Garage Size Calculator

Choose how many cars and which ones (a RAV4 is 181 in long, an F-150 SuperCrew 232 in), add a workbench or shelving, and get the minimum and comfortable garage size, door width and ceiling height — then check whether your 24 × 24 fits them.

The calculator adds up the body widths of the vehicles you pick, puts 30 inches (minimum) or 36 inches (comfortable) between each car and the walls, and adds 2 or 3 feet in front of and behind the longest vehicle. Tick the extras you want to store and it adds their footprint. The Your garage rows check a specific size — type 20 × 20 or 24 × 24 and the verdict tells you how much room is left between the cars.

What is the standard size of a 2-car garage?

A standard 2-car garage is 20 to 24 feet wide and 20 to 24 feet deep: 20 × 20 ft (400 sq ft) is the minimum that fits two mid-size cars, 24 × 24 ft (576 sq ft) is the typical size in new construction, and 26 × 26 ft (676 sq ft) gives two SUVs 3-ft walkways plus shelving. A 1-car garage runs 12 × 20 to 16 × 24 ft and a 3-car garage 32 × 22 to 40 × 26 ft.

The spread exists because vehicles have grown. A 1995 Camry was 188 in long and 70 in wide; a 2025 F-150 SuperCrew is 232 in long and 80 in wide with the mirrors folded, 96 in with them out. A 20 × 20 garage built for two 1990s sedans leaves a modern SUV owner opening doors into the other car. The table gives the minimum, typical and roomy footprint for each count; the calculator above replaces the typical figures with your actual vehicles.

If you are deciding between 22 × 22 and 24 × 24, take the 24: the extra 92 sq ft costs roughly $4,000–$7,000 at typical attached-garage build rates of $40–$70 per square foot and is the difference between two SUVs with room to walk and two SUVs you side-step around for 30 years. Price the slab with the concrete slab calculator and the shell with the cost to build calculator.

How wide should a 2-car garage be?

Work from the cars outward. Each vehicle needs its body width plus 30 inches on each side at minimum, 36 inches for comfort — enough to open a door to the first detent and step out without turning sideways. Two 73-in-wide RAV4s with three 36-in gaps come to 254 in, so a 22-ft-wide garage is comfortable and a 20-ft one (240 in, 31-in gaps) is workable. Two 81-in-wide Tahoes need 270 in with 36-in gaps, so 24 ft is the comfortable width and 20 ft is a squeeze with 26-in gaps.

Depth works the same way: longest vehicle plus 2 ft in front and 2 ft behind at minimum, 3 ft each end for comfort. A 193-in Camry fits a 20-ft-deep garage with 47 in to spare in total; a 232-in F-150 needs 24 ft deep as a bare minimum and 26 ft to walk around the front with the door closed. A 36-in workbench across the back wall adds 3 ft to whatever depth you came up with.

Clearance rules the calculator uses

• Between cars: 30 in minimum, 36 in comfortable. Below 24 in, one driver has to get out before the other car parks.
• Car to side wall: 30 in minimum, 36 in comfortable; 24 in if you never use that door.
• Front and back: 24 in each minimum, 36 in comfortable. Garage door tracks and openers take no floor space but a wall-mounted cabinet does.
• Mirrors: fold into the gap. Mirrors-out width matters at the door opening, not inside.
• Storage: shelving 24 in deep, a workbench 30–36 in deep, a motorcycle 36 in wide, a golf cart 48 in wide and 95 in long, bikes 24 in per bike hung on the wall.

Vehicle dimensions: how long and wide are common cars, SUVs and trucks?

The table lists manufacturer dimensions for sixteen common vehicles, rounded to the inch, with the garage each one needs on its own. Widths are body widths with mirrors folded, which is how the car sits once parked; add 10 in for a car and up to 16 in for a pickup with the mirrors out, which is what has to clear the door opening.

The pattern to notice: every full-size pickup needs a 24-ft-deep bay, which is deeper than the “typical” 22-ft depth of older garages. If a crew-cab truck is in your future, build 24 or 26 ft deep now. Height matters less than people fear — nothing on the list is taller than a 7-ft door — until you add a roof box, a lift kit or a ladder rack, at which point you want the 8-ft door and a 9-ft ceiling.

Standard garage door sizes

Residential garage doors come in 8, 9, 10, 12, 16 and 18-ft widths and 7 or 8-ft heights. The 9 × 7 single and the 16 × 7 double are the stock sizes that are cheapest and quickest to get; 18 × 8 is the size to specify for two SUVs or trucks. Custom widths are made to the inch for a premium of roughly 20–40%.

