Your architect can show you exactly the space you will have for most vehicle models.

Here's ours with dimensions of 33'x23'. We also speced a 12' ceiling so collector cars can be stacked.

As mentioned by others, stairs can greatly intrude into the space; ours has a reverse ledge foundation so one step should be sufficient.

You definitely need to go bigger. We had a 24'x24' garage at our last home. It was my garage and my husbands shop. He only parked his truck in it if it was hailing. We bought an inclosed trailer to park our motorcycles in for winter storage. Our current house has a 3 car garage. Great but it is 21' deep and with the brush guard on my husbands truck he either had to back in to get out or leave the door open and walk around the back. He still only parked if it hailed. Our motorcycles are in the single side, my small Cadillac SUV in the double. We just finished adding a 24'x32' detached garage/shop on our lot. He is parking his truck inside for the first time really since we got married in 1993.

Kaya-

We have a 3-car garage just the size of your floorplan: a third of it is my wood shop; a third of it is storage for large items, such as furniture, bicycles, exercise equipment which we may use some day, and some items we're storing for a daughter until she gets moved into a house; and the remaining third in the center contains shelving for household supplies, various garbage and recycle dumpsters, and gardening equipment, with a pathway down the middle. Fortunately, there is a full-height attic over the garage which has storage for more stuff.

And the three cars? We have a large parking apron outside the garage where they have resided ever since we moved in 15 years ago.

Hope that helps answer your question. ;-)

" . . . so collector cars can be stacked."

Won't that scratch the paint??

the bay by the entry to the house is not usable - map out your walk path -imagine walking in with arms full of grocery items- if you are doing high ceilings dont do high doors so you can use the space above the garage door for storage - look at good garage organization systems like www.gorgeousgarage.com

Minimum depth of 25'. Width is dependent on how many opening and inter-spacing. For example, I always prefer a 2 car garage with 2 doors, rather than one 1 door. For a three car garage (or really a 2 car, 1 junk space) I would want three doors. Several advantages of smaller doors which provide larger spaces. first, you have an automatic spacer in the garage: the space between the doors makes it easier for everyone to park in their own spot and not encroach on other cars. Next, each door is smaller and lighter, less strain on the motor. Third, if the motor breaks or you have a power outage, it's easier to manually lift a single door than a double door. fourth, it really looks more balanced with three equal size doors rather than a huge gaping double door and it's tiny neighbor.

This:

Not this:

Regret?

Only if you want to park 3 or even 2 large vehicles inside.

it really looks more balanced with three equal size doors rather than a huge gaping double door and...tiny neighbor.

Our three-car above has two equal size doors.

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Stacking.

Won't that scratch the paint??

Not if you're very careful!

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We started with a four-car garage. The city said "Nyet, Comrade!"

The last time we had a three-car garage, it was entirely filled with building materials, bicycles and toys, so much of the planning is irrelevant anyway.

What several have said before bears repeating...9' wide doors, not 8'.

Ours is 24'8" deep (previous owners added ~5' from how it was originally built), and 30'6" wide. It holds 3 vehicles--4 if you really want to shove the 1971 mini cooper in there. And one is my husband's massive 1970 ford truck. Plus the air compressor, garage cabinets, belt sander, drill press, tool boxes, 3 sets of racing tires, beer fridge, and some other miscellaneous stuff. If I were building from scratch, I'd add 4-5' to the width and maybe go to a full 25 or 26' for the depth.

If it wasn't such a disaster right now (holding half our dismantled kitchen), I'd take a picture.

Thank you to everyone. Really appreciated everyone’s thoughts. It clear we need to deepen our garage. We are definitely going to increase the depth to 25’. However, apparently we’ve reached the max depth of the home for our lot (side facing garage) so we cannot lengthen the size : (

We have a 3 car garage and ours is 24 feet deep, the third bay is slightly shorter - probably 22 ft deep. It's about 34 ft wide. We can very comfortably fit a full sized (4-door) truck and a regular 4-door sedan in the double side. On the 3rd bay side we have plenty of room to spare - but we also don't (yet) have a snow blower or lawn mower. Those two items will take up significant room. We have bikes and toys just taking up ground space now - we are planning to get some organizational systems in place to get that stuff off the ground. Once we do that - we should have room to park my sedan there comfortably, with bigger items like garbage cans, snow blower, lawn mower, in the additional space between the 2-car side and the 3rd bay.

Not sure if that made much sense. Long story short - 34 ft wide by 24 ft deep works for us, with 2 vehicles in use and room for bikes/toys/storage.

The one thing I would suggest... if you live in a colder climate. Heat your garage. It's life-changing, I promise :)

Thanks, Kate E. Made perfect sense! We gotta go up in size and it sounds like 34x24 would be more comfortable for us. We live in Michigan so we are definitely putting in a gas line to have a heater set up after we close.

If you live in Michigan, then yes you will regret a garage that small.

