenty of space. My walls are 12 feet tall, so there's plenty of room to mount the door. I really like roll up doors.

Eddie

 

[inveresk]

To assess door sizes, I measured my tractor height with the ROPS up and the backhoe mounted. 8'6" door height gave me a few inches to spare and I went for 8' width which is adequate but not generous.

The workshop door I made a horizontal slider because it provides controllable ventilation, opening anything from an inch or so to the full 8' width.

I went for sectional overhead motorised doors for the garage where I don't need controllable ventilation. For these, I bought the hardware and springs separately, got a deal from Sears on the motors and controls during one of their sale weekends and made up the doors in the workshop from inch ply skinned with sawn cedar. They're not hard to make - a day to make both garage doors plus another day and a half to mount the hardware and get the motors and tracks erected.

I made the horizontal slider to the workshop as well - a bit more complicated with mortice and tenon joints and glass panels to provide daylight. Took a couple days to make this door plus a half day to hang it.

The saving through making the doors rather than buying them in was huge.

 

[ding2520]

One thing to be considered is will the building be heated? If so, I don't believe that you can purchase a roll up door with as good of insulation as an over head garage door. I just built a new home and the overhead doors I used were rated at R-17. That was the highest rating I could find. Also if the building is planned to be heated, install a minimum of 2" foam under the concrete floor. I believe the correct foam to use is rated at 250lb per sq ft.

 

[BB_TX]

I have a 10'x10' rollup at each end of my 30'x40' building. I am considering replacing them with paneled garage type doors. The reason is insulation, sealing, and security. Don't know if they are all the same, but mine are made from corrogated metal. Each side runs in a relatively shallow track (channel). There are a lot of air gaps up and down each side with no way to close it off. Wind blows thru freely. Since the rest of the building is insulated, I would like to be able to seal it better.
Also since the tracks are shallow, someone with a little effort could push on the middle of the door and force it out of the tracks, then step thru the side. I once was backing my tractor in with the door less than completely up. I did not notice the door pull rope get caught on my canopy. I popped the door right out of the tracks with out even damaging the door.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

A standard garage door size will be cheaper than a custom ordered size!

What are the standard sizes...Both height and width?

I'll be putting a mid-size sedan in one door, a full size pickup truck in another, and my small SCUT in the third. I may someday get a bigger tractor, but I only have about an acre and a half. I don't see myself with a very big tractor.

I've already pretty much decided that the height of the ceiling in the garage will be 10 feet. That's the maximum I can do with the construction style I am considering and still have a second floor. I'm hoping I can still get a 9' high door in.

Based on some of your comments I think I'll go with a 10' wide door in the middle and a 9' wide door on either side.

Now...What about spacing between the doors? I'd like to get more advice on that.

 

[mrkool]

Well, this was already here when I bought in 96, it's 50' long and 24' wide
and it has worked fine for me, but in this pic, I've got other stuff in my car garage besides cars right now. I can get my tractor, Ford 3500 w/fel and hog, and still have 4 ft to go, and enough room on each side to get in and out of a small car with the 24" shelves on each side, the camry is a little tight on one side with the shelves, so if I had it to do over, I'd do 4 ft between with 24' shelves, or 3 ft with no shelves.
And there is about 1000 sq ft upstairs unfinished for storage, with 4 kids and 2 in-laws, there isn't much room left.

 

[tlbuser]

I have a 10'x10' rollup at each end of my 30'x40' building. I am considering replacing them with paneled garage type doors. The reason is insulation, sealing, and security. Don't know if they are all the same, but mine are made from corrogated metal. Each side runs in a relatively shallow track (channel). There are a lot of air gaps up and down each side with no way to close it off. Wind blows thru freely. Since the rest of the building is insulated, I would like to be able to seal it better.
Also since the tracks are shallow, someone with a little effort could push on the middle of the door and force it out of the tracks, then step thru the side. I once was backing my tractor in with the door less than completely up. I did not notice the door pull rope get caught on my canopy. I popped the door right out of the tracks with out even damaging the door.

Take a look around and you'll see that either type is available in a whole bunch of variations. Sounds like you have a "rolling sheet" door. Upgrading to a "rolling steel" or a sectional door would (should) be a good trade-off. Amarr® Garage Doors: Sectional

 

[tlbuser]

Based on some of your comments I think I'll go with a 10' wide door in the middle and a 9' wide door on either side.

