2.5m wide garage door, a decent default size?

[epsilonGreedy]

What garage door width would suit a large'ish single garage 4.1m wide x 5.0m deep? We do not own any oversize vehicles. I expect to routinely garage one car each night during the winter.  

 

There is an 8m turning circle in front of the garage, no main road traffic concerns and plenty of space either side on the drive for 3-point turns.

 

 

[PeterW]

2.8m is a nice size and not hugely expensive. The issue becomes garage door lintels that start to get expensive above that size and also the twist you get with only small amounts of brickwork on a lintel flange. 

[epsilonGreedy]

28 minutes ago, PeterW said:

2.8m is a nice size and not hugely expensive. The issue becomes garage door lintels that start to get expensive above that size and also the twist you get with only small amounts of brickwork on a lintel flange.

 

 

Mention of the lintel leads to more questions. I am considering an oak goalpost to create the impression of a barn and this leads to the question whether the common rafters of a cut hipped roof could structurally rest on the oak beam. The ridge of the 30 degree hipped roof is only 1650 long and two common rafters leading off the ridge would intersect with the horizontal of the oak goalpost lintel if I omitted a lintel aligned with the inner block cavity wall.

 

A green oak frame fabricator suggested a 7" square oak frame for this job (just the goal post, not the roof) however I cannot find an online resource that describes the structural characteristics of oak at similar dimensions.

Edited February 6, 2019 by epsilonGreedy

[AliG]

I think 2.5m is the minimum sensible size.

 

You don't have to go to a range Rover to be enormously wide, a Ford Mondeo for example is 2058mm including mirrors.

 

As you start to feel nervous about putting the car in you stop using the space.

 

If you can go wider I would, 2.6-2.8m would be good.

 

Also it depends on the kind of door, up and over door frames cut into the usable width, sectional do not. The opening on an up and over door is roughly 100mm narrower than the door size.

 

 

Edited February 6, 2019 by AliG

[Big Jimbo]

I would defo go for as wide as i could. Getting cars in and out of garages is a pain. if you have things stored down each side, it might enable you to get these out, without having to get the car out first.

[epsilonGreedy]

10 minutes ago, AliG said:

I think 2.5m is the minimum sensible size.

 

You don't have to go to a range Rover to be enormously wide, a Ford Mondeo for example is 2058mm including mirrors.

 

As you start to feel nervous about putting the car in you stop using the space.

 

 

Hmmm, so 2.5m equates to little more than a handspan either side of that Mondeo's door mirrors.

 

10 minutes ago, AliG said:

Also it depends on the kind of door, up and over door frames cut into the usable width, sectional do not. The opening on an up and over door is roughly 100mm narrower than the door size.

 

 

I will be leaving the door aperture open until I can afford a decent sectional door.

Edited February 6, 2019 by epsilonGreedy

[Oz07]

Just fitted a 2440 clear opening size seems wide enough. Keep in mind I'd want to leave at least 600mm nibs internally so you don't kill the side storage on yours 

[Ferdinand]

2 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

What garage door width would suit a large'ish single garage 4.1m wide x 5.0m deep? We do not own any oversize vehicles. I expect to routinely garage one car each night during the winter.  

 

There is an 8m turning circle in front of the garage, no main road traffic concerns and plenty of space either side on the drive for 3-point turns.

 

 

 

A current transit van including mirrors is 2.474m, and Tonka Tanks such as an Audi Q7 are up to about 2.25m including mirrors.

 

So that might argue for 2.8-3m.

 

What about the length?

 

However, the length is notably short at 5.0m. A perfectly normal senior salesman special BMW 5 Series Estate is 4.942m, which will give you exactly one inch at either end.

 

I would say you want it to be at least 5.5 and preferable 6m long. That imo is an issue at least as significant.

 

My grandad used to have a tyre on his garage back wall to prevent him nudging it in his sectional garage. Fortunately bike tyres come down to 20mm or less, so one of those would just fit ? in those circumstances. But closing the garage door would be a game of Russian Roulette with your rear bumper.

 

Ferdinand 

Edited February 6, 2019 by Ferdinand

[epsilonGreedy]

2 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

However, the length is notably short at 5.0m. A perfectly normal senior salesman special BMW 5 Series Estate is 4.942m, which will give you exactly one inch at either end.

 

I would say you want it to be at least 5.5 and preferable 6m long.Hat imo is an issue at least as significant.

 

 

You are correct about the length constraint. I just have to accept this is how things landed after a contentious planning cycle with 60 neighbour comments lodged on the original application.

 

A Ford Focus is 4.4m long which suits current our requirements.

[Ferdinand]

2 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

You are correct about the length constraint. I just have to accept this is how things landed after a contentious planning cycle with 60 neighbour comments lodged on the original application.

 

A Ford Focus is 4.4m long which suits current our requirements.

 

Good that you have considered it. Can you exploit the Ooops I Built It Slightly Too Long error margin factor to get 5.1m?

 

F

Edited February 6, 2019 by Ferdinand

[AliG]

Good point @Ferdinand, I hadn't noticed the length.

 

Might be worth putting the door to one side as you won't be able to store anything at the back and get around the car once it is in the garage.

 

I hope 5m is the internal length, again a sectional door can be closer to the external face which helps, you could build a sneaky frame that juts out for some extra space.

