16 Garage Door Rough Opening Size

Make the rough opening 3 wider than the garage door.
16 garage door rough opening size. Many home builders do not consider this a structural necessity but a style and price choice for the homeowner. The standard size for double garage doors is 16 feet wide and 7 to 8 feet high. Standard sizes standard garage doors in our area are 8 9 16 and 18 wide. Words like rough opening are thrown around and i m not sure if we are speaking about the same thing.
Many 16 x 7 garage doors will be designed with a pair of single 8 foot garage door bays separated by a central post or column. Width of garage door opening standard widths are 8 9 10 12 14 16 17 and 18 height of the garage door opening standard residential heights are 7 7 6 8 header the header is ideally a minimum 12 wide micro laminated beam that spans the width of the garage door opening. A 8 x 7 feet door will be the perfect option for any mid size sedans and most of suvs. The extra length for the header is to provide enough load bearing strength to cover the 16 foot opening span.
Bigger trucks will fit in 9 x 8 doors with very few exceptions. That for a 16 foot wide garage door the header should be at minimum 9 inches longer than the door width meaning your header should be 16 feet 9 inches long. This post is intended for purposes of clarifying how garage door sizes work and opening preparation. After installing the jambs your garage door opening should now be the same size as the garage door.
Step 1 measure the old door if you are replacing an existing door with one of the same size or the new door of choice if you are building a new garage. 1 2 or 1 in one direction of the other will won t typically. To make my. 99 of the residential garage doors that we run across are different than these widths.
Ordering a garage door based on a rough opening size can leave you with a door that is too big. For instance if you have a 16 door and are using river stones that are approximately 2 to 2 1 2 you will want the rough opening to be roughly pun intended 16 6. In our business we refer to rough openings as the size of the opening before the finished lumber has been added to the jambs. Install the header on top of the trimmers and nail.
Cut the header from 2 x 12 lumber and to a length of the rough opening plus 6 inches. Leave a headroom of 14 or 12 minimum. Leave at least 5 of space on the sides of the door. Also make the rough opening 1 5 taller than the garage door.
Nail or screw 2 x 6 jambs to the framing on the top first and then the sides of the rough opening.