One wide door or two singles? Two 9-ft doors on a 24-ft garage leave a 2-ft centre post and about 3 ft of wall each side, which is what gives you 30+ in of door swing at the walls; the post makes the opening feel narrower but the cars park exactly where the doors are. One 18-ft door is 20–30% cheaper to buy, install and automate, gives a clear opening for a boat trailer or a wide turn, and leaves 3 ft of wall each side. On a 20- or 22-ft garage a single 16-ft door is the only sensible option; two 8-ft doors would leave no room for a post and side walls.

Will two cars fit in a 20 × 20 garage? What fits in 22 × 22, 24 × 24 and 26 × 26

Two mid-size sedans fit a 20 × 20 garage with about 32 in between and beside them and just under 4 ft of length to spare — a 193-in Camry is an inch over the 2-ft-each-end rule, so the calculator grades it “tight”: it works, but nothing can stand against the back wall and there is no room for shelving, a freezer or a bicycle on the side walls. Two full-size SUVs in 20 × 20 have 26-in gaps: doors open to the first detent, nothing more. Two crew-cab pickups do not fit a 20-ft-deep garage at all (232 in of truck in 240 in of depth leaves 8 in). The grid below runs the calculator for seven vehicle pairs at five garage sizes.

Read the grid as a buying guide, not just a building guide. If you own a 20 × 20 garage and are shopping for a second vehicle, a compact SUV keeps the garage usable and a full-size pickup turns the second bay into a driveway. The calculator above lets you test the exact pair.

Garage building code basics: ceiling height, slab, fire separation

Garages are not habitable space, so the 70-sq-ft room and 7-ft ceiling rules for bedrooms do not apply (standard room sizes covers those). What does apply in the International Residential Code, which most U.S. jurisdictions adopt with local amendments:

• Slab: minimum 3.5 in thick (IRC R506.1); 4 in is the normal spec, 5–6 in with #3 rebar or wire mesh if you park a heavy truck or install a lift. The floor must slope toward the door or a drain (R309.1); ⅛ in per foot is typical, so a 24-ft-deep floor drops 3 in front to back.
• Separation from the house (R302.5–R302.6): ½-in gypsum board on the garage side of shared walls, ⅝-in Type X on the ceiling if there is living space above, and a solid-core, 1⅜-in or 20-minute fire-rated door between garage and house, self-closing in most jurisdictions.
• Ceiling: no code minimum beyond what the door needs. 8 ft works with a 7-ft door; a 9-ft ceiling for an 8-ft door; 12 ft for a two-post lift (11 ft 6 in at the absolute least); 14–16 ft for an RV door.
• Electrical: at least one receptacle per vehicle bay on a dedicated 20-amp circuit, GFCI-protected (NEC 210.52(G), 210.11(C)(4), 210.8); a 240-V circuit for an EV charger is cheap to rough in now and expensive later.
• Openers and gas appliances: a water heater or furnace in the garage needs its ignition source 18 in off the floor and protection from vehicle impact (IRC M1307.3).

Detached garages over a certain size (often 200 sq ft) need a permit nearly everywhere and have setback rules — typically 3–5 ft from side and rear lot lines, more if the wall has windows. Check before you pour.

How much does a garage cost to build?

Attached garages cost roughly $40–$70 per square foot and detached garages $50–$90 per square foot in most U.S. markets, according to contractor cost guides, with the slab, framing, roofing, siding, a door with opener and basic electrical included. That puts a 24 × 24 attached garage at $23,000–$40,000 and a 14 × 22 single at $12,000–$22,000. Finishing the interior (insulation, drywall, paint, lighting) adds $8–$15 per square foot; a second story or an apartment above a detached garage doubles the price per square foot of the whole structure.

Costs scale almost linearly with square feet, so sizing with real vehicle dimensions rather than guessing is worth doing once. Going from the minimum to the comfortable size for two SUVs — 20 × 20 to 24 × 24 — is 176 sq ft, roughly $7,000–$12,000, and it is the difference between a garage that stores two cars and one that stores two cars plus the lawn mower, the bikes and a freezer. Going from 24 × 24 to 26 × 26 is another 100 sq ft; do it if you will keep a pickup. Look up what houses sell for per square foot in your area on the price per square foot page: in markets above $250 per sq ft a garage’s floor area is usually worth more than it costs to build, and a home values search shows how your city compares.