I'm sorry, not sure I follow. I understand the 24' W x 24' D part, but what does "nine-foot overhead garage door, two feet between the overhead garage doors, a nine-foot overhead garage door, and two feet beside the overhead garage door" mean? Thank you.

As close to 24x24 as you can get. Our new build front attached garage is something like 23x24...lot restrictions prevented us from widening it further (we bumped it up 2’ wider from the 21’ standard width). Ours is a <2,000 sq foot house over two levels.

My husband still considers this to be a one-car garage (it will be my garage) and will be building another garage in the back for his truck and a workshop area. We have a 22x22 detached right now and his F150 with a short box won’t fit in it comfortably (can’t open tailgate, wedged right at front, etc). So I park in it only and we use rest of space to store our outdoor gear and tools.

I was recently visiting a friend in another province in a busy new build area and garages were usually, if a double was even present, something like 19x19 or at best 20x20 with a 7’ overhead door. The single car garages were tiny. The house I stayed in had a single where our friend could not open both passenger and drivers side door when parked on even her small car. And her door opened into stairway. Those garages would not fly where I am - people love their trucks and SUVs/CUVs here!

2 feet plus 9 feet plus 2 feet plus 9 feet plus 2 feet.

9 feet being the door width, 2 feet being the gaps.

I think it is two feet on either side of the garage door if it is one large door, and a two foot area on either side of two separate doors and a two foot space between the two doors.

So the lot we're looking at can accept, at most, a 23' wide garage. The standard garage is 20' on paper, which measures 19'6" in reality. I'm worried that while the extra 3' will HELP relieve the problem, it won't cure it, it will still be a bit cramped. I think 25' wide would be ideal.

First determine how you are going to use a garage over the next 50 years then design it from there.

My minimum 24' wide garage would be determined by 2' of wall + 9'door + 2' of wall + 9'door + 2' of wall = 2+9+2+9+2=24. I prefer two garage doors to not expose the entire garage when opening the overhead garage door and to reduce structural header size.

Best to measure your own needs in this way; open one door all the way and measure the width of your vehicle including the open door. That gives you the width needed to comfortably park that car in a garage. Mandated interior size of a 2-car garage in the US is 20 x 20, which IMO, is woefully inadequate.

Mark, I am afraid I must disagree. I like having 1 large door so I can have room to pull in a vehicle in the middle and sweep it out and clean it out as necessary.

That being said, I agree a 24X24 would be the minimum size for any garage. 20X20 is ridiculously small.

30x30 gives room for for the mower, and a bit of a workbench. Functionally, you can not have a garage that is too big. Aesthetically is another matter.

I have a 20x20 garage (narrow city lot - sigh...) plus that's a fairly common size here in Australia, perhaps because cars here are smaller. Our garage works for us (just) but both our cars are small. I wouldn't want to try to get a standard American car or SUV in there.

Kathi - If you make the two door garage 40' deep, you can still park the car in the middle. (humor)

One more thing I should add: this would be a single 18' wide door (upgraded from the standard 16' wide door).

As an aside, I don't see too many multi-door garages being built anymore, except in the case of 3-car garages where there's usually a 16' for the two cars and a 7' for one additional car.

Maybe it is a location thing. Single doors are not
popular in my area. FWIW, we are going to be tearing down our old 20x20
and building new (perfect size to be determined) but I could never recommend
20x20.

Can you get an administrative exception to your current
property line? We went to the town codes board and
they gave us a 25% allowance from the original 25 ft set back- 18.75 ft
now.

If not I would build to the maximum you can build- 23 ft if
you have to.

I have a 27 x 27 (inside measurement), with an 18' door. This gives plenty of space on the walls and the back of the garage.

As I mentioned above, garage on my new house is 23 x 24. 23 width was highest we could push it on our lot since we have a narrow frontage and we have 4' setbacks. If 23' is max you can go, go to 23'. Are you able to put another garage or even storage shed or workshop in back somewhere? That will let you store other things you would otherwise store in garage and free up some room.

For doors...there is a mix of single and double doors used where I am. I personally prefer a double door as I do like to park in middle, open all doors to clean out, be able to pull in or out without having to line up with single door. Also easier to move 16-17' kayaks and other large items in and out of. But I also know some who prefer single doors so they don't expose entire garage when they open up, etc.

Mark, as usual, cracking me up!!

I prefer a garage that has extra depth than just a foot or so extra width. The extra width does make it easier to get in and out of the car but doesn't really make it easier to store items like bikes. I would rather have 22 x26 than 24 x 24 or have extra width with a service door beside the garage door. That splits it more into a section to be used for parking and a section for storage or workbench. Our first house had a nice garage which was probably 24 wide and 32 to 35 feet long. The front left had been converted into living space but the right hand stall was double length. Original owner used it as a workshop so good power and lighting also. If you are upgrading the size, be sure to upgrade the usefulness also with another electrical circuit and extra lighting

You should build the largest garage you can fit on the property. It will get filled up. I know lots of people that use their garages only for storage. You can never have a big enough garage. We built a 24'x24' garage for our previous home. It really was my garage and my husbands shop. With things in it his full size Chevy truck was tight so he never parked in it. We also have 3 motorcycles that we stored in an enclosed trailer. Our new house has a triple garage with one small and a double door. At only 21' depth his truck still gets parked outside. Our motorcycles are in the smaller side and my small car is center stage in the larger. If he were to park in it he would need to close the garage door after walking around the back of the truck. His truck does have a large grill guard that is the problem. But he has plans on building another garage that is 27' deep for his truck and projects.

IM GETTING NEW HOME BUILT & IS 23 FEET WIDE GOOD FOR CLASSIC CARS? TK

Gerard - stop using caps. It's considered rude on the internet.

Yeah I don't know what architects are thinking with calling the 20x20 (that ends up being 19.5/19.5) storage unit a 2 car garage, its malpractice. I have a 26W x 24L, 2 car garage and its usable as a 2 car garage with a freezer and storage, but tough to walk around in. My neighbor added on 6 feet to his garage (has a motor scooter and wanted to be able to mount it to his car while in the garage (we can get 10+ feet of snow over the winter here in Truckee CA) and I would say that 30' is a great length. Now if we can just talk the building code people into allowing us shorter setbacks so we can fit that behemoth onto a 1/8 acre plot.

The architects aren't the problem. The builders are. They design to a price point, not to a set of practical design parameters.

25' wide x 30' deep is a nice-sized garage that will work on most 3500 SF homes without throwing off the proportions.

A 20' x 20' garage on a 3500 SF home is a joke.

Ours is 20x22 deep. Wish it were 22 square