Residential FAQ

For a residential garage door with torsion springs a top clearance or headroom of 12” is required. If you want to add an electric opener an additional 2” is required. In low headroom instances dual-tracks can be used to decrease the requirements. Please let us know about your situation and we will be happy to determine which track system will be most suitable for you.

Headroom is the space between the top of the door opening and the underside of the lowest part of the ceiling above the door. An overhead door installation may still be possible even though the headroom is low. Using low headroom kits and special hardware the required headroom can be reduced to 4-1/2” depending on the door type. It is strongly recommended that you contact us in the planning stage of your building, especially for large overhead doors as they require more headroom. Inquire about Easy Lift Doors low head room options and we can determine which solution is best suitable for your overhead door.

Sideroom or side clearance is the measurement on each side of your overhead door opening to the nearest wall or obstruction. For smaller overhead doors allow 3” to 4” on either side and larger overhead doors 5” to 6” for standard spring and shaft configurations. If a side mounted opener is used a larger sideroom has to be accounted for to allow for fitting the opener beside the door.

Backroom or rear clearance is the distance between the overhead door and the back wall of the space where the overhead door is installed. For a residential garage door the backroom required is at least the door height plus 18”. For a commercial overhead door the requirement is door height plus 23” when 2” track is used and 25” when 3” track is used. The backroom requirement is also larger if an electric opener needs to be installed behind the overhead door.