Awesome! We also had drains and a hot & cold water spigot inside our garage - one drain centered in the 2-car side, and one on the 3rd car side. Since you're in MI you might like the idea too. With the garage being heated it stays nice and warm - we keep ours at 60. But, in the winter you know all the salt takes a toll on cars. So - my husband can easily hose down and spot-clean the cars when they get really salty! Did not add much $$ to the built at all - but has been really handy.

Kate E, that’s invaluable feedback - thank you! Would have never thought to do that. It’s now on our list.

Wait - people in Michigan park cars in their garage?

For the drains in the garage, check with your local code. My dad put those in his garage, one in each bay. And it was a heated garage, not too warm, but enough to melt the snow and ice off the cars, so it all went down the drains. Wonderful! But when my cousin was planning his house with these, they weren’t allowed. I think it all depends on where they will drain to.

We have a spigot in our garage but we never use it, because we worry about draining and dripping against the drywall. But, we are planning to move a utility sink out there, hooking it up to the laundry sink drain on the other side of the wall, and keeping the spigot so we can attach a hose.

In some ways it definitely depends on what you park. Our current 2 stall garage is 25' wide and 22' deep. We drive a Ford Edge and A Lexus RX. If a previous homeowner hadn't plopped a 30" deep run of cabinets down the center of the garage, it would store our cars and our stuff very well. At 15.5 feet deep that leaves 2' behind the car and 4.5 in front of the car. So we have about 2' across the back wall, and about 3' down the side wall for storage. If we had large SUVs or trucks then probably only the car would fit in depth. For instance a Ford Escalate ESV is 18.5 feet long!

That said as currently designed with your garage door layout and house entrance, you will likely be able to store very little along the side walls with 3 cars parked. For that reason I do agree with increasing the depth of the garage to at leas 24' inside. Also keep tabs on the final garage and house floor elevations as the house gets under construction. If the height difference gets any greater you will have to move the door to the other end of the mudroom to make enough room for the stairs while still parking a car. You might take a look at your floor plan and see if that makes more sense anyway. It will definitely make walking around the garage easier.

Our garage is 22' x 22'. In it we park a Toyota Sienna (minivan), and a Jeep Grand Cherokee. The van is parked on the right, with the nose angled further right. The Jeep is parked on the left, as close to the van as I can get, and still open the driver door in the van. Neither car is convenient for a passenger to open the door in the garage.

We do have shelving, 2' deep, on the left side of the garage, for things like recycling bins, etc. The trash can and lawn mower are also on that wall. Bicycles are hung on the wall; kayak and cargo box hung from the ceiling.

2 more feet would make a world of difference; 4 feet would be heaven.

I wanted two feet more in my garage when we built the house, but it meant re-doing the roof trusses and expanding one whole side of the house since mine 3-bay is a tuck-under. That was going to be $ 40,000 so I passed on it. I can barely park my Audi E-Tron in it, go as deep as you can afford to go, you will use the space. Here's mine - I have 5" in back of the Audi and 10" in front due to the toolbox.

Yeah, I have yet to hear someone lament that their garage is too big. (Within reason, of course - I don't know anyone with a 6-car garage or something!)

And bpath is right about drains in the floor. I believe ours are connected to the storm sewers.

Beautiful garage The Keeping Room. What are your a garage dimensions if you don’t mind sharing?

I know people with 6 car garages. They still complain they are too small.

I do wish we had higher ceilings. Ours are only 8', so not a lot of vertical storage space.

Kaya-

If you’re heating your garage, make sure the doors are well-insulated and well-sealed, and think about having wall insulation between the house and the garage if you want to keep the garage at a lower temperature than the living area. That would save energy/money compared to only insulating the outer wall of the garage and having heat flowing into the garage through the common wall(s) with the home area, and heating the garage to a temperature higher than you need. If I am not being clear why this makes a difference in your hearing bill, I can explain further.

^^yes!! We fully insulated every wall in our garage & the ceiling. Plus don’t forget upgrading insulation on the garage door itself.

Yup totally agree. We insulated all walls and ceilings in our current garage and plan to do the same in the next.

The other day my wife mentioned something about our garage being too big . . . or maybe it was that I had too much stuff in it.

Too much stuff? Impossible.

