This can be special ordered at you local MegaHardware store. When I had a door opening in my walk-out basement poured, the shorted me 1/2" on the door rough opening. When I went to Home Depot, I was told that to special order the door 1/2 inch short would cost almost $200 more. I decided to try cutting into the bucking. But a special order steel door is available. Moderate Mark

I don't know Petey, the fad is getting bigger. While a lot of manufacturers are only doing it to appease certain states that are mandating a percentage of EEV's, they're becoming more popular. I've got a Volt and the dealerships (including the caddy dealer across the street) have a hand full of cars on the lot even here in Virginia. Charging stations are popping up all over the area (my favorite is in front of my local bar/restaurant). Still, unless one was really considering an electric car in the next two or three years, I'm not there's any economy in putting in the additional capacity in the "hope" it might be needed. Though It was less costly because I did the labor myself, adding my 30A (the Volt charger is a bit anemic) circuit to my garage wasn't a big thing.

that's going to vary a bit by region. and, what type of construction? If your garage is frame, much likely less than concrete. lock construction.

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions, I really appreciate them! @just_janni Wondering why you think that the extra width on the side will be wasted? Is this a garage or a workshop? Extra width seems like the perfect place for a workbench, tool chests, possibly your garbage and recycling containers (those things are huge now) Understood, but we already have a workshop on the right side of the garage, so I don't need more space for it on the left side. I thought about @Mrs Pete's suggestion of moving the workshop and mechanical room to the left side, but there is a landing with steps and the entry into the house in the lower right corner (there's an ~ 18" elevation between the house and garage floor) which is currently tucked behind the mechanical room, but would stick out if we moved the mechanical and workshop to the left side. with that landing, I wouldn't be able to use that space to park a car there. I'll give it some more thought though. if your new garage is not cluttered, I also suspect the 16' door will be adequate. IME where it's not or where it FEELS tight for 2 cars is when it's paired with a small garage (just barely a 2 car) and then that garage has a lot of stuff in it - crowding the sides - in addition to the cars. I try to keep the garage uncluttered, but I also like to have space between parked cars, I hate worrying about door dings. And our current 16' door really forces the cars close together, even when I angle them inside the garage. Every time I back out I worry about the rearview mirrors hitting the door opening. I just feel like 18' is much better suited for two cars. And I did as you suggested and laid out the garage as it is currently designed, with cars inside: You can see that the 16' door really squeezes cars 1 and 2 (from left) too close together (I know I can angle them a little bit), leaving too much space between cars 2 and 3, and 8 feet to the left of car 1. Even with storage there, it's just too much wasted space IMO. @palimpsest This is just a general comment but most garages don't seem to allow enough space for the car doors to open properly. I feel like there should be room to get the car door fully open between cars and at least most of the way open between the car and the side wall. I wholeheartedly agree, that's why I think a larger door is needed! @User We have a sideload 10' door and a 20' door both. The garage is 28" deep. Sometimes, that isn't enough. However, it does dominate the look of the house, unintentionally. We pulled it back 10" from the house, and connected it with a breezeway, but it's at a higher elevation due to the lot. It kinda looms. I'd do everything possible on the front end to not have a garage be THE focal point of the build. That is hard to do with a front loading garage. Is there any way to do a side load, and pull it back more from the house? It'd be pretty difficult to do that at this point, especially if I wanted to maintain the 36' width inside the garage for the three cars. I understand the concern about too much "garage door" facing the front, but I can't find a good alternative in this situation, and I am more of a "function over form" kind of guy - ideally I would like both, of course, but I don't want something that is not functioning well just to have it be "pretty". Also, the way the house is sited, the garage doe snot really face the "front" in the conventional sense - the main driveway is on the opposite side of the house, and you can't even see the house until you get to the end of the driveway, at which point you are looking at the house parallel to the front, not perpendicular (if that makes sense): @Mark Bischak I can see what the designer is trying to achieve with the recessed garage and the recessed entryway, which is kind of nice, but the "spacious garage" should have been the driving source. I agree, that is what I call "form over function". We've had a few similar "disagreements" with them on other topics. @Mrs Pete With the garage placed closer to the house, I'd create a pass-through between the garage and the pantry. This would mean you'd be able to "set bags through" into the pantry. Note that the trunk of the car would be right by the pantry, whereas carrying the bags in you'll have to carry them the length of the garage, through the entryway, then back through the kitchen. A pass-through would be a step-saver. That's intriguing, I'll play around with the layout and see if I can make that work, if I move the workshop and mechanical room to the left side. @palimpsest what if it was inset just with a wall rather than a vestibule, and the human door was somewhere else? There is probably a better sized garage door to do matched paired ones but I don't know sizes. Thank you for the suggestion, I'm thinking along the same lines (unless I move the entire workshop to the left side). I'm guessing the architects will say that the left wall will be "unbalanced", but we'll see :). I know there is a whole thing about garage doors but the reality is that most people drive cars and want garages. I feel like I have seen backyards ruined and turned into giant driveways and turnarounds because of trying to hide the garage doors. And maybe lessen the width of the recess and separate the powder room from the entry by a closet. Agreed, and especially so in our case where like I said above, you don't see the front of the house head on as you approach it. I don't want too convoluted a path to the garage just to hide the doors. Function over form :).