How wide does a garage door need to be for a full-size truck in New Brunswick?

For a full-size pickup truck, you need a minimum garage door width of 9 feet, but a 10-foot-wide door is strongly recommended to provide comfortable clearance for mirrors, door opening, and future vehicle purchases. If you drive a full-size truck with towing mirrors extended or a dually (dual rear wheels), a 10-foot door is essentially mandatory rather than optional.

Full-size trucks have grown substantially over the past two decades, and many NB homeowners discover too late that their standard 8-foot garage door is a tight squeeze — or simply too narrow — for their current vehicle. A Ford F-150 has a body width of about 80 inches (6 feet 8 inches) without mirrors, but with mirrors extended that jumps to roughly 96 inches (8 feet). A Ram 1500 is similar, and a Ford F-250 or F-350 with towing mirrors can span over 8 feet 6 inches. When you factor in the need to open your truck doors to get in and out, plus the inevitable slight misalignment as you pull in, an 8-foot door leaves you with just inches of clearance on each side — scratched mirrors and dented fenders are the predictable result.

Height matters too. Standard garage doors are 7 feet tall, which works for most stock trucks. However, if your truck has a lift kit, oversized tires, a roof rack, or a toolbox mounted in the bed, you may need an 8-foot-tall door. Many NB homeowners who haul ATVs, snowmobiles on trailers, or boats also need the extra height clearance of an 8-foot door to accommodate trailer tongue height. When planning a new garage, it costs very little extra to frame the rough opening for an 8-foot door during construction — but retrofitting a taller door into an existing garage requires cutting into the header and possibly reinforcing the structural framing, which can cost $1,500 to $3,000 or more.

For a two-car garage that will house a full-size truck alongside a car or second vehicle, consider either two single doors (one at 10 feet wide for the truck, one at 9 feet for the car) or a single double door at 18 feet wide instead of the standard 16 feet. The 18-foot double door gives both vehicles generous clearance and makes it much easier to manoeuvre a large truck into position. In NB, a standard 16-foot double garage door costs $1,200 to $3,500 installed depending on insulation and style, while an 18-foot door adds roughly $300 to $800 to that cost — a modest premium for years of frustration-free parking.

The rough opening in the garage wall must be sized correctly for the door you choose. A 10-foot-wide door typically needs a rough opening of 10 feet 2 inches wide by 7 feet 2 inches (or 8 feet 2 inches for a taller door). The structural header above this opening must be engineered to carry the roof and snow loads — in New Brunswick, where snow loads range from 2.4 to 4.8 kPa, the header over a 10-foot opening is typically a doubled or tripled LVL beam, costing $200 to $500 for materials. This is why it is far cheaper and easier to plan for the right door size during new construction than to widen an opening later.

If you are building a new garage or replacing an existing door, measure your truck with mirrors extended, add at least 12 inches to each side for clearance, and plan for your next vehicle — trucks are not getting smaller. A local garage contractor can help you plan the right door size and ensure the structural framing meets NB Building Code requirements for your specific snow load zone. Browse garage builders in your area through the New Brunswick Construction Network directory at newbrunswickconstructionnetwork.com.