Garage Door Distances

LBrown59 · Oct 1, 2008

That means that they want to see 48" between the corner of the building and a window or door (including a garage door)

This means a single car garage with a 10 foot door has to be 18 feet wide instead of the normal standard 12 foot wide.
According to this my 4 stall garage would have to be 72 feet wide rather than the 52 feet I made it.
It also means that if I built an 8 foot wide storage building I could not put any doors in it.
I'm sure glad there are no building codes here in Washington county .

L . B .

schmism · Oct 1, 2008

standard parking lot has 9' wide spaces.

if you assume your car is 6' wide, that would leave 3' between you and the car next to you for you to open the door.

when laying out garages shops for people. i usually show 4' between the car space and the wall. 6' if you plan on having a bench on the wall. (note thats between the car space and the wall, not the edge of the door opening)

Lumberjack_jeff · Oct 2, 2008

LBrown59 said:
This means a single car garage with a 10 foot door has to be 18 feet wide instead of the normal standard 12 foot wide.
According to this my 4 stall garage would have to be 72 feet wide rather than the 52 feet I made it.
It also means that if I built an 8 foot wide storage building I could not put any doors in it.
I'm sure glad there are no building codes here in Washington county .

I oversimplified the issue. The prescriptive code (the design parameter "cookbook" that building departments can use to approve buildings absent an engineers stamp) says that the building envelope needs to have shear panels on each wall. A 4x8 sheet of osb nailed to the wall framing serves this function, provided it is not compromised by a door or a window. If 48" is undesirable, 2' 8" is suitable if it has long straps securing it to the foundation.

A long, skinny building may also need a shear wall in the middle somewhere.

Your 52' wide building probably wouldn't need more than two shear panels, at the two ends... so a grand total of 5' 4" beyond the ends of the left and right doors.