How to measure your garage

Use the clear distances inside the finished room. Do not measure to the outside of the wall or to a stud behind the lining.

Internal width and depth

Width is the distance between the finished inside faces of the side walls. Depth is the distance between the finished inside faces of the front and back walls. Measure both at the floor and again at about a metre high if the walls are not plumb, and use the smaller clear distance.

Clear height

Clear height is the lowest uninterrupted distance from the finished floor to the ceiling, a beam, a door rail, or a fixture that a vehicle would meet. A higher ceiling elsewhere does not raise this number.

Entrance

Clear entrance width is the opening a vehicle can pass through, between the finished jambs or the narrowest frame. Clear entrance height is from the finished floor to the underside of the head. Offset is how far the opening starts from the left end of that wall, looking along the wall from its start corner.

Vehicle width

Body width does not include mirrors. Width including mirrors is wider and is the envelope to use when the mirrors stay out. Folded-mirror width is a third measurement. If a page does not know one of these, the calculator says so instead of copying another width into the blank.

The same rules are used by the garage planner. How those measurements become a result is explained in how fit is calculated.