"If you build it, you will fill it."

the Keeping Room,,,wow. Now that's a garage. we have a similar size (3 car) and it's just full of tools, workshop items, and all of my furniture I redo. husband has his side and I have mine. guess whose stays cleaner?

can't even pull in one car let alone 3! At least it doesn't snow here.

husband built a storage platform in our garage that sits above our heads, but we also have a cathedral ceiling (all open) in the garage for a lot more upper space

oh and just in case you need to stack your sports cars

i think i need this

Get as much depth as you can. That is the most useful space ever!!! Common mistake in new builds because builder's are trying to keep costs low. The more organized you can make the space, the better. Don't forget space for Christmas stuff that you can't get up a attic stair too! Make your life as easy as possible and this is cheapest square footage to use.

there are a few things that are nice to think about in a new build. go as big as you can. spend the extra for good insulated doors. insulate, sheetrock and paint walls white. add good lighting Costco has good led shop lights on sale all the time. it will help keep things cleaner if you can actually see the mess. as everywhere... a place for everything and everything in its place

we never liked a side load garage until we bought a house with one. it is a nice buffer between our neighbors on that side which is north so not having windows there is great. because our drive is on the side we actually replaced a couple storage sheds that where here when we bought it and put up another detached garage at the back of the lot, a straight in shot from the drive. I know it is the real reason my husband wanted this house. since you are starting fresh, you may consider separating the one closest to the house with a wall between the double side. we looked at a home that had that years ago. in a cold climate being able to separate and only heat part of the space is a plus if you want to have part of it as a shop. having that heated space right next to the house access will also help keep the house warmer. we live in Montana so have our fair share of cold. insulate everthing

i would move the access to the house to the back of the garage so you don't have to walk into the side of a vehicle keep a path in front of the cars to walk

Dh put in a gas heater. I thought it was silly but now I think he was pretty wise.

as far as depth..make it at least deep enough to pull your car in, open your hatchback and unload your car with the garage door shut and with room to comfortably walk all the way around your vehicle.

you do not want to have to leave your garage door wide open in the middle of the winter to unload groceries because your hatch to your SUV sticks out because your garage isn’t deep enough.

For those with smelly summer trash in the garage problems - friends of ours in this situation bought a small dorm fridge for the garage. Potentially smelly trash goes in a trash can in it until the morning of pickup. Seems silly, but it solves their problem fairly inexpensively.

We had a two car garage under....but the otherwise cheap spec builder did include a bump out (upstairs in was our breakfast nook) and that made all the difference for trikes, bikes, and the lawnmower.

We're doing a 30×40 3 car garage. We're a farm family with 3 kids, a farm truck, suv, Camaro, Ranger side by side, mower, small wood hauling trailer, plus tools and saws, and kid bikes. Our current garage is 26x30 and it's not cutting it at all.

Lynn- Are you sure 30 X40 will be big enough? ;-)

Go to a dealer and measure the length of your dream vehicle and add six feet -- at least 3' front and back for for walking all around your vehicle in the garage ... and that is if you're going to be parking the lawnmower and storing stuff elsewhere.

If your intent is to park three vehicles in the garage, you should consider three separate doors; however, local building codes, etc., permitting, of course, you might consider two large doors and add a carport/car shelter for the vehicle that gets driven the most.

If there is any chance you'll be needing a place to park bikes and tools and BBQ grill, at least consider putting a screened porch between your mud room entry and your garage. Great place for storing outdoor sports stuff and kicking off muddy shoes. Additionally, it can help keep the smells and fumes and sounds from the garage getting into the house. That "screened porch" can be an unheated room with a half wall and a pair of sliding glass doors as the only exterior wall or just a half exterior wall with screen above and a screen door -- far better back entrance/exit to a patio than through a garage.

Sheds, barns, and other outbuildings, are useful as well. Not everything needs to be under the home’s roof.

Budget and space and building codes permitting, consider building a four car drive thru garage as a separate building -- square building w/doors two large doors on two sides. One section can be for all things other than cars. Build an actual screened covered porch between the house and the misc. equipment corner of that garage.

Way too small on both dimensions. Personally I'd go 24' deep at minimum, and for width you'd barely be able to park 3 cars and open all the doors... most vehicles are 6-7' wide, then figure +2' each side of each car, you're talking 33' wide just parking. Then you want storage and walking space. Really you can never have enough garage :D

I'd start at 24 X 36, and work from there.

If you live where they salt the roads, do some reading on what temp to keep ithe garage that’s best for your cars. Much more than 40-45F will speed up the corrosion process because the snow/ice melts.

Make sure you can fit a Cybertruck. !9'6"

I didn't read all the comments but was going to type the same as what Virgil said: start at 24 ft x 36 ft. I'd allow 12 ft width per vehicle. I don't know if you said what types of vehicles you have or not but for any large SUV/Truck, I'd do 10 ft doors. I have to be extra careful with my Suburban with 9 ft doors to not have the mirrors hit. Of course, DH's 3500HD can't fit in a 9 ft door at all because his mirrors definitely won't go. That's one reason we are opting for a carport on the main level on our upcoming new build ;)

You might consider doing one extra large door (16-18 ft) and one smaller door (9 ft) and then size the garage accordingly. We will have 10 ft wide doors in our two basement garages. Lived and learned.

As for depth, the deeper the better. One garage I had was 24 ft deep and it was tight for the Chevy Tahoe I had then. It would have been super tight with a Suburban (or similar) sized vehicle. In the house we moved from in 2018, the garages were in the basement and were deep enough to park two vehicles back to back in them. Now, THAT was an ideal depth ;)