Garage Plans 2 Car

You might think this garage plans 2 car looks okay. You're right if the owner of the house is going to park a small sports car in the left bay and a motorcycle in the right bay. See that door into the house? They've yet to build the platform and steps to get from the garage up into the house. Both are going to extend INTO the right side parking bay! IDIOTS! Copyright 2017 Tim Carter

Garage Plans 2 Car - BEWARE Common Mistakes!

The 2-car garage in the above photo was built about five miles from my home. It's going to be a disaster.

Can you see why? Be sure to look down at the simple floor plan I drew up to show you the biggest mistake!

It's important to realize that a vast majority of two-car garages are too small. Here's a partial list of mistakes to avoid:

garage doors too narrow and short
distance from edge of doors to side walls of garage too narrow
distance between single doors too narrow
lack of floor drains to catch snow and ice melt
front to back distance too short
lack of attic or storage trusses above garage

Garage Door Width and Height

Garage doors are often too narrow for full-size pickup trucks. These vehicles are extremely popular and require a single-door width of 10 feet and the doors need to be 8-feet tall.

I didn't build the house I live in now in central New Hampshire and the single garage doors here are 9 feet wide. I own a Ford F-250 Super Duty 4x4 and my sideview mirrors are wider than the door jamb width.

Even with a 10-foot-wide door, I'd only have about 4 inches to spare on either side of the mirrors as I back into the bay.

Door height should be no less than 8 feet. Period.

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Garage Door Insulation - It Helps But It's Not Perfect

Attic and Storage Trusses - A MUST-HAVE For Your Garage!

Sidewall Distance From Doors

See the short foundation wall just above my ASK THE BUILDER logo? That wall is just under 30 inches wide. The building code requires a platform that's at the same height as the first floor of the house. Steps come from the platform down to the garage floor. The MINIMUM size for the platform is 3 feet by 3 feet. The platform and steps will extend INTO the bay where the car is supposed to be. Copyright 2017 Tim Carter

The distance from the edges of the garage doors to the side walls of the garage are the biggest mistake of all.

Often the distance from the car or truck, once in the bay, to the the side wall is less than 4 feet!

You can't open the car door completely and if anything is stored on the wall like garbage cans or bikes, the driver or passenger gets trapped in the car.

This distance should be a minimum of 6 feet.

Floor Drains Are A Must

Floor drains should be under each parked car. The concrete slab should slope so water dripping from a car or truck flows to the floor drain.

In many garages the concrete slopes to the garage doors. The meltwater freezes to the door weatherstripping in cold climates.

Total Garage Depth

See the short stub of a foundation wall? The inside distance from the edge of the garage door to the side wall of the garage will be just about 2 feet, maybe 28 inches. It should have been a minimum of 5 to 6 feet. Copyright 2017 Tim Carter

The distance from the garage door to the back of the garage should be no less than 24 feet. Often it's just 20 feet. It's best to have 30 feet.

This may seem extreme, but if you have lots of bikes, a motorcycle, wheelbarrows, etc. to store, you'll need this space.

Speaking of motorcycles, that's about the only thing the homeowner is going to park in the right bay of this attached garage.

Look at my drawing below to see why. It's not to scale, but you get the idea if you read all the photo captions above.

Summary

When you go to look for garage plans 2 car be sure you READ my Dream Garage column above. You can't have enough space in a garage. You don't want to be banging your car doors against garbage cans or bikes CURSING each time you scratch the door.

The extra space you call for will not be that expensive and you'll be very happy in the future.