Garage door sizes
Residential garage doors standardize around a few sizes: singles at 8 or 9 feet wide by 7 feet tall, doubles at 16 by 7, with 8-foot heights and RV variants above. The standards keep stock doors cheap and fast — and every inch of deviation moves an order toward custom pricing and lead time.
Where the standards come from, and what they buy you
Door sizes standardized around car dimensions plus working margin, and the industry’s economics organized around the result: 8x7 and 9x7 singles, 16x7 doubles, with 9x8 and 16x8 as the tall-variant staples. Standard sizes are what manufacturers stock, what ships in days rather than weeks, what every installer’s tables and every spring chart assume — the whole low-friction path the installation cost page prices. The 15–40 percent custom premium the panel pages mention is mostly this machinery disengaging: odd sizes are made-to-order sections moving through the same factories at batch-of-one economics.
The measuring discipline exists because openings lie. A proper survey takes width and height at three points each (openings are rarely square), plus the three clearances that decide hardware — headroom above, side-room beside, backroom behind — and reads the result against what the framing can accept rather than what the tape wishes. It is the tape-measure-first visit the installation hub describes, and the reason this glossary keeps repeating the same advice: the opening is measured, the door is ordered to the opening, never the reverse.
The size menu, annotated
| Size | What it serves | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 8x7 / 9x7 single | one car, the classic bays | 9-foot width breathes better for SUVs |
| 16x7 double | two cars, one opening | the volume standard; strut rules apply |
| 9x8 / 16x8 tall | vans, racks, taller vehicles | whole-system height scaling |
| 10x10 and up / RV | motorhomes, boats, equipment | semi-custom; jackshaft-friendly |
| Golf-cart / utility (~5–6 ft wide) | course communities, sheds | light-duty hardware class |
| Anything off-table | the measured reality of old stock | custom pricing, weeks of lead |
Sizing decisions, made honestly
Measure before believing
Three points per dimension, plus headroom, side-room and backroom. Ten minutes of tape converts every later conversation from guesses to specification — the theme of the whole install silo.
Standard sizes are a discount
If a remodel can frame TO a standard size, it inherits stock pricing, stock lead time and stock spring charts forever after — including every future replacement. Custom openings are custom for life.
Height is the regret dimension
Nobody laments a too-tall door; the van, the rack, the lift all arrive eventually. At new-build or full-reframe time, the 8-foot question deserves a serious minute.
Width changes are structural projects
Widening an opening moves the header — the framing entry’s span math, permits included. The door is the cheap part of that project; budget accordingly.
Door size questions
Why do older homes so often measure “almost” standard?
Because the standards hardened after the houses were built. Openings from earlier construction eras were framed to the builder’s habits, the era’s door products, or the lumber on hand — and decades of settling, slab work and re-trims drift them further. That is why the covered-city pages’ housing-era data doubles as a sizing forecast: in pre-1980 stock, the measured opening rules and catalog assumptions mislead. An “8-foot” opening at 94½ inches is a custom-width order wearing a standard costume.
What does going taller than 7 feet actually involve?
More than the extra section. An 8-foot or taller door needs taller vertical track, a longer opener rail (or the jackshaft that ignores rails), recalculated springs for the added weight and travel, and headroom arithmetic re-run — the whole system scales, not just the door. On new construction the delta is modest; as a retrofit into a 7-foot opening it becomes a framing project, since the header must move. The lift-equipped and van-owning households that want the height should want it at build time.
Is one double door or two singles the better buy for a two-car garage?
Economics favor the double: one opener, one spring system, one install, and a lower combined price than two of everything. Practicality splits by household. Two singles keep half the garage sealed while one car leaves, survive a spring failure with one bay still working, and put smaller/lighter sections on each system. The double offers the uninterrupted opening boats, trailers and wide projects want. Neither is wrong; the center-post question — structure between singles — is decided by the framing, which is the real constraint.