Garage Door Sizes To Consider During Construction
After a new home or garage is built, it’s too late to think about which garage door sizes are going to work best for your family. Assuming that a standard sized door is going to be right for you can be a serious mistake, because once you’ve made that decision, it will take thousands of pounds of remodeling to unmake it. It’s difficult to understate the advantages of an over sized garage.
Even if you’re currently driving a single VW Golf and little else, you need to look further down the line. Standard garage doors run seven feet by seven feet — you might fit a normal medium-sized car in there without a problem, but what if you have a family before you move out of the house? A standard garage door is going to be tough to deal with in a people carrier or a 4×4 vehicle. Similarly, if you need something to be delivered to your home, an 8-foot clearance just isn’t enough for an everyday pickup truck with, say, a normal piano or a decently-sized bookshelf in the back.
On the other hand, if you work with your architect and builder beforehand, you’ll find that it’s not terribly expensive to add a foot to the width of your garage, and you’ll have a lot more options if you have a nine-foot garage door. A 4×4 with luggage or a canoe on the top wouldn’t make it through the normal garage door sizes, but an extra foot will make all of the difference. Eight feet might be a bit tall for some people to open and close by hand, but that’s why we have automatic garage door openers.
If you own a utility trailer or a boat, you know from experience that they are usually significantly wider than the car or van you tow them with — sometimes close to nine feet wide! Unless you think ahead and take the possibility that you’ll end up with one of these items into consideration during construction, you’ll have to leave your pretty toys out in the elements.
Anyone who has to back a trailer of any size into a garage will be grateful for the extra width of a 10- or 12-foot wide door. Also, widths of 14 feet and over are invaluably important if you have multiple cars, especially if they are both expensive, as it prevents dings and mirror bumping.
Talk to your builder and/or architect about designing an over sized garage and the effect that it will have on your life in addition to it’s value to the home. Even if you never use the garage for anything special, the larger garage door sizes will help add curb appeal and interest to anyone looking to buy your home in the future. The cost might seem like a bit up front, but the increase in your property value could be substantial. This is particularly true if your over sized garage comes equipped with high-end sectional garage doors, with insulation, weatherproofing, and automated garage door openers as well.
