Double Garage Door Size: 16 × 7, 16 × 8 and 18 × 7, Measured

By the Garage Sized team · Updated October 7, 2026 · Figures from door makers’ manuals and vehicle specs

A double garage door, or 2 car garage door, is one wide door for two vehicles side by side. Makers list doubles from 12 to 20 ft wide, but three sizes cover most houses: 16 × 7, 16 × 8 and 18 × 7. Below, each one gets its measurements, what fits and the room it needs. Then we compare one double door with two singles and work out the garage width each choice needs. For all single and double sizes in one chart, see garage door sizes.

Double garage door width: what two vehicles leave

The standard 2 car garage door width is 16 ft. Clopay lists doubles from 12 to 18 ft wide, plus extra-wide doors up to 20 ft. Garaga lists 14 to 20 ft and says a 14 ft door works for two cars, “but they will be very close.” Amarr keeps it to 16, 18 and 20 ft.

What matters is the room left with two vehicles in the opening. The table splits the spare width into three gaps, one at each side and one between, measured at the mirrors, the widest point.

Room per gap = (door width − both vehicles’ width with mirrors) ÷ 3. “Short” is the total shortfall with mirrors out. Widths are Garage Fit class values: the largest model in each class, rounded up. Few makers publish width with mirrors, so most are estimates: body width plus 12 in for cars, SUVs and minivans, 16 in for full-size SUVs and half-ton pickups, and 26 in for heavy-duty pickups. More in average car dimensions.

A 16 ft door gives two small SUVs the same 6 in per gap that an 18 ft door gives two half-ton pickups. Two full-size SUVs or pickups don’t fit 16 ft with mirrors out. The estimates run large on purpose: a 2026 Ford F-150 is 95.7 in with its mirrors out (Ford), so two of them leave 0.6 in, which is still no room to drive.

Real openings also run a little narrow. Trim and weatherstripping sit inside the jambs: in a worked example from Ask the Builder, they take about 2¼ in from a 9 ft opening and leave 105¾ in clear. Measure your opening before you count on a 2 in gap. More in garage door width.

16 × 7 garage door: the standard double

A 16 × 7 door is 192 in wide and 84 in high (4.88 × 2.13 m). Clopay calls it “the classic measurement” for a double, CHI says most double doors are this size, and it is the double with the most store listings: on October 7, 2026, Home Depot’s 16 × 7 filter showed 51 doors and Lowe’s showed 51 too.

What fits. Clopay says a 16 × 7 door “comfortably fits two average sedans, crossovers, or smaller SUVs,” and that full-size trucks fit but take “more precision” to park. That holds once the truck mirrors are folded: a folded F-150 is 83.6 in wide (Ford), so two leave 24.8 in, about 8¼ in per gap. Height is rarely the problem. Full-size SUVs and half-ton pickups, 79 in tall at class size, clear the opening by 5 in, and heavy-duty pickups by about 2 in.

Room around it. The tracks need 3¾ in of wall at each side and 12 to 13½ in above the opening with torsion springs, depending on the maker. The full list is in the 16 × 8 section. A new framed opening should be about 195 × 85½ in (16 ft 3 in × 7 ft 1½ in) before the jambs go in (Angi). More in garage door rough opening.

16 × 8 garage door: the tall double

A 16 × 8 door is 192 in wide and 96 in high (4.88 × 2.44 m): the same width as a 16 × 7, one foot taller. Garaga, a Canadian door maker, says 16 × 8 is the most requested double size. US stores carry fewer: Lowe’s showed 28 doors at 16 × 8 against 51 at 16 × 7, and Home Depot’s 16 ft wide listing showed only 16 × 7 doors on its first page.

What fits. Clopay suggests 8 ft tall doors for a larger SUV or truck, or for roof racks and bikes on top of the car. Using class heights:

Class heights are the tallest model in each class, rounded up. The roof box is a Thule Motion 3 XL, 17 in tall before crossbars (Thule). Lifted trucks: add your lift.

Room around it. The extra foot of door needs an extra foot of ceiling and depth.

Side room: Clopay, Amarr (Wayne Dalton 3½ in, Raynor 3 in). Headroom: 12 in Clopay, Garaga, Raynor; 13½ in Wayne Dalton. With a ceiling opener, each maker’s spring headroom plus its own opener allowance: 12 + 2 in (Garaga), 12 + about 3 in (Clopay), 13½ + 2½ in (Wayne Dalton); Amarr gives 15 in. Backroom: door height + 18 in (Clopay, Amarr, Wayne Dalton) or + 26 in (Raynor); with an opener, Chamberlain’s installed lengths (123–128 in, 135–142 in), Wayne Dalton (125, 137 in) and Amarr (door height + 50 in). Framing: Angi.

The ceiling is the catch. Trusscore puts the standard garage ceiling at 8 to 9 ft. Under an 8 ft ceiling, a 16 × 8 door has no headroom at all. Under a 9 ft ceiling it has 12 in: enough for Clopay’s torsion springs (not Wayne Dalton’s 13½ in), but not for a ceiling opener. Use a wall-mount opener, which needs 3 in from the ceiling to the center of the torsion bar (LiftMaster 98022 manual), or low-headroom hardware. Openers need a longer rail too: Genie’s kit needs a rail extension above 7 ft (Genie), and Chamberlain sells an 8 ft rail (Chamberlain). More in garage door height.

