This post is intended for purposes of clarifying how garage door sizes work and opening preparation.
How wide of an opening for a garage door.
Width of garage door opening standard widths are 8 9 10 12 14 16 17 and 18 height of the garage door opening standard residential heights are 7 7 6 8 header the header is ideally a minimum 12 wide micro laminated beam that spans the width of the garage door opening.
The width of the rough opening should be 3 inches greater than the width of the garage door you are purchasing.
Frame the rough opening to a height that is 1 5 taller than the door that you have selected.
Standard sizes standard garage doors in our area are 8 9 16 and 18 wide.
But electrical door opener will require more space and typically 14 18 inches distance from the door track to garage ceiling will be sufficient for proper installation and fully functional opener.
Frame the rough opening to 3 inches wider than the garage door size you have selected.
Just add 2 to the width of the actual door size.
Add 6 to 14 inches to the height of the door for headroom or the space directly above the closed door.
Many 16 x 7 garage doors will be designed with a pair of single 8 foot garage door bays separated by a central post or column.
Many homeowners have two cars and need garage space to shelter them both.
Refer to the headroom requirements for the specific door you are using to see if your existing space can accommodate the new door without modification.
If it s 9ft the opening must be 9ft 3 inches and so on.
99 of the residential garage doors that we run across are different than these widths.
For instance if you have a 16 door and are using river stones that are approximately 2 to 2 1 2 you will want the rough opening to be roughly pun intended 16 6.
Make sure garage itself has sufficient head room for the door opening which often has to be minimum 6 7 inches.
You should add 2 1 2 to the height of the actual door.
You get the picture.
For instance if the width of the garage door is 8ft the rough opening should be 8ft 3 inches wide.
The height of the rough opening would be the height of the garage door plus the thickness of whatever you are putting underneath the header in addition to the thickness of the mortar etc.
You might be surprised at the range of standard sizes that exist today for garage doors.
This will give you room to space the door frame off of the sub floor.
Step 4 add 7 1 2 inches to the width of the door for side room 3 3 4 inches on each side.
For example in areas where golf cart transportation is popular garage doors are usually available to suit these small vehicles.
If you are installing a 9 wide door the opening will be 9 3 wide.
Framing rough opening sizes are really quite simple.
Leading garage door manufacturers typically sell doors in widths ranging from 8 feet to 20 feet.