Edited February 6, 2019 by AliG

[Ferdinand]

Just now, AliG said:

Good point @Ferdinand, I hadn't noticed the length.

 

Might be worth putting the door to one side as you won't be able to store anything at the back and get around the car once it is in the garage.

 

Yes .. I would offset it. Not least because that would then satisfy (perhaps) cycle storage requirements, as providing 1.1m useable width above a generous parking space.

 

I bet @epsilonGreedy has considered that however.

 

F

[epsilonGreedy]

18 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

Yes .. I would offset it. Not least because that would then satisfy (perhaps) cycle storage requirements, as providing 1.1m useable width above a generous parking space.

 

I bet @epsilonGreedy has considered that however.

 

 

Yes I intend the door position to be off centre to the actual parking floor space, I can get away with this aesthetically because there is another 2.9m of garage width to the left in addition to the 4.1m discussed so far, this is where the horse used to be stabled in my faux cart-barn.

 

The overall width I am playing with is:

 

300 wall

2400 stably bit

300 wall

4100 parking bit (500 + 2500-door + 1000)

300 wall

2100 brick lean-to store

300 wall

[epsilonGreedy]

44 minutes ago, AliG said:

I hope 5m is the internal length, again a sectional door can be closer to the external face which helps, you could build a sneaky frame that juts out for some extra space.

 

 

Yes, the external dimension is 5.6m

 

I will probably be back here in a couple of years to design an IR beam / visual feed back gadget to help with inching up to the back wall.

[AliG]

In my old place the builder added an extra 200mm to a wall in the garage for pipework. I had to consistently park within 0 and 100mm of the wall. It was surprisingly easy judging it by the height of the lights on the wall, although sometimes when I got out I had misjusdged it and had to get back in and inch forward.

[epsilonGreedy]

20 minutes ago, AliG said:

It was surprisingly easy judging it by the height of the lights on the wall, although sometimes when I got out I had misjusdged it and had to get back in and inch forward.

 

 

I will study the remake of the Dambusters for tips on optical parking guidance.

[scottishjohn]

I used to have a spoon hanging up which just touched windscreen on drivers side when in far enough to shut door

[Mr Punter]

6 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

I used to have a spoon hanging up which just touched windscreen on drivers side when in far enough to shut door

 

I have heard this done with a tennis ball / swingball.

[Declan52]

7 minutes ago, scottishjohn said:

I used to have a spoon hanging up which just touched windscreen on drivers side when in far enough to shut door

Heard of using a tennis ball but your idea of using a spoon makes sense. 

[scottishjohn]

1 minute ago, Declan52 said:

Heard of using a tennis ball but your idea of using a spoon makes sense. 

certainly you hear it no problem when it touches  even  slightly

I just had an old teaspoon lying about on garage shelf  and i wanted something make her pay attention over the music from radio 

[joe90]

Or a small batten screwed to the floor for the tyres to touch when parked correctly.

[Jeremy Harris]

23 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Or a small batten screwed to the floor for the tyres to touch when parked correctly.

 

 

I had an old fence post staked in at the end of the drive at the last house, lined up so the front tyres of the car ran up against it, which allowed me to get as close as possible to the wall (to allow room behind) without actually touching it.  It worked very well, as it's damned hard to accidentally drive over a 4" post.  Previously I'd made up a bit of plywood with a batten on it that just sat on the drive with the edge of the ply against the wall, and that worked just as well until the plywood rotted.  Inside a garage the plywood would work OK, and would make it easier to adjust the distance when changing to another car.  It also doesn't need any holes drilling in the garage floor.

[Carrerahill]

5 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

What garage door width would suit a large'ish single garage 4.1m wide x 5.0m deep? We do not own any oversize vehicles. I expect to routinely garage one car each night during the winter.  

 

There is an 8m turning circle in front of the garage, no main road traffic concerns and plenty of space either side on the drive for 3-point turns.

 

 

 

That should be pretty good, I sized mine to 2.6m wide by 2.2mm tall which should let me get pretty much anything I could ever want to fit in there.

 

As decent width gives you the option of how to drive the car into the garage depending on how you may wish to use the space i.e. you can take a diagonal line in and maximise working space in the garage - another thing to consider if to bias your door to one side, I would have biased mine to be fairly tight to the left so it was parking only on that size, but tree's I didn't want to disturb meant this was not possible, albeit my door is biased left so the car doesn't sit in the middle and waste space down each side. 

 

I worked out my sizes with some of our cars and bits of wood propped up so I could actually work out what would be a nice size. 

[ToughButterCup]

6 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

[...]

I expect to routinely garage one car each night during the winter.  

[...]

 

Just like us.... until it came to emptying the crud that had accumulated in the garage the rest of the year. 

Can of de-icer costs nowt.

It started with the kids insistence that we keep their A Level notes,  favourite dolls,  smelly fishing gear ..... toe-rags. 

The mere memory annoys me....

[ProDave]

I made mine 2.5M wide.  More of an issue was getting the height I required, I wanted it tall enough to get the Landrover in.  That height requirement ruled out sectional doors.

 

I ended up with a rolller door. they have the big advantage of fitting to the inside face of the opening, so when open, there is no reduction in the actual opening,  These don't come in standard sizes, they are made to measure.  Cost £500 from ebay.