16 feet wide · 8 feet high · double
16x8 garage door
Two vehicles, one of them tall. The double door for a truck household.
What it costs
A 16x8 door, installed
| Material | Typical, installed | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Sectional steel | $3,240 | The baseline, and most of the doors on most streets. |
| Insulated steel | $3,990 | Worth it on an attached garage or one with a room above it. |
| Steel overlay, carriage look | $6,790 | The swing-door look on a sectional door. Where the price starts climbing. |
| Wood overlay | $14,640 | Real wood over an insulated core. Beautiful, and it needs refinishing. |
| Aluminium and glass | $8,390 | Modern, lots of daylight, lower insulation value. |
A bigger opening barely changes the door price. On a working contractor's current list a 10x7 and a 16x7 in the same model are the same money, and an 18x8 is about $200 more. What moves the number is the model — panel style, insulation and overlay — where the same 16x8 opening runs $1,368 in basic steel, $5,163 in steel overlay and $13,428 in wood overlay.
National guide ranges, checked September 2026. Labour and materials vary a great deal by state — the same door costs noticeably more in California or the Northeast than in the South — so treat these as a starting point rather than a price. What you pay also depends on your wind zone, the colour, the opener and whether the opening itself needs work. Get it in writing before you commit.
In the price
- The door itself, tracks, rollers, hinges and springs
- Fitting it, and setting the spring tension
- Taking the old door away
Not in the price
- An opener, unless you add one below
- Framing or repairing the opening
- A permit, where your county wants one
- Electrical work for a new opener circuit
Add-ons
What people add, and what it costs
| Add-on | Typical | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi opener with battery backup, fitted | $930 | Wall-mounted jackshaft or a good chain drive. Fitting included. |
| Basic chain-drive opener, fitted | $630 | Does the job. No phone control. |
| Hurricane brace kit | $310 | Per door, and not optional everywhere in Florida — check your county. |
| Torsion spring, supplied and fitted | $310 | Comes with a new door. Only a line item on a repair. |
| Nylon rollers, set of 10 | $240 | The cheapest way to make a loud door quiet. |
| Opener battery backup | $160 | Gets you out in a power cut, and required on new openers in some states. |
| Wi-Fi hub for an existing opener | $140 | Adds phone control to an opener that has none. |
| Safety sensor pair | $140 | The eyes at the bottom of the track. The most common repair there is. |
| Bottom seal with retainer | $120 | Stops the water and most of the wildlife. |
| Perimeter weather stripping | $120 | Per door. |
| Keyless entry keypad, fitted | $160 | Includes programming. |
| Remote, 3-button | $90 | One for each car and one spare. |
What the price does not tell you
Fitting a door takes 2 to 4 hours — for somebody who already knows how
A crew that fits doors every day takes two to four hours on a straightforward replacement, and that is with the tools in the van and nothing unexpected in the wall. It is not two hours because it is easy. It is two hours because they have done it a thousand times.
| The step | Why it is not simple |
|---|---|
| Getting the old one out | The old door is still under spring tension until it is not. Releasing it wrongly is where people get hurt before the new door is even out of the box. |
| The tracks have to be plumb and parallel | Out by a quarter of an inch over seven feet and the door binds, the rollers wear through, and the opener burns out a gear trying to force it. The symptom shows up months later. |
| Winding the springs | Set the tension wrong and the door either will not stay up or slams down. This is the step that needs a torsion bar, both hands and experience. |
| Balancing and setting the safety limits | A correctly balanced door stays put wherever you stop it, by hand. The opener's force and travel limits are then set to that. Skipping it is how a door closes on something it should have reversed off. |
Read this before you touch anything
Never change your own springs
A torsion spring on a double garage door holds enough stored energy to break an arm, take out teeth, or worse. It is wound under tension with two steel bars, and if one slips it goes at the speed of the thing it was holding up. People are seriously injured doing this every year, and some are killed. There is no YouTube video that makes this safe, and the part costs less than the emergency room.
The tell that a spring has gone: the door suddenly feels enormously heavy, the opener strains and stops, or there is a loud bang from the garage and then nothing works. If you can see a gap in the coil above the door, that is a broken spring. Leave the door where it is and ring somebody.
Worth doing yourself
Not everything needs a van outside
- Lubricating the rollers, hinges and springs — twice a year, with garage door lubricant, not WD-40
- Cleaning and realigning the safety sensors when the door will not close
- Tightening loose hinge and track bolts, gently
- Replacing the bottom weather seal
- Changing the opener's remote battery, and reprogramming a keypad
Exact price
Want the real number for your opening?
The range above is a guide. Three things and somebody who works your area will price it properly.
Your number is used to quote this job and nothing else.
Framing
Rough opening for a 16x8
16'0" × 8'0"
For a sectional door the rough opening equals the door size exactly. A 16x7 door needs a 16'0" wide by 7'0" high finished opening.
| Clearance | Minimum | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Headroom, standard torsion | 12" | Between the top of the opening and the ceiling. |
| Headroom, low-clearance kit | 4.5" | Costs more and needs a different spring assembly. |
| Sideroom, each side | 3.75" | For the vertical track. 5.5" if the opener rail is side-mounted. |
| Backroom | door height + 18" | Add another 24" for a ceiling-mounted opener. |
Fits
What goes through a 16x8
- Compact car — 9.8' spare across the mirrors
- Sedan — 9.2' spare across the mirrors
- SUV — 8.6' spare across the mirrors
- Full-size pickup — 8.0' spare across the mirrors
- Lifted truck — 7.8' spare across the mirrors
Two side by side: compact car, sedan.
Questions
16x8 garage doors, answered
How much does a 16x8 garage door cost?
A 16x8 in sectional steel runs about $2,130 to $4,350 installed, and $2,630 to $5,350 insulated. That is the door, the tracks, the springs, fitting it and taking the old one away. An opener is separate.
What is the rough opening for a 16x8 garage door?
16 feet by 8 feet, exactly. For a sectional door the rough opening is the door size — framing it wider leaves a gap the seal cannot close.
How much clearance do you need for a 16x8?
12" of headroom above the opening for a standard torsion setup, 3.75" of sideroom each side for the vertical track, and the door height plus 18 inches of backroom. Low-headroom kits get you down to 4.5 inches but cost more and use a different spring assembly.
Is a 16 ft garage door big enough for two cars?
Two of these, comfortably: compact car, sedan. Anything wider across the mirrors gets tight — measure yours, mirror to mirror, before you decide.
Is an insulated 16x8 worth the extra?
About $500 to $1,000 more. Yes if the garage is attached or there is a room above it — you feel it in the summer and in the heating bill. A detached garage you only park in: skip it.
How long does it take to fit?
Four to six hours, plus an hour or two to take the old one away. Plan on losing the morning.
Do I need a new opener with a new door?
Not usually. An opener that works will carry a new door of the same size, though a heavier insulated or wood door can need a stronger motor. New springs always come with a new door — you do not pay for those separately.
The next size up
16x8 or 18x7?
A 18x7 is 2 feet wider and costs roughly $0 more in steel. Worth it if you open car doors inside the garage rather than on the driveway. See the 18x7 →
Other sizes