Garage door height
 

So we're getting ready to start building a new custom home. The garage I'm speaking of is a part of the house so it needs to fit with that design. It's 3 bays, 1single car 20' long - 10 foot wide and 1 double car 40' long and 20' wide. One side of the two car is for my boat,25' Nordic Rage and the other side has a 15' ceiling to facilitate a car lift. The current design has 8' garage door height. I knew I wanted it taller than a standard 7' door but now I'm thinking 8' may not be enough for the future? I'm sure the Rage will fit but I plan on moving up to something 28-32' in the future... Heat, up to a 353 Fastec, Cobalt 343' , Donzi... I'm still at the stage I can adjust, what say you? Again keep in mind this is in a subdivision and this is not a dedicated rv type of storage so I need to stay conservative on the height.

Besides height ive made sure there are drains in the garage to facilitate rinse down out of the Texas sun... any thing else to consider in the design? Thanks for your thoughts.

Not sure about the other models but my 28 heat came with the Nordic trailer...1997...and the trailer is designed to fit through an 8 ft garage door which it does...if you have it on a taller trailer it will not...if you have the room in the design I would def go 10' so there's no question with whatever you get...just my .02

Stewart

Thanks. Good to know the Heat would fit.i may want something a bit bigger with a overnight type of Cabin. Enjoy the Heat...Nordic makes a very quality product.

I would be as concerned with the width. A little wider will give you more room to walk around and work on it, plus I would hate to get a door ding in my boat from my own car.

I'd check overall length (on trailer) of the biggest boat you'll be considering down the line. My 24' boat is just over 30' after the swim platform, outboard, and trailer tongue get figured in. Also, 40' is the outside measurement. With 2x6 studs, drywall, and garage door track, you'll end up around 38'5" actual interior length. Had a helluva time making this sink in with realtors this summer as I rejected listings because of "20x20" garages that wouldn't fit my 19.2' truck.

10' Door will fit most any speed boat.

put in an I-beam system with an electric winch for pulling the engines when your boat breaks down............:funnypost:

you cant get a Top gun on a trailer in a 40' stall

When my uncle built his house his wife would not go for a big commercial size door on the front facing the street, so he set it up to pull in from the back and drive his truck out the normal door in front. Only downside was having to back the trailer out the back door of the garage, and having the room to do so.

I just had a pole barn put up at the house and had to go 8-6 because my 32 Hustler is 8-3" on the trailer,

I built an addition to my garage that fit my boat perfectly and a little more room to spare

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make it as big , high, long as you possibly can!!!!

10'x 60'

I was gonna say 2 feet wider, 4 feet higher and at least 10 feet longer. you can always stash a few engines there till you get a bigger boat.

For reference, my 32 AT is just over 38' on the steel trailer. My garage is 39.5' deep. If I had an aluminum trailer, it would be longer and probably not fit.
My garage door is 9' tall and it clears easily. It might fit under an 8' tall, but it would be real close.

10' high by 10' wide door covers all, especially if you are old and can't turn your neck to see the right corner!:)

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Going to contact my architect and see if I can get to at least 9'. I will have the 4 post lift next to the boat bay to help pull motors if I need to. My budget will likely limit me to a 32' boat for a while. Eventually I'll build a rv/boat specific garage but for now I'd like to stop paying storage and have easy access to work on it at home. Happy boating!

Check your local building codes about the floor drain. our local codes do not permit floor drains in garage bays. Has to do with introducing fuel / oil into storm drains.

As for the door....as big as possible!

You will loose almost 3" with finish trim on all sides of the doors and the floor drains will never work in MA, just had to go with a good pitch on the floor. You want to make them look well with the building and you will always wish you went bigger. I am just finishing this 42x62 barn with 12' doors and wish they were bigger.

Another work around option is put in a sunken drain and then put a few inches of concrete over the “drain”. After all is completed and you get your CO, it is easy to...you get the idea.

Just my .02. ALWAYS go as big as possible and feasible. My Scarab III is 42' coupler to prop. 10 X 10 door mandatory. I did a 30 X 60 garage 12 yrs. ago. Wish I had gone 10' longer. If you can go big now, you will never regret it later. Good luck.

16' wide X 10' tall on the door at minimal if you ask me.
https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net...e0&oe=5A50389C

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9' door MINIMUM. Go with a 10' door if you can. (height)

And you need to bank on boat length plus 7' feet to rough estimate a new boat fitting in there.
So a 353 Formula or a 343 Cobalt is NOT likely to fit in 40'. And of course 40' is never exactly such when you figure in door setbacks, drywall/wall thicknesses; and other infrastructure.
Go with 50' to bad safe it at all possible. Or, make sure it's a storage room that you can rob from directly behind the garage, an NO plumbing or electrical in that wall.

If you have 15' ceilings consider making at least one door to clear a possible future rv, 13' minimum.

hell make it 20' you might get an airplane...

Just had a 16x10 Door installed on my garage. The boat would have cleared just barely with a 9ft door, but went with the 10 anyway.

I had about 43.5 feet inside length, wall to wall. Only thing that saved me, is my boat fits the trailer. I dont have a ton of extra trailer tongue out there away from the boat.

is that what they call pole barn style construction ?? ^^^

yes

I would second a 10' door. It will be tall enough to put pretty much anything in it, without it looking like a 14' RV door, I'll look normal. Good luck.

Appreciate everyone's feedback. I told the builder to go as big as possible. It'll probably end up 10'. Hopefully this thread will help some other folks with planning.

I built my custom/architect designed home in 1979. Everything that went in was custom with special spaces and wiring. I'll guarantee to XX14 that as soon as the home is complete your things will change and the best laid plans will not work. My advice is build it twice as big as your anticipations. You can't make it bigger, but you can always make it smaller. Check weathergod.com/home

10' may not cut it when we all end up with one of these:
(It doesn't fit simply with the arch folded down either.)

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^^^^^^^^^^^ Someone put Brian in timeout! :angry-smiley-044:

Full disclosure; it's not mine, But I have custody of it on behalf of another OSO member's wife. :D

For the record, my 32 is 93" high so the 8' isn't out of the question, being a home builder myself, my only hang up on a 10' high garage doors on a attached garage is the curb appeal, last thing you want is a garage with alittle house attached, I know a garage is the utmost importance for us, but over welming a custom build home with huge doors might be something to reconsider, do you have room for a detached garage for the boat?

If curb appeal is the issue, you can make a fold down section to replicate the look of an 8' door on the outside. I saw it on a custom home and you couldn't tell it was covering a 12' plus opening. Not sure how it was opened

Door height
 

Our 353 sitting on a triple axle trailer with 16 inch wheels is exactly 9 feet from ground to top of windshield. When we built our present house, we were able to get approval from the HOA for a 20 wide by 10 high garage door. Works great.

I don't care how big you build your garage it's Never big enough.

True that, I just expanded from 60x60 to 60x90 and still I don't have room for a bus.

One of these!
 

I for one will NEVER end up with one of these!:evilb:

Or a CC. My arch is 11' high on the trailer.

Our lot is 1.3 so we are allowed one additional building. In the future I'll build something to accommodate a fifth wheel with a mother in law apartment. You're a builder so you know doing the detached makes it more pricey due to not sharing walls with the house, separate slab, electrical, etc. no baller status here just maximizing what I can afford at this point. The house is 3000 sf and the garage is 1300. Appreciate the feedback.