[calfj60]

The wife and I were discussing our options with a new garage. Instead of fixing the existing garage she wants it torn down and for me to build a new garage. So I am thinking 3 car but was wondering if seperate doors was the way to go or one big one and one small one or ?? Thanks for any help. I have printed out about 40 pages of garage threads to read tommorow. Thanks

 

[wetnsloppy4x]

I'd go with one big and one small. It makes your space more flexible.

 

[RE:Todd]

The wife and I were discussing our options with a new garage. Instead of fixing the existing garage she wants it torn down and for me to build a new garage. So I am thinking 3 car but was wondering if seperate doors was the way to go or one big one and one small one or ?? Thanks for any help. I have printed out about 40 pages of garage threads to read tommorow. Thanks

What are you trying to do?? With the info available, 1 two bay, one single bay.

 

[biggin]

1 big door and 1 smaller door. You never know what you may want to pull in there.

 

[tators]

Be sure you put it at least 8ft tall doors rather than the "standard" 7 ft doors....

 

[Dan Dibble]

Heres mine big one is 7' tall and small one is 9' wide and 8' tall.

 

[cj8scrambld]

I agree...one big and one small door. Just make them both 8ft tall. Of course on the small door, I would say and oversize in width...I think they are 9ft wide?

 

[Jesse Angel]

I'd agree with everybody else on a big one and a smaller one. Guy I work with just built a 2 car grage and thought it'd be beter with 2 small doors. Now that it's done he wishes he'd listen to everybody. And of course they all should be 8' tall.

 

[demonranger]

If you go with a large door make sure you get metal doors... the wooden ones tend to sag in the middle over the years. Personally I'd go with 3 smaller doors ov 8' height and 9' width giving you plenty of room and make the center columns minimum of 2 ft wide prefer 3-4 ft wide this makes the garage bigger giving you more workspace Dollar wise the 3 doors will be the most expensive way to do it

w/ the big door consider the size power opener you will have to have if this is in the plans as well ..

 

[BlueJeep]

I went with two 8' high 10' wide doors. Something also to consider is climate. It gets fairly cold in Iowa winters, so I went with two doors to both have more room in between vehicles when parked in the garage and so I don't lose so much heat when the garage door is opened.

 

[biggin]

Also something to look at is a roll up style doors. Less crap to deal with and dont take up any head room while open. I have 2 roll up doors in my garage.

 

[Bondage]

Demonranger,

I just learned that there are no horsepower wars in door openers. A properly balanced door can be lifted with a quarter horse. To check if your door is properly balanced, open it manualy and stop it at any point. It should not rise or fall from that point and should take little effort as the spring is doing all the work.

 

[tsm1mt]

I didn't build this, it was there when we bought the place in April.

It's a 34x28.

We've talked about building a *shop* in the future, but how far out that is, I don't know.. so I'm prepping the 3-car garage and planning to be there a while..

One single 9x9 (I think) door on one end, and a double (8x16?) door on the other, with the man-door and house on the "double door" side.

The bay closest to the house will be my wife's parking spot. Bay next to it (accessed via the double door) will probably be parking for my driver, though I'm far more flexible about parking outside for more shop space than she is.

The single door, that's 9' high.. that's the work bay.

Most of my rigs will *just* fit through a 7' door.. the 8' door leaves 'em with room, and then the 9' door should clear most anything I care to build at this point.

Bonus to the double-wide door.

When I pull my crewcab long-box in for the 4x4 conversion and/or paint, I plan on pulling it in via the double door and pointing it at the corner of the shop, at the "far" end of the work stall.

Thus I'll take up both the work-bay and my parking bay.

But with a 21' truck, it might not work too well to just pull straight in.

I think angling the truck through a single door would be a chore, but going through the double will be easy.

As the others said, make sure you have enough space between doors to do something useful. 3' or so is a good width.

One of my complaints about this shop is the wall is kinda "narrow" on the work-bay.

Less than 2' between the edge of the single door and the wall. Not enough to do much with. If I lined it with shop equipment I'd have to angle in through the work bay door just to walk down the side of my rig.

