How tall does my garage door have to be?

The height of a prefabricated garage should be determined by the function of the garage. Steel garage buildings can be used to store equipment or vehicles, including cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and boat trailers, ATVs, or snowmobiles. Even the tallest RVs and trailers can be accommodated by a prefabricated garage. Most residential and commercial garage doors fall in the range of 8 ft to 16 ft high.

The garage door should be tall enough to cover the door opening. For rollup doors, at least a foot of headroom should be left between the top of the garage door and the ceiling. If an automatic garage door opener is being installed, additional headroom may be needed. Height requirements for an electric door opener mechanism should be taken into consideration when specifying the height of a garage door. For a rollup garage door, the distance from the door opening to the back wall must be at least as long as the height of the door, with at least 1.5 ft of clearance.

Some steel garage building kits come with a door framing, door, trim and all the necessary hardware for door installation. Other kits come with only the structural framing for the door and require the door, framing and trim to be purchased separately. While the included door option is more convenient, it may end up being more expensive and offers less flexibility than picking out a custom door that fits your particular requirements.