New Garage - is 32 x 22 big enough?

bjaspud · Mar 4, 2012

My new home has a two car garage. I'm turning it into my shop by adding a 3 car garage in front of the existing two car garage. The new three car will be used strictly for parking three cars side by side.

My current plan is to go with a 16' wide and a 9' wide garage door. Adding two foot between the doors and 3' foot to the outside of each door give me a 32 or 33 foot width.

Is 32 x 22 big enough to park three cars? Going wider give me heartburn integrating the new garage with the design of the house.

22 foot should be deep enough to park most anything I'd ever drive.

Your thoughts?

bjaspud · Mar 5, 2012

Opinions?

2011corvette · Mar 5, 2012

A 16' door is awful narrow to park 2 cars in and 22' deep is pretty shallow.
Lay it out with some tape in an open parking lot and you park 2 cars in the area you taped off. You be the judge.

atotalnincompoop · Mar 5, 2012

bjaspud said:
22 foot should be deep enough to park most anything I'd ever drive.

you can use up 22' pretty fast, even faster when you are trying to maneuver all three cars through one door. whenever you think you are designing it with enough room, automatically add 4' :beer:

larry_g · Mar 5, 2012

If all your parking is 3 new smaller rigs then you will be fine. If your like most people then the mower, Christmas decorations, the old fridge, a few cabinets and bicycles creep in then it might get a bit tight.

lg
no neat sig line

darkk · Mar 5, 2012

Build as big as you can afford that is still athetically pleasing...you will run out of room much sooner than you think.

c/o say · Mar 5, 2012

If your talking small cars ya you can probably get by for just parking. Full size cars/trucks it will be tight to open doors with out worrying about hitting the car beside you. As 2011corvette suggested lay it out some where and try it.

Al Bundy · Mar 5, 2012

The one thing I learned about building a garage is the answer to "Is it big enough?" is always no.

sooperdave · Mar 5, 2012

mine is 29 deep, 22 wide so I can relate to those dimensions. for a 3-wide garage, it depends if you're gonna work in there of just park. 32x22 should be a-ok to just park but for a working garage AND parking 3 cars you might want it deeper. like someone else said, mock it up somewhere

Mike_C · Mar 5, 2012

I would go deeper, 24-26

bjaspud · Mar 5, 2012

I like the idea of mocking it up. Good call. Thanks.

6768rogues · Mar 5, 2012

Typical parking lot spaces are 8 feet wide, leaving enough room to get in and out of cars. Of course, bigger is always a good thing, but the size you chose should be fine.

Kevin54 · Mar 5, 2012

32' wide will be adequate to park three cars, but not a lot of room between them for door opening. I've had two cars and a Compact Utility tractor in my garage which is 36' wide and it has a 2' bench on one side and my rollaways on the other and I still had adequate room to move around. Now on the other hand, 22' deep is not real deep. You won't have much room at the front or rear if you park a truck in there. An extra 2' would make a huge difference. Also it wouldn't cost much more to go 24' deep as all your sheet goods as in drywall and such are already in 4' increments.

Falcon67 · Mar 5, 2012

A comfy car parking would be 12'. So your 32 is about minimum, but it is usable. For mid sized cars, 22' is OK. For a truck it'd be real tight. Our house garage is right at 22'. I haven't tried to fit the truck in there yet.

KMR Construction · Mar 5, 2012

32x24 would be a better option.

Pate · Mar 5, 2012

I'm planning to build the EXACT garage you're building right down to the door dimensions. I may have to beg the town to allow me two more foot of depth also. I did manage to get a 12' ceiling though.

brownbagg · Mar 5, 2012

mine is 36 x24 and its not big enough

bjaspud · Mar 5, 2012

The 3 car garage will be for parking only. The existing 2 car garage will become my shop.

2011corvette · Mar 5, 2012

My garage is 30' deep x 40' wide. One side has a 20' door for two cars while the other side has a 12' door for one car. I can open all the doors on all the cars, at the same time and never hit the other car or a wall. Plenty of room.

With that said I believe that if you don't spend time doing some cleaning in your garage at least once every 6 months they will end up full and you will be parking in the driveway. :dunno:

ddawg16 · Mar 5, 2012

It's never big enough......

If you can't go wider....go deeper....

regguy1 · Mar 6, 2012

Mike_C said:
I would go deeper, 24-26

I agree, mine is 26' deep and it's good, 22' would be too shallow. See it in the video link below

DIYKiah · Mar 15, 2012

I agree with the reply that said to add about 4 feet to whatever garage configuration you think you need. Cars can take up an awful lot of space in a garage, not to mention you will probably have other stuff in there as well (ladders, lawnmowers, junk, etc...)

onetechyguy · Mar 24, 2012

Mine is 32x26 and I don't regret going deeper. You will love the space. I have a 16' door and a 9' door and they work great for me.

Need4racin · Mar 25, 2012

If you plan on having trucks or trailers in there it will be too small.

Carl B · Mar 25, 2012

3 foot - 9' Door - 3 foot - 18 foot Door - 2 foot on the right. 35' Wide

At least 3' to the left of the 9' Door. So you can open the car door, and so you can have room for household storage, to keep "stuff" out of your Shop. Like it or not - there is going to be more stuff in that garage than just the 3 cars.

9' Garage Door is about as small as I would go.

3' between the 9' door and the 18' door - so you can open the car door without hitting the car next to it.

18' Garge Door - so you have enough room between the two cars - again to safely open the Drivers Side car door.

At least 2' on the right side of the 18' garage door..

Agreed - if you are thinking 22' deep - go at least 24' - that way you might wind up with 22' inside.

nehog · Mar 25, 2012

2011corvette said:
A 16' door is awful narrow to park 2 cars in and 22' deep is pretty shallow. ...

FWIW, my doors are 16 ft, and I have no problems parking two vehicles per door. And in each case, one vehicle is *wide* (think how wide a Hummer H1 is...) and one is a standard sized one.

To answer the title question? No, 32x22 is too small! :lol_hitti

Detroiter · Mar 25, 2012

Al Bundy said:
The one thing I learned about building a garage is the answer to "Is it big enough?" is always no.

Ain't it the truth!!

NUTTSGT · Mar 25, 2012

I'm with everybody else 22' is too shallow, especially if there's a full size truck in the future. I wish my 24x32 was a bit deeper even though I only park in it.

New Garage - is 32 x 22 big enough?

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