Now...What about spacing between the doors? I'd like to get more advice on that.

Take a look at http://www.wayne-dalton.com/DirectDrive.asp] i drive These are fairly new on the market, but for low headroom installs, they are slick!

3' between doors is IMO a good compromise.

 

[MrJimi]

I went with sectional doors, I have a 12 X 12 for my camper and anything big and two 16 X 7 for regular vehicles and the spacing between the doors will add more strength to overall structure, I did want a roll up door till I found how much a real roll up door cost, some are nothing more than a sheet of metal with plastic guides on the edges they are real cheap looking and lasting. I also bought some Wayne Dalton doors and I was not satisfied with the quality at all, I returned them pronto..
And like another member mentioned, stick with standard sizes and my building is block, you may of seen pictures of it 50 X 50, 2 story and white

Jim

 

[CurlyDave]

Think about one wide door for your on-road vehicles.

We are putting an 18' door into the garage of our house. This is a "standard" size, and one big one costs less than two small ones. Plus you only have one opener.

My shop has two 10' wide by 10' high doors. Be careful with door height. often the way the door is mounted will cheat and only give you 9' 6" of clearance on a 10' door. I speced 10' clear opening (including door) to my builder & told him I would measure it.

I would go wider rather than narrower. You only have to scrape a fender once to make up the cost of a wider door. Same with height. I have a lumber rack on my truck and I would like to be able to pull into the garage with a load on it in bad weather.

Since you are in the design stages, you can get whatever height you want.

You will live to regret making it too small...

Another thing to be aware of -- in rural areas you can install industrial rather than residential openers on garage doors, especially roll-ups. Sometimes the safety features are less on industrial, especially closing force. You only have to close the door on something once to appreciate the residential features, especially if the "something" is a kid.

 

[mjarrels]

I have two that are 10 feet wide and 8 feet tall. No more pulling vertical mufflers and folding truck mirrors. Insulated Cloypay doors.

mark

 

[bones1]

Here's a picture of a 12'wx10'tall door on my 30'wide building if it helps.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/shenders/barn086.jpg

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Take a look at http://www.wayne-dalton.com/DirectDrive.asp] i drive These are fairly new on the market, but for low headroom installs, they are slick!

3' between doors is IMO a good compromise.

FWIW,
Everything i've read on the I drives lately has not been good, but I have not tried them.
A friend of mine used to work for Wayne Dalton, he advised me not to......

Concerning spacing between doors, I would leave 3' minimum.

I'm installing (2) 10x10 and a 10x8 in my barn. Clopay commercial doors, equivalent to HDG, which I put on my house. Anything over 8' high will be a commercial door. Up to 8' can generally come in 2 or 3" increments. Go to Home Depot (Clopay) or Lowes (Wayne dalton) and check the catalogs with all the sizes.

 

[woodlot]

made up the doors in the workshop from inch ply skinned with sawn cedar. They're not hard to make - a day to make both garage doors plus another day and a half to mount the hardware and get the motors and tracks erected. The saving through making the doors rather than buying them in was huge.

Now that is AWESOME!

How thick is the plywood base? Did you used treated plywood for the lowest panel that's nearest the ground? Any problems with weight, like destroying a electric opener?

I can't even imagine what cedar over head doors would cost if purchaced. I wish I had seen this post prior to spending over 1K for doors on my barn. NICE WORK!

 

[inveresk]

Ply base was 1", Woodlot. It didn't occur to me to use treated ply but it's exterior quality and there's a rubber seal at the underside where they touch the slab so it shouldn't be susceptible to rot.

One door was 266 pounds and the other 271 pounds. I weighed each section on the bathroom scales and emailed the weight info. to the hardware supplier and they supplied the springs accordingly.

First time I'd tried to make sectional overhead garage doors and it turned out a lot easier than I expected. The price I was being quoted by suppliers/installers was more than I wanted to pay, though, particularly for cedar faced doors of the size I wanted which was non-standard. Cheapest quote was $2600 CAD per door - plus fitting because I live on an island. Each door cost me around $800 in materials.