Two Single Garage Doors vs. One Double Door: Which Is Right for Your Home?

One of the First Decisions a Two-Car Garage Forces You to Make

If your home has a two-car garage, or you are building one, you will run into a question that sounds simple but quietly shapes your cost, your curb appeal and how the garage feels to live with for the next twenty years: should the opening be one wide double door, or two separate single doors with a post in the middle? Both are correct answers. The right one for you depends on the structure of the opening, your climate, how you actually use the garage, and the look you want from the street.

This guide lays out the real trade-offs in plain language, with the standard Canadian sizes, the cost reality, and the points that genuinely matter in an Ontario winter. We have been sizing and installing both configurations for London-area homes since 2009, so the advice here reflects what holds up on real driveways, not just theory. Every external link in this article was verified live before publication.

First, the Sizes: What Counts as Single and Double

The two layouts start from standard opening sizes. According to the Canadian manufacturer Garaga, whose residential sizes guide is one of the clearest in the industry, a single garage door is most commonly 8 or 9 feet wide and 7 or 8 feet tall, suited to a garage roughly 12 by 22 feet. A double door is most commonly 16 feet wide and 7 or 8 feet tall, suited to a garage of about 18 by 24 feet. Eighteen-foot doubles exist too, and heights can run taller for an RV.

Here is the part homeowners often miss. Two single doors do not simply add up to a 16-foot double. You need a structural post between them and a few inches of clearance on either side of each door for the vertical tracks. In practice, a pair of 9-foot singles with a centre post wants noticeably more total wall width than a single 16-foot double. That extra width has to come from somewhere, which is exactly why this decision is sometimes made for you by the framing rather than by taste. If you are unsure what your opening can take, our garage door sizing guide walks through rough openings and how to measure.

The Centre Post: The Quiet Deciding Factor

The biggest practical difference between the two layouts is the post that sits between two single doors. With a double door there is nothing in the middle of the opening, so you drive through one wide clear span. With two singles, a column of framing stands between the two openings, and every vehicle has to be aimed at its own door.

That post is not a flaw; it is doing useful structural work, and it is what lets each door operate as its own independent system. But it does change daily life. A wide double door is far more forgiving when you are backing a large SUV or a pickup out at an angle, and it is the easier target on a dark, icy winter morning. Two singles ask for a little more precision every time, and the post itself is the thing people occasionally clip with a mirror. If a wide, modern vehicle is your daily driver, the clear span of a double is a real convenience. If you tend to keep one side as a workshop and the other for the car, the divided layout suits how you already use the space.

Cost: Closer Than Most People Assume

A common belief is that two single doors must cost far more than one double. The reality is closer than that. Garaga notes directly in its FAQ comparing a double door versus two single doors that the price of two single doors comes to about the same as one double door. The doors themselves are comparable in total.

Where the cost genuinely diverges is the automation and the hardware. Two single doors mean two sets of tracks, springs, cables, rollers and bottom seals, and if you want both doors motorised, two openers, two sets of safety photo-eyes and two wall controls. A single double door needs one of everything. So the honest cost summary is this: the doors are similar, but a fully automated two-single setup costs more than a fully automated double because you are buying and maintaining a second operator system. Many homeowners split the difference by automating one single door and leaving the second manual, which is a perfectly reasonable choice if the second bay is used less often. Our opener buying guide covers what to look for if you do automate.

Curb Appeal: This Is Where Taste Earns Its Vote

For a garage that faces the street, the door is one of the largest single elements on the front of the house, so the layout has a real effect on how the home reads. Garaga makes the design point well: a 16-foot double door becomes a major visual feature and can dominate the facade, while two single doors break up that mass and often sit in better proportion with the windows, the entry door and the rest of the elevation.

There is no universal winner here. On a wide, contemporary home a single expanse of door can look clean and intentional, especially in a darker colour or a full-view glass style. On a traditional or carriage-style home, two single doors with decorative hardware frequently look more balanced and more expensive. Because the garage door carries so much weight in first impressions, it is worth getting right; our guide on curb appeal and resale value goes deeper on how buyers read the front of a house, and our colour guide can help whichever layout you choose. You can also try both looks on your own home with our Build Your Door tool.

Winter Heat Loss: A Genuine Ontario Consideration

This is the point that matters more in London than it would in a mild climate. Every time you open a garage door, you exchange the air inside the garage for cold outdoor air. A 16-foot double door is a much larger opening than a single, so opening it dumps the garage's warmth and pulls in a larger volume of cold air, dropping the temperature faster. With two single doors you have the option to open only the side you need, keeping the rest of the garage closer to its resting temperature.

For an attached garage that shares a wall with heated living space, or a garage you heat as a workshop, that selective opening is a practical, money-saving advantage over a Canadian winter. It will not transform your heating bill on its own, but combined with a well-insulated door and good perimeter seals it adds up. The bigger lever on comfort is still the door's insulation value rather than the layout; our R-value explained guide covers what insulation rating actually does for an Ontario garage, and either layout can be ordered with an insulated, weather-sealed door.

