Raise garage door? Extend garage? Or new vehicle?

[Martinjmpr]

Posting this here because I figured there is a lot of institutional knowledge I could tap into...

Situation: Wife and I are shopping for a new house in Pueblo West. We really like the area, the warmer weather, the nicer houses for less $$, etc.

We saw one yesterday and the wife absolutely fell head over heels in love with it. She wants to put in an offer.

One thing I really, REALLY want is a 3 car garage that is big enough for my truck (2018 F-150 Crew Cab Short Bed 4x4) as well as my motorcycles. For the last 6 1/2 years we've lived in the Columbine area and our 2 car garage is simply not big enough for my truck. As a result I now have $5000 worth of hail damage courtesy of a couple of nasty storms in June and July. I also just hate parking the truck outside and then having to clean snow and ice off of it in the Winter. For that matter I don't like going out to it in the middle of summer when it's blistering hot either.

So in our searches I've insisted on a 3 car garage.

Well, yesterday we found a house that is perfect for us. All on one level (no stairs except for a basement - we can do everythign we need to do on the main level), beautiful finishes throughout, a very unique design that we love, a yard for our pupplies, no HOA, no sidewalks for me to shovel - it's the whole package and even has a 3 car garage.

But when I looked at the garage I thought "man, that's a pretty small garage for a 3 car." I was particularly concerned about the LENGTH of the garage. I asked our realtor to find out the dimensions (they weren't listed in the MLS listing) and this morning she got back to me: Width is 30.5' (good), depth is 19.3' and height is 6.11'.

My truck is 19.25' long per the internet, so it might BARELY fit (with literally an inch to spare.) But the bigger problem is the height: My truck is an FX-4 model with the higher factory suspension and sits at least 74 - 75" tall. Now it's POSSIBLE that the realtor mean to write 6'11" instead of 6 POINT 11 inches. If so, I think it would work (barely.) But if (as I suspect) the 6.11 number is correct, my truck simply will not fit as it is too tall.

So here's my FIRST question for the group: Assuming the height of the interior would accommodate it, how difficult/expensive is it to raise a garage door by, say, 8 or 9 inches? This house has the typical 3 car garage door arrangement with a double-wide (16' I presume) door closer to the center of the houe and then a smaller (8' wide) door further out. As long as it wouldn't be prohibitively expensive, I could consider raising the single-wide door a few inches to accomodate.

But that brings me to my SECOND question: I would still have the length issue - if my truck is truly 19.25' long (that is, 19 feet three inches or 231 inches) and the garage is 19.3' (that is, 19 feet 4 inches or 232 inches) then that's a pretty small margin of safety to be backing a truck in. How difficult/expensive would it be to extend the front of the garage by maybe a foot? (I don't think extending it to the rear is an option because the area behind the garage is part of the interior of the house and likely contains electrical wiring, plumbing, etc. So the front is the only way to go.)

I'm assuming that framing out from the garage would be a big project, and likely cost would be in the tens of thousands of dollars, does that sound right? I mean, I get that with enough money anything is possible, but in terms of practicality, I don't see that as really a practical way to go.

So if the garage can't be made long enough to accommodate the truck, maybe a shorter truck would be the answer? I've owned the F-150 for 4 years now and I really like everything about it. But at the end of the day, it's just a vehicle. We plan on being in this house for 20 or more years and of course I'm going to change vehicles over that time anyway.

There are a number of options that are SHORTER than my F-150, but all of them are at least 74" tall. So even another vehicle would likely require me to raise the height of one of the garage doors.

Of course, that's assuming it is, in fact, 6.11 feet and not 6 feet 11 inches. Interestingly, I just measured the door of our current house (built in 1979.) The opening is 6'11". The house we're looking at was built in 1994, I can't believe they'd only put a 6.11" door in a house in 1994.

Anyway, my main question was about raising the height of a garage door. I presume this is do-able, at a cost. Just wondering if anyone has done it and how much it cost you and if there were any unforeseen issues.

Thanks in advance!


EDITED TO ADD UPDATE: Realtor confirmed height of the door is 6' 11".

Looks like I'll be shopping for a new truck.