Garage Storage Layout Planner

There is no single legal minimum, but UK planning guidance commonly treats 3m wide x 6m long internal (18 m²) as the practical minimum for a modern car plus some storage - for example, Mid Devon District Council's garage sizing guidance sets 6m x 3m internal (between piers) as its standard for single garages. Older garages built to a tighter 2.4m x 4.8m minimum common decades ago are noticeably harder to use for both parking and storage with today's larger cars.

Because the car's footprint plus its clearance zone is usually the single largest use of floor space in a garage that's also used for parking. A Ford Fiesta-class supermini (4.05m x 1.74m) at Comfortable clearance occupies about 10.5 m², while a Land Rover Discovery-class large SUV (4.60m x 1.90m) at the same clearance occupies about 13.3 m² - a 2.8 m² difference, which is more floor area than most people's entire planned shelving and bin storage combined.

It is the space kept clear on each side of the parked car so you can open the doors fully, load and unload, and walk past without squeezing between the car and stored items. The tool's "Comfortable" default (450mm each side) sits between the roughly 300mm each side implied by a standard 2.4m-wide UK parking bay (British Parking Association) for an average-width car, and the wider clearance used on accessible bays.

Often yes for parking alone, but the room left for storage shrinks fast. A 2.7m x 5.0m garage (13.5 m²) with an average family car and Tight clearance can already be over capacity before any shelving goes in. Run your exact dimensions through the calculator rather than assuming a "single garage" always has spare storage capacity.

If floor space is tight, usually yes. This tool models a floor-standing bike at roughly 0.6 m² (1.0m x 0.6m) against about 0.1 m² for a wall-mounted vertical rack - a saving of about 0.5 m² per bike, which is often the difference between "Tight Fit" and "Fits Comfortably" for two or more bikes.

The tool uses 0.58m x 0.72m (0.42 m²) for a 240-litre bin, the common general-waste size used by most UK councils, based on UK wheelie bin size guides. Exact dimensions vary a little by manufacturer and council contract (height in particular can range from about 1.06m to 1.18m for a 240L bin), but footprint variation between brands is small enough not to change the calculator's result meaningfully.

No - it models side clearance around a parked car but does not separately model the up-and-over or sectional door's own track and swing clearance, or the space needed to walk around the front of the car to reach a side door. Assume your garage's length already allows for the door mechanism you have; if you are not sure, measure the clear floor length with the door fully open before relying on a "Tight Fit" result.

Set "Park a car in this garage?" to No. The tool then checks only your storage items' combined footprint against the full floor area, which typically leaves much more usable space - a 3m x 6m garage used purely for storage has all 18 m² available rather than the roughly 10-13 m² left after a parked car and its clearance zone.

That is the typical footprint of a 5-tier boltless garage shelving unit sold by major UK DIY retailers (for example B&Q's House Of Home boltless shelving range lists 180cm x 90cm x 40cm). Narrower or deeper units exist (Wickes' RB Boss range runs 160cm x 75cm x 35cm), so if your actual units are a different size, treat the calculator's shelving total as an approximation.

Only loosely. Enter the usable rectangular floor area you actually have free for parking and storage - if a section is taken up by a boiler, consumer unit cupboard, or stairs to a room above, subtract that area from your garage's length or width before entering it, since the tool has no separate field for internal obstructions.

It is an editorial planning assumption built into this tool, not an official building or safety standard. It is loosely modelled on the floor space needed for a single-person walking route, in the spirit of the HSE's general minimum single-person walkway guidance of at least 600mm width, but treat "Tight Fit" as a prompt to check the layout in person rather than a formal pass/fail result.

For this calculator, yes - more floor area directly reduces the chance of a "Won't Fit" result. In practice a larger garage also costs more to build or extend, so the useful comparison is usually between what you already have and how much difference specific choices make (a smaller car class, tighter clearance, or wall-mounted bikes), not whether to build a bigger garage.

No - this tool only checks floor-level footprint, so loft platforms, roof racking, and other overhead storage are not included in the calculation at all. If you already have loft storage, treat this tool's "remaining floor area" as space still needed for anything that cannot go overhead - bikes, a workbench, bins, and anything too heavy or awkward to lift into a loft space.

The calculator accepts any width and length, so yes - enter your double garage's actual internal dimensions (commonly around 5.5-6m wide by 6m long) and it will calculate the same way. The tool models one car; for a two-car double garage, run the calculation once per car and combine the storage items, or run it twice with each car's half-share of the width.

Manufacturer-published length and width (excluding mirrors) for representative UK models in each size class - a Ford Fiesta for supermini, Ford Focus for family hatchback/saloon, Nissan Qashqai for SUV/crossover, and Land Rover Discovery for large SUV/estate - checked via UK car-specification sources on 2026-08-11. A specific car within a class can differ from the class figure by 100-200mm; use your car's exact dimensions if the result is close either way.