Reliability and Access: The Case for Two Doors

Here is the scenario that quietly sells a lot of two-single setups. Imagine a torsion spring breaks, a cable slips off a drum, or an opener fails on a Monday morning. With a single double door, that one failure can trap both vehicles inside the garage until a technician arrives. With two single doors on separate systems, a failure on one side still leaves the other door fully usable, so you can almost always get a car out. Garaga raises exactly this point, and it is a legitimate advantage for a busy household that cannot afford to have both cars stuck.

The flip side is honest too: two systems mean two of everything that can eventually wear out, so over the life of the doors you will do somewhat more maintenance and have more parts that can need service. Whichever way you go, the moving parts deserve respect. Garage door springs and cables store enormous energy, and the Door and Access Systems Manufacturers Association (DASMA), the North American trade body for the industry, is clear in its maintenance guide that spring and cable work should be left to trained technicians. That guidance is the same for one door or two.

Privacy and Flexibility: An Underrated Edge for Singles

Two single doors give you something a double cannot: the ability to open one side while keeping the other closed and private. If you use half the garage as a home gym, a workshop, a hobby space or simply for storage you would rather not display, you can open only the car side and keep the rest out of view from the street. It effectively divides the garage into two zones you can reveal independently. For some households that day-to-day control is the deciding feature, quite apart from cost or looks.

So Which Should You Choose? A Simple Way to Decide

There is no single right answer, but the decision usually becomes clear once you weigh four things in order.

1. Start with the structure. Measure your opening and the wall around it. If the framing only comfortably supports a 16-foot clear span, a double is your path; if there is room for a centre post and two openings, both are on the table. When in doubt, have it measured on site, because the post and track clearances are easy to underestimate.
2. Weigh your climate and usage. If you heat the garage or share a wall with living space and want to limit winter heat loss, or you want the redundancy of two independent doors, two singles earn their keep. If easy, wide, all-weather access for big vehicles is your priority, the double wins.
3. Picture the curb appeal. Look at your home's front honestly, or mock both up. Let the layout that best balances with your windows and entry door carry real weight, because the garage door is a leading driver of first impressions.
4. Account for the budget over time. Remember the doors cost about the same, but a fully automated two-single setup adds a second opener and more long-term maintenance. Decide whether that trade is worth the redundancy and flexibility to you.

Whichever layout you land on, a new garage door is one of the strongest home-improvement investments you can make. In Zonda's widely cited 2025 Cost vs. Value report, garage door replacement ranked the number one project for return on investment for the second year running, recouping well over its cost at resale (the figures are US data, but the curb-appeal logic carries straight across the border). Our own guide to garage door upgrades and home value looks at why that is.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do two single doors really cost the same as one double?

For the doors themselves, roughly yes, as Garaga and most manufacturers confirm. The added cost of a two-single layout comes from automation and hardware: two openers, two sets of springs, cables, tracks and safety sensors instead of one. If you automate only one of the two doors, the gap narrows considerably.

Can I fit two single doors where I have a double now?

Sometimes, but not always. Two singles need a structural post between them plus track clearance on each side, so they usually require more total wall width than a single 16-foot opening. Converting from a double to two singles is a framing change, not just a door swap, and it should be assessed on site before you count on it.

Which is better for an attached garage in a cold climate?

Two single doors give you the option to open only one side, which limits how much warm air you lose on a cold day, so they have a modest edge for a heated or attached garage. That said, the door's insulation value and a good perimeter seal matter more to comfort than the layout. An insulated double door with tight seals still performs very well.

Is a double door harder to drive through?

The opposite. A double door is a single wide clear span with no post in the middle, so it is the more forgiving target for large vehicles and for backing out at an angle. Two single doors require aiming at a narrower opening each time, and the centre post is the part people occasionally clip.

What happens if my door fails and I only have one double?

If a single double door will not open because of a broken spring, a slipped cable or an opener fault, both vehicles can be stuck inside until it is repaired. This is the main reliability argument for two single doors on separate systems: a failure on one side still leaves the other door usable. Either way, spring and cable repairs are a professional job.

Which layout adds more resale value?

Neither layout has a fixed advantage; what moves resale is a door that looks right for the house and is in good condition. A new garage door consistently tops return-on-investment rankings because of its effect on curb appeal, so choose the layout and style that best suits your home's architecture, and keep it well maintained.

Conclusion

The choice between two single doors and one double comes down to four honest trade-offs: the structure of your opening, your climate and how you use the garage, the look you want from the street, and your appetite for a second opener and a little more maintenance. A double door gives you a wide, easy, single clear span and a bold facade for less hardware. Two single doors give you selective opening for winter, the security of two independent systems, the privacy to reveal only one side, and a look that often balances better on traditional homes. Both are right for the households they suit.

If you would like help deciding, send us a photo of your garage or book a free in-home assessment. We have installed both layouts across London and area since 2009, and our service record is public on our BBB profile. You can compare styles and sizes any time with our price estimator, browse the full lineup on our garage doors page, or read our material guide to narrow down the door itself.