Garage Clearance Needed For New Garage Door Tracks

This will be enough space if you want to add an electric garage door opener where only 2 inches 51 mm is required to install one.

Garage clearance needed for new garage door tracks.

When equipping a garage door with an electric door opener add 2 in. 121 mm to 12 in. As a general rule if you re adding more than 12 15 inches of extra vertical track you re going to need a new garage door opener. Maximum high lift equals headroom available minus 14.

This option helps provide more vertical space in the garage. A new garage door track is very inexpensive in proportion to the amount of time you ll be using it. For either the case of extension or torsion spring systems if you want the door to retract up and into the garage you need at least 4 inches 121 mm above the door. There is no horizontal track.

The torsion spring is what does the heavy lifting pun intended. Garage doors operating with torsion springs require a minimum of 9 1 2 inches of headroom while doors using extension springs require a minimum of 4 1 2 inches of headroom. If the door is 8 ft. 3 track headroom door height 12 required sideroom 5 5 required backroom 23 required.

In order to install torsion spring hardware we recommend a clearance of 12 in. Unless your builder seriously over estimated the weight of your garage door the torsion spring has to be swapped out for a heavier duty spring. In the configuration only a vertical track is needed and the door moves up and bumps out from the wall only enough to accommodate the opener. 51 mm to standard lift movements.

The same goes for your garage door. Used when there is at least the door height plus 12 of headroom clearance. However this requires mounting the torsion spring on the rear of the horizontal tracks. Tall an additional 8 9 of vertical headroom would be needed.

2 track headroom door height 12 required sideroom 4 5 required backroom 23 required. On the other hand if there is only 4 in. Your system will not only work better but it will also look better. High lift equals distance from top of door to bottom of horizontal track.