The short version: a standard single garage door is 8, 9, or 10 feet wide and 7 feet tall. A standard double is 16 or 18 feet wide and 7 feet tall. Every one of those comes in an 8-foot-tall version. RV and boat doors run 10 to 16 feet wide and 10 to 14 feet tall. Nine by seven and sixteen by seven are the two sizes on most of the homes we work on from Savannah down to Jacksonville. Here is the full size list, what fits through each one, and how to measure your own opening before you call for a quote.
Standard Single Garage Door Sizes
Three widths are stock. The height is 7 feet unless you ask for 8.
| Size (W x H) | Opening | What it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 8 x 7 | 96 x 84 in | Compact and mid-size cars. Tight for anything with mirrors wider than 90 inches. Common on 1950s to 1980s Brunswick and Savannah homes and on carport conversions. |
| 9 x 7 | 108 x 84 in | The standard single. Full-size sedans, SUVs, and most pickups with a few inches each side of the mirrors. |
| 10 x 7 | 120 x 84 in | Full-size and heavy-duty trucks with tow mirrors. Easier for a new driver. Wider sections and a heavier spring. |
| 8-foot-tall versions | 96 in high | Lifted trucks, roof racks, ladder racks, most cargo vans. The common upgrade on new construction. |
If you are pricing the door as well as sizing it, the garage door installation cost guide has an installed price table for each of these sizes. The short answer is that the 8 by 7 and 9 by 7 price about the same, the 10 by 7 costs a step more for the heavier sections and spring, and 8-foot-tall typically adds 150 to 300 dollars to any width.
Standard Double Garage Door Sizes
| Size (W x H) | Opening | What it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 16 x 7 | 192 x 84 in | The standard two-car door. Two mid-size vehicles with about 18 inches between them and a foot to each wall. |
| 18 x 7 | 216 x 84 in | Two full-size trucks or SUVs with real door-swing room. The usual choice when a 16 feels tight. |
| 16 x 8 and 18 x 8 | 96 in high | Same widths, one more foot of height. Standard on the newer homes in Pooler, Richmond Hill, and Yulee. |
There is a third two-car layout: two 9 by 7 singles with a center post. It costs a little more than one 16 by 7, and on the coast it has a structural advantage. A 9-foot door spans half the distance of an 18-foot door, so it needs less reinforcement to carry the same wind pressure. On a beachfront or marsh-front lot inside the wind-borne debris region, two singles with wind-load rated garage doors are often the cleaner way to meet code. Inland, pick the layout you like.
Garage Door Height: 7 Feet or 8?
Seven feet clears almost every car, SUV, and stock pickup. A half-ton truck is 75 to 80 inches tall, a three-quarter-ton 78 to 81. Both clear an 84-inch opening, but not by much, and three things eat the margin fast.
- Lift kits. A 3-inch lift on a heavy-duty truck puts the roof at 82 to 84 inches. The antenna and the roof lights go first.
- Racks and carriers. A roof box on an SUV adds 15 to 18 inches. A ladder rack on a work truck adds 20 or more. That is an 8-foot door, full stop.
- Vans. A standard-roof cargo van fits a 7-foot door. A high-roof Sprinter or Transit is 107 to 110 inches and needs a 10-foot opening.
If there is any chance of a taller vehicle in the next fifteen years, the 8-foot door is cheap insurance. Raising a 7-foot opening later means reframing the header, which costs more than the door.
RV, Boat, and Oversize Garage Doors
RV doors start at 10 feet wide by 10 feet tall and go up from there. A 12 by 12 handles most Class C motorhomes and a center-console boat on a trailer with the T-top folded. A 12 by 14 or 14 by 14 covers a Class A with roof air conditioners. A 16 by 14 is the size for a fifth wheel with slide-outs you want to open indoors. Doors this large need a heavier track gauge, a commercial-duty torsion assembly, and usually a wall-mount jackshaft opener instead of a ceiling rail. We see these on the acreage lots west of Kingsland and inland Waycross, and on the boat barns off Highway 17.
