Garage Door Opinions !
Discussion
Evening all,
Would love your opinions please as I'm unsure which to choose.
At the planning stage of a self build and my garage is the following dimensions. 13.2m x 7.6m.
Which of the following would you do and why ? Would love a scissor lift in the garage also.
1. Two large doors measuring 5m wide
2. Three sectional garage doors, the middle measuring 3.85m, and the other two measuring 3m
Please ignore all the other detail. The garage will be rectangular as in the top picture, with a straight wall of doors. Just deliberating whether its two or three sectional doors !!!!
Would love your opinions please as I'm unsure which to choose.
At the planning stage of a self build and my garage is the following dimensions. 13.2m x 7.6m.
Which of the following would you do and why ? Would love a scissor lift in the garage also.
1. Two large doors measuring 5m wide
2. Three sectional garage doors, the middle measuring 3.85m, and the other two measuring 3m
Please ignore all the other detail. The garage will be rectangular as in the top picture, with a straight wall of doors. Just deliberating whether its two or three sectional doors !!!!
Edited by Ricky22buk on Sunday 11th June 14:31
How many cars will you be putting in there?
I'm in the process of discussing a garage with an architect at the moment so this is of interest to me.
I think my approach will be a single, massive garage door. That central pillar will be a PITA where individual door ones probably wouldn't as much, but if there's an even number of cars going in then it doesn't matter.
I'm in the process of discussing a garage with an architect at the moment so this is of interest to me.
I think my approach will be a single, massive garage door. That central pillar will be a PITA where individual door ones probably wouldn't as much, but if there's an even number of cars going in then it doesn't matter.
As asked above, how many vehicles will be in there? If it's three and you want to be able to get any one out without shunting another vehicle out of the way, three doors woould be better,
Are you considering manual or powered doors? If powered, then roller doors may be a better option as they don't eat into the roof space if you want lighting, storage or even a hoist up there.
Are you considering manual or powered doors? If powered, then roller doors may be a better option as they don't eat into the roof space if you want lighting, storage or even a hoist up there.
Ive never really thought about a large door and a small door. Certainly something to think about. Thank you !
It's ideally a three car garage. Could you squeeze four in, I don't know, but it's mainly for three cars, or two cars and a trailer.
The three doors seems the logical choice for three cars, but I had in my head when trying to reverse a trailer in there it may have been better with two big doors. I'm simply divided hence curious about everyone's thoughts.
I would prefer an insulated electrically operated sectional door from the likes of Horman, but they seem to only go up to 6m in width, and when you go to that size of door the height decreases to 2.25m, therefore ruling out things like a high roof van, a small 3 ton digger etc etc etc. It would have been useful to be able to store things like that in there for the duration of our build.
From the Horman website it seems like,
Their well insulated LPU 67 door :
5m width / 2.5m high
4.75m width / 2.750m high
If I go three doors I can have 3m high
Their slightly less insulated door the LPU 42 :
5m width / 3m high
What to do what to do !!!!!!
It's ideally a three car garage. Could you squeeze four in, I don't know, but it's mainly for three cars, or two cars and a trailer.
The three doors seems the logical choice for three cars, but I had in my head when trying to reverse a trailer in there it may have been better with two big doors. I'm simply divided hence curious about everyone's thoughts.
I would prefer an insulated electrically operated sectional door from the likes of Horman, but they seem to only go up to 6m in width, and when you go to that size of door the height decreases to 2.25m, therefore ruling out things like a high roof van, a small 3 ton digger etc etc etc. It would have been useful to be able to store things like that in there for the duration of our build.
From the Horman website it seems like,
Their well insulated LPU 67 door :
5m width / 2.5m high
4.75m width / 2.750m high
If I go three doors I can have 3m high
Their slightly less insulated door the LPU 42 :
5m width / 3m high
What to do what to do !!!!!!
Edited by Ricky22buk on Sunday 11th June 20:39
I've given this topic a bit of thought myself as I'm planning a garage too though mine is narrower at 10m wide. My plan I think is to have two wide doors. I think in your case there is an even stronger case for that as you should easily be able to fit two cars side by side having both accessed via a 5m door. I think it keeps the space much more flexible.
The other thing is that since you mention a scissor lift, I assume you have some car maintenance planned. Two doors splits that garage nicely into two halves. You can park two cars in one half and the other half could be for storage of another two cars or maintenance of one with plenty of space to work around it. If you think the scissor lift flush into the floor dead centre of one half, it is out of the way if you want to park two cars there, then when you need to use the lift, just move one car out.
The other thing is that since you mention a scissor lift, I assume you have some car maintenance planned. Two doors splits that garage nicely into two halves. You can park two cars in one half and the other half could be for storage of another two cars or maintenance of one with plenty of space to work around it. If you think the scissor lift flush into the floor dead centre of one half, it is out of the way if you want to park two cars there, then when you need to use the lift, just move one car out.
I totally get what your saying and it sounds good in theory. My issue here is that if I'm being honest, I don't think the 7.6m I have available is deep enough to be able to bring two cars in the one 5m door, especially considering I will have a 0.75m work bench across the back wall. So given the workbench dimension and a little space to walk behind the car, I'm doubtful I could get the first car far enough back to allow a second in.
