What is a good size of third car garage?

I am building a house and I am putting a third car garage for a boat. it is 28 feet deep and 16 feet wide. What I am wondering is how large of a door do most use? and what sizes of garage doors are common that still have a decent curb apeal....come on all you builders!!!

put a 14 x 12 door in so you can get the boat in with out the tower down!!

here is my idea for a third garage actually making it a four car!!!!

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31509&highlight=garage

beautiful cars but he has a Craftsman tool box...

damn dude if you got that much coin at least go Snap On

so your garage is already a 28x16? arent standard garages 10 ft wide?

i built a 3 car garage (30x30) at my lakehouse and the stall for the boat has a 10 w X 12 h door on it. best thing i ever did!!!!!! its already finished, but here is a picture of it while being built.

I built something like Matt's garage, except I put in a row of windows above the shorter door so it would have the effect of being the same height.

When we built, we had the garage modified to be about 24.5' deep x 30' wide and all garage door heights are 8'.
IMO...builders should make 8' garage doors standard nowadays. It'd suck to buy a +$40K new truck to find it won't fit under your 7' tall garage door. Also...garages are never big enough!

Some pics for ya...

We just built a detached garage this past fall for the boat. Unfortunately I had to go with 8'6" ceiling height because we had a second floor on it for my office. Garage size is 16x26. Big enough to hold most boats epically with removable platforms and swing away trailer tongues.

As for the door size, we went 11' wide by 8' 6" high (swing out carriage style doors).

I would go at least 8' high. I can tell you that the tower folded down on my XLV is 8' even... Just beware of the 8' door, would be sh**ty to built a garage and have the boat not fit by an inch or so...

I'm building a 24wx30dx12h garage right now. I didn't want to fold the tower at all as I'm fortunate enough to go out 3-4 times a week. It'll have a 10' door on it which clears the tower by ~6"s. The trusses will be fun hanging 12-13' off the ground! Doing that this Saturday. The 10'x 18' door is expensive though. I'll post some pics this weekend.

Yeah I'm building also but mine is a 50x60 with 14' side walls for a 18x12 door so I dont have to take the tower down. 3000sqf for toy box heaven!!!! Cant wait!! should be done by next friday!!

Suggest doors on both ends if possible for the "drive thru"

I looked at a very normal looking ranch style house, 2200 sq ft that had a single, wide, garage door...the right side was about 22ft deep and the left side was 45 ft deep and plenty wide enough. If you were just looking at the house from the outside, it appeared that it was just a normal 2 car garage.

You could leave the truck hooked up to the boat in the garage. Make that door height at 12 ft and you would have my perfect garage.

Here is mine in the garage. 9' wide by 7' tall single door...........26' deep.

we're building our house right now. the garage is 46' deep by 23' wide with two 9' single car doors, so the vehicles have to driven in behind one another.

(Message edited by madchild1 on August 18, 2005)

Try living in southern California. My entire peice of property is 55'X 110'. limits my building limits. The boat and my GF's car get the garage, Both of my cars are outside. Ohh well when i get an additional million $ i will be able to upgrade to a 1/2 acre lot. Then its on.

Matt,

I like your idea (well, I actually like them all). I understand homeowner controls, etc, but I would definately build a taller door like yours if I could, so I don't have to lower the tower. I spend a lot of time in my boat, and a folded tower would be a pain to work around, besides the take down, etc. Soon as I win the lotto, I will post a pic of my new 4-car, 2-boat garage!

Ok here is the update....

I have the option to make the garage in 2 ways:

1. 28 feet deep by 16 feet wide (as far as a garage door it is still in the air due to the roof line)

or

2. 40 feet deep by 16 feet wide (WITH THIS OPTION I WILL LOOSE A KITCHEN SINK WINDOW AND HAVE THE GARAGE RUN NEARLY THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE HOME...WELL ALMOST)

Thanks to all for the help I have been loosing sleep over this issue for a few days. Extra garage space is relatively cheap but I am not sure that I want to give up a kitchen window AND I am not sure that I will need a 40 foot deep garage..Isn't 28 feet deep sufficient?

Go 40, and make the back 12 feet a little getaway for you and the guys...put a bigscreen in it...just a place to hang when everyone is wet.

If you ever need the space its there.

At the very least you have enough room to store all your gear perfectly, put some of those square rubber floor tile down and jam.

I just finished building too, and thought that I would have unlimited places to hang with the guys after going out on the lake.

Nope.

We end up staying on the boat while its in the lift.

Screw the kitchen window.

lmao......aaa ok then!