So instead that wall is slated for "rollcage tubing storage".. otherwise, it'll be clear, so I can walk down the side of my rig.

BTW, the double-door is the only one with an opener on it.. and I think I'll just leave it that way.

Get two remotes and we can both open the door w/o getting in/out of our rig..

I don't mind having to manually open and close the work bay. It's not like I plan on driving in and out of it every day.

If I'm not actively wrenching, I'll probably park one of the trail rigs in.. in which case, it'll only leave on the weekends anyhow..

 

[unimogken]

Shes an awesome wife by saying to tear it down and build a new one!!!

 

[Travis Waldher]

The wife and I were discussing our options with a new garage. Instead of fixing the existing garage she wants it torn down and for me to build a new garage. So I am thinking 3 car but was wondering if seperate doors was the way to go or one big one and one small one or ?? Thanks for any help. I have printed out about 40 pages of garage threads to read tommorow. Thanks

I started looking at garages with some room to work in, then decided the most logical way was to first look at what has to fit in the garage and go from there. For me it was:

40+' RV
Her car
Her Jeep
My Jeep
My truck
2 spare stalls for various work
Space for heavy machinery (Mill, Lathe, etc)
Storage Space for materials/spares
Lift

when all was said and done, I realized my original wish of a 3/4 car/RV garage wasn't going to cut it. Now I'm looking at a 50'x60' shop or so with 4 8-16' tall garage doors.

Just something to think about.

 

[rokcrln]

When I bought my house it only had a 7'-0" door and it was one of the old wood swing up's that gave you a net 6'-5" opening. What I did was cut out the old header and raised it up 6" and instaled a 7-6" door. Then went with a new design garage door opener that mounts on the spring rod above the door at the head. By doing this I had them instal what is called low head room tracks. This puts the door about 3" down from the rafters, something you can not do with a conventional door opener. So I ended up with a clear 7-6" opening and 7-10" clear inside the garage with the door open. Here is a pic of what mine looks like, it operates off a rechargable battery pack located inside the opener that will open the door 20 times when the power is out. The only thing on my ceiling is a light that mounts were the standard opener would normaly go and it is the trickle charger and aout light for the door. Yes this is not ideal for a shop but if you are in a track house area and your rig will not fit it is an assume solution. It cost around $1,300 for the whole set up installed from lowes and has been trouble free for 3 years now.
It is called "the door master" by wayne dalton model #BDOR-2000.

 

[TJ99]

when I built my new house I used 1 8 by 18 and 1 9 by 8 door and love it.

 

[7938]

when I built my new house I used 1 8 by 18 and 1 9 by 8 door and love it.

Good point. Do NOT go with a 16' on a double door. Go with the 18' They are not much more and you can pull 2 rigs in side by side and still open the doors.

 

[Dan Dibble]

I made my second door the one I use for my rig 9' wide but I have to be real carefull backing my trailer in there if I need to. Go ten wide if you can min.

BTW ask JR how tall a door should Be.

Dan

 

[jasonmt]

Re: Re: Garage Door Question

I started looking at garages with some room to work in, then decided the most logical way was to first look at what has to fit in the garage and go from there. For me it was:

40+' RV
Her car
Her Jeep
My Jeep
My truck
2 spare stalls for various work
Space for heavy machinery (Mill, Lathe, etc)
Storage Space for materials/spares
Lift

when all was said and done, I realized my original wish of a 3/4 car/RV garage wasn't going to cut it. Now I'm looking at a 50'x60' shop or so with 4 8-16' tall garage doors.

Just something to think about.

Knowing how much it costs to build a 50x100 shop that has suitable insulation for the weather up here, and the heating bills that come along with it a large heated shop was quickly discounted. My plan for the acerage is going to be a smaller heated shop/garage (30x30). Then build a large metal clad pole shed with a gravel pad for storage etc. Much cheaper in both capital and operating costs. Something to keep in mind for those of us that live in colder climates.