I had started this project with three doors, and changed my mind to two. I'm thinking maybe three is the answer after all ! LOL.
I had started this project with three doors, and changed my mind to two. I'm thinking maybe three is the answer after all ! LOL.
Ricky22buk said:
Those cars on that image are very wide! Over 2500mm. Even something like a Raptor is narrower than that. I guess I've mainly looked at this from the point of view of storing narrower cars but if you do need to park wide cars next to each other I can see it would be a challenge. You could obviously nose one in and reverse the other so drivers doors both open into gap between. You could also go for 5.5m doors and have a much smaller pillar between them. Pillars are a PIA. Avoid them, you won't when moving cars!!
The best thing I did when I moved house was to spot that the centre pillar did nothing, so knocked it away and fitted a roller shutter to the existing RSJ. Juse be careful the limit switches work....a roller that has gone "over the top" is not pretty...and makes a dreadful noise😨
The best thing I did when I moved house was to spot that the centre pillar did nothing, so knocked it away and fitted a roller shutter to the existing RSJ. Juse be careful the limit switches work....a roller that has gone "over the top" is not pretty...and makes a dreadful noise😨
david.h said:
Pillars are a PIA. Avoid them, you won't when moving cars!!
The best thing I did when I moved house was to spot that the centre pillar did nothing, so knocked it away and fitted a roller shutter to the existing RSJ. Juse be careful the limit switches work....a roller that has gone "over the top" is not pretty...and makes a dreadful noise??
A 10m+ wide door is going to cost a fair old chunk though. I'm not sure you can buy standard doors to that that size so it would likely be bespoke and wind load a that size becomes an important consideration so it might end up being quite a pricy option. The best thing I did when I moved house was to spot that the centre pillar did nothing, so knocked it away and fitted a roller shutter to the existing RSJ. Juse be careful the limit switches work....a roller that has gone "over the top" is not pretty...and makes a dreadful noise??
As others have said, avoid any sort of piller in the open space. I can tell you from experience that they are more than a nuisance when you are moving cars about and if you wish to carry out body repairs or a respay you will need to put the car in a central unobstructed part of the garage. With my first house, I built the garage with an 18ft. door and it was an absolute delight for 28 years,
however when we moved to our second house it already had a large double garage but with two doors, it was at this point I realised how sensible I had been with my first garage and the one door. Take the advice given by many here on this point.
I'm totally with you with regards the pillars. I don't want any but don't think I have a choice.
Thats actually one of my reasons for considering the two larger doors rather than three smaller ones. My scenario would be a lot easier if I had more width and could do a 4 car garage. It would then simply be the 2 biggest doors I could find, 2 cars in one door and 2 cars in the other.
My 3 car scenario isn't just as simple. We are all looking for our garages to be bigger, as bigger does give us a lot more options!!!!
As someone has already mentioned, a 10m door would be absolutely perfect, but I don't even think you can buy such a thing. Well, google didn't bring me up any options anyway.
Thats actually one of my reasons for considering the two larger doors rather than three smaller ones. My scenario would be a lot easier if I had more width and could do a 4 car garage. It would then simply be the 2 biggest doors I could find, 2 cars in one door and 2 cars in the other.
My 3 car scenario isn't just as simple. We are all looking for our garages to be bigger, as bigger does give us a lot more options!!!!
As someone has already mentioned, a 10m door would be absolutely perfect, but I don't even think you can buy such a thing. Well, google didn't bring me up any options anyway.
Ricky22buk said:
Could you squeeze four in, I don't know, but it's mainly for three cars, or two cars and a trailer.
Quickly drafted this out based on your dims. For reference the cars are 5 series BMWs.Edited by Ricky22buk on Sunday 11th June 20:39
Edited by _Hoppers on Monday 12th June 17:08
Ricky22buk said:
Very interest seeing it to scale. I thought it wasn't going to work well, but if thats to scale I think it may.
Thank you for going to the effort of drawing it out....... there are kind people in the world after all.
Thank you again !!!!!!
If you can I'd still try to aim to get the pillar and outer wall returns as small as possible and maximise door width. An extra 500mm+ on each door would make a big difference. It will maybe mean going slightly above catalogue sizes but just speak to some local roller shutter door manufacturers for pricing as it shouldn't be too crazy at that sort of size. As above, I'd avoid sectionals if you want to raise cars. Thank you for going to the effort of drawing it out....... there are kind people in the world after all.
Thank you again !!!!!!
Ricky22buk said:
Very interest seeing it to scale. I thought it wasn't going to work well, but if thats to scale I think it may.
Thank you for going to the effort of drawing it out....... there are kind people in the world after all.
Thank you again !!!!!!
You're welcome. If it helps to visualise the space, I've got 480mm from wing mirror to wall when I park in my garage. That gives me enough space to get out of the car plus I can get a (road) bike past too. I think the 5000mm door would be wide enough, in reality you can park those cars much closer together.Thank you for going to the effort of drawing it out....... there are kind people in the world after all.
Thank you again !!!!!!
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