Golf cart doors go the other direction: 5 or 6 feet wide by 7 feet tall, common on St. Simons Island, Sea Island, and Jekyll where the cart has its own bay. They are narrow sectional doors on a light torsion or extension-spring setup.
Will Your Vehicle Fit? Common Widths and Heights
Door widths are nominal. A 9-foot door covers a 108-inch opening and is built slightly wider to overlap the jambs. What matters is the clear opening against the vehicle at its widest point, which is almost always the mirrors.
| Vehicle | Body width | With mirrors | Height | Minimum door |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-size sedan | 72 to 74 in | 80 to 84 in | 57 in | 8 x 7 |
| Full-size SUV | 80 to 81 in | 92 to 94 in | 75 to 76 in | 9 x 7 |
| Half-ton pickup | 79 to 81 in | 96 to 100 in | 75 to 80 in | 9 x 7, 10 x 7 with tow mirrors |
| Three-quarter-ton with tow mirrors | 80 to 82 in | 104 to 106 in | 78 to 81 in | 10 x 7, 10 x 8 if lifted |
| High-roof cargo van | 81 in | 93 in | 107 to 110 in | 10 x 10 |
Approximate ranges across current models. Measure your own vehicle mirror to mirror and ground to the highest point, and allow at least 6 inches of width and 4 of height.
Headroom, Side Room, and Backroom
The opening size is only one of four numbers. The other three decide which track and opener will fit, and they are the ones homeowners forget to check.
- Headroom is the space between the top of the opening and the ceiling or the lowest obstruction. A standard torsion-spring door needs about 12 inches. Extension springs can work in 10. A ceiling-mounted opener wants about 3 more. If you have less, a low-headroom track kit gets down to 4 to 6 inches, and a wall-mount jackshaft opener takes the opener out of the equation. Both are stock items on our trucks because so many raised coastal homes have a beam or a duct right where the track wants to go.
- Side room is the wall space on each side of the opening. Standard vertical track needs 3.75 inches per side. A torsion assembly needs about 5.5 inches on the side where the spring is wound. Less than that calls for a different track configuration, not a smaller door.
- Backroom is the depth from the opening into the garage. The horizontal track needs the door height plus about 18 inches, so a 7-foot door needs roughly 8 and a half feet. A ceiling-mounted garage door opener runs its rail and motor head behind that, another 3 to 4 feet. A jackshaft opener mounts beside the torsion shaft and needs none of it.
How To Measure a Garage Door Opening
- Width. Measure the finished opening between the jambs at the widest point, not the old door. Measure at the top, middle, and bottom and use the smallest number.
- Height. Floor to the underside of the header, again in three places. Concrete is rarely level. The door gets ordered to the opening and the bottom seal takes up the slope.
- Side room. From each jamb to the nearest wall, pipe, panel, or outlet.
- Headroom. From the top of the opening to the ceiling, or to the lowest thing hanging from it. Open the attic access door and count the garage door opener if you are keeping it.
- Backroom. From the opening straight back to the rear wall or the first obstruction at track height.
Write all five down and photograph the opening from inside. That is enough to quote most doors over the phone. Before anything is ordered, a tech measures again in person. The written quote is the invoice, so the measure has to be right.
Odd Sizes and Older Coastal Homes
The standard chart assumes a house built after about 1990. A lot of what we work on was not. Pre-war cottages in the Brunswick Old Town and Savannah's midtown neighborhoods have 7 by 7 and 8 by 6 foot 6 openings framed for the cars of the day. Carport enclosures from the 1970s come in whatever width the posts happened to land. Raised beach houses on St. Simons and Tybee have ground-level bays squeezed between pilings. The manufacturers we install build to custom widths and heights, so none of that is a problem. It is a lead-time and cost line on the quote. What we will not do is reframe a sound opening to force a stock size when a custom door fits the house as it is.
The opposite case is going bigger: a 16 to an 18, or 7 feet to 8. Both mean a new header sized for the span and, inside the wind-borne debris region, a new engineering sheet for the opening. We quote the framing with the door so there is one number and one crew. Styles, colors, and window options for every size are on the residential garage door styles page, and the full process is on the garage door installation page.