18 × 7 garage door: the wide double

An 18 × 7 door is 216 in wide and 84 in high (5.49 × 2.13 m). Amarr and Overhead Door list 18 ft as a standard width, and it is the widest of Clopay’s standard widths. Lowe’s treats it as special order: it sells 18 × 7 doors on product pages, described as custom built, but has no 18 × 7 size filter. Amarr lists it 7 or 8 ft tall, so 18 × 8 is the size for two tall trucks.

What fits. Two half-ton pickups with mirrors out get 6 in per gap at class size, or 8.2 in as two F-150s. Two full-size SUVs get 7.3 in. Two heavy-duty pickups with tow mirrors fill it exactly, so they still fold. For one pickup and one small SUV, 16 ft leaves 2 in per gap and 18 ft leaves 10 in.

Room around it. Height clearances match the 16 × 7. The width needs 216 in plus 3¾ in each side, or 18 ft 7½ in of wall, so an 18 ft door doesn’t fit an 18 ft wide garage (see garage width). LiftMaster’s 98022 wall-mount opener is rated for doors up to 18 ft wide. The framed opening is 219 × 85½ in (Angi).

20 ft doors, and 12 or 14 ft doubles

20 ft (240 in) is the widest double makers list: Clopay’s extra-wide doors go “up to 20 feet,” Amarr lists 20 ft, and Garaga calls it its recommended maximum. It lets two heavy-duty pickups keep their tow mirrors out, with 8 in per gap, and needs 20 ft 7½ in of wall. At the narrow end, Clopay lists 12 and 14 ft doors: roomy for one vehicle, too tight for two with mirrors out.

One double door or two single doors?

Garaga lays out the trade. Two single doors each open less often, so they last longer. If one breaks, you can still use the other, and opening one lets in less cold air. But you maintain two doors and two openers. One double door has one door and one opener to maintain and more ways to use the space: one car parked in the middle with room to walk around it, or two side by side, with storage beside them. It is heavier, though, so it needs a high-quality opener.

The post between two single doors. We found no maker’s figure for its width, so we derived a minimum from the makers’ side-room rules:

• 7½ in for the tracks. Each door’s vertical track needs 3¾ in beside its opening (Clopay, Amarr), and the post serves two doors. Wayne Dalton (3½ in) and Raynor (3 in) need a little less.
• 9 in with torsion springs. Clopay wants 4½ in on each side above the opening to mount the springs (Clopay manual). Clopay’s EZ-SET extension springs need 5½ in per side, which makes 11 in (Clopay FAQ).
• More with a wall-mount opener. It needs 8½ in on its side of the door (LiftMaster), so mount it on the outer wall or widen the post.

Real posts vary. Garage Journal forum members mention posts from 8 in to 24 in (8 in, 12, 18 and 24 in); those are owners’ posts, not a rule. Our drawings use 9 in, the torsion-spring minimum, so they show the narrowest case.

Wall it needs = the openings + a 9 in post between single doors + 3¾ in of side room at each end. Vehicle widths include mirrors (class estimates).

Two 8 ft doors are a poor match for pickups, whose mirrors overhang a 96 in opening (see single garage door sizes). Two 9 ft doors take nearly anything short of tow mirrors, and the post spaces the vehicles out: two pickups behind them park 35 in apart, body to body, against 23 in in an 18 ft door. Garage Fit allows 36 in beside a pickup to open its door comfortably and 27 in as a tight minimum (Iowa SUDAS, Ask the Builder). In a garage wider than its door, you can spread out once inside.

What garage width each double door needs

The wall must be as wide as the door plus 3¾ in of side room at each end for the tracks. A wall-mount opener needs 8½ in on its side, which adds 4¾ in.

Garaga gives 18 × 22 ft as the minimum garage for two medium vehicles and pairs a 16 ft door with about 18 × 24 ft, which leaves 12 in of wall at each side. West Valley City, Utah, requires at least 20 × 20 ft inside a two-car garage, and Chula Vista, California, uses the same 20 × 20 ft for two-car garages in its R-2-T zone. An 18 ft door or two 9 ft doors fit a 20 ft garage but not an 18 ft one. More in 2 car garage dimensions.

What size garage door for a 24 × 24 garage?

Any standard double fits a 24 ft (288 in) wall, so choose by what you park:

• Cars, crossovers or small SUVs: a 16 × 7 door, with 48 in of wall at each side.
• One or two full-size pickups or SUVs: an 18 × 7 door (36 in of wall each side), or 18 × 8 if they are tall or carry roof loads.
• Two separate doors: two 9 × 7 doors and a 9 in post use 225 in, leaving 31½ in at each end. A wider post is easy to fit.

Inside, a 24 ft garage leaves two half-ton pickups 124 in of spare width: 36 in at each side and between them, with 16 in to spare.

Questions people ask