Garage size
2 car garage dimensions
Twenty by twenty is what gets built and twenty-four by twenty-four is what people wish they had built. The difference is whether you can open both car doors at once.
The verdict
2 × suv fits a 20 × 20, but only just.
- Spare width
- 2.7 ft
- Room in front
- 0.5 ft
- Vehicle
- 7.4 ft × 16.5 ft
Under 2.5 ft beside a car you turn sideways to get out. It works, and you will notice it every day.
Widths are across the mirrors, because mirrors are what people hit. Measure your own vehicle before you pour a slab.
The sizes
| Size | Floor area | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 20 × 20 | 400 sq ft | The legal minimum in most places, and the one builders quote. Two sedans fit. Two pickups do not — not with the doors opening. |
| 24 × 24 | 576 sq ft | The size to build if you have the lot. Two full-size trucks, doors open on both sides, and a workbench along the back wall. |
| 22 × 22 | 484 sq ft | The honest middle. Two SUVs with room to walk between them, and about six feet of storage in front. |
| 28 × 24 | 672 sq ft | Two vehicles and a real workshop down one side, or two trucks plus a motorbike. |
The part that catches people
The number that catches people is not the width, it is the gap. Two full-size pickups are sixteen feet of metal. In a twenty-foot garage that leaves four feet split three ways — a foot and a half at each wall and about one foot between them. You get in through the passenger side, or you park one outside.
The room that is not the car
Where the space actually goes
Add the cars up and you get a number that is always too small. These five gaps are the difference between a garage you park in and a garage you live out of.
| Space | Allow | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Beside each car, to open a door and get out | 2.5 ft | A car door swings about 2 ft 6 in at the widest point of a normal opening. Less than that and you turn sideways every time. |
| Between two cars | 2.5 ft | Shared. Two cars need one gap between them, not two. |
| Between the mirror and the wall | 1.5 ft | Mirrors fold. Wing mirrors on a truck do not fold far enough to save a foot. |
| In front of the bumper | 3 ft | Where the bins, the bikes and the water heater actually live. Cut this and the garage stops holding anything but cars. |
| Behind the tailgate | 3 ft | Enough to walk round the back and to lift the boot without reversing out first. |
The door on it
Door widths that suit this garage
The opening is narrower than the building. You need a foot of wall at each side for the track and the framing, so a 20-foot garage takes an 18-foot door at most, and most builders hang a 16.
Exact price
Want the real number for your opening?
The range above is a guide. Tell us what you need and somebody who works your area will price it properly.
Your details are used to quote this job and nothing else.
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