Two cars, a ute and a trailer is a normal household in Logan and the Scenic Rim. A double carport fills up fast. A triple carport, or a double with extra width or depth, takes the lot, but a bigger carport changes the engineering and often the approval.
How wide?
- Three cars side by side: around 9 m, more if you want to open doors fully between them.
- Two cars and a trailer or boat: 8 to 9 m, depending on the trailer.
- Two cars plus a walkway or bin space: 7 to 7.5 m.
Measure your widest vehicles with the doors open, and allow for walking past. The extra half metre is the one you will notice every day.
How deep and how high?
Most cars fit in 6 m of depth. A long ute with a tow bar, or a boat on a trailer, often needs 7 m or more. Two vehicles parked one behind the other need a tandem carport of 11 to 12 m. For a caravan, measure to the top of the air conditioner and add clearance; caravan covers are commonly 3.5 to 4.2 m at the lowest point.
Wide spans: posts or beams
A wider carport means either a longer span between posts or a post in the middle. A longer span needs a deeper beam, and a deeper beam lowers the clear height unless the posts are taller. A middle post keeps the beam shallow but sits between two parking bays. On a triple carport, most people choose posts between the bays and line them up with the car spaces, so they are out of the way.
Flat, gable or skillion
- Flat (skillion): simple, good value, and the easiest to get under a low limit.
- Gable: gives extra height in the middle, which helps with a caravan or a high 4WD, and looks better across a wide front.
- Attached: uses the house for one side, but a triple width is often wider than the wall it fixes to, so freestanding is more common.
Where the council rules bite
Most council carport rules are written around a double carport about 6 m wide. Go wider and you meet them:
- Logan: an open carport up to 6 × 6 m and 3.5 m high can sit on the front boundary without a referral. A wider one there needs council to agree to the setback, at $869 in Logan’s 2026-27 fees.
- Ipswich: an open carport may sit in the road setback where there is nowhere else for it, but one wider than 7 m there needs an amenity and aesthetics approval.
- Gold Coast: front setback carports are assessed case by case, generally around 6 m wide and 3 m to the fascia.
- Brisbane small lots: the garage door and carport facing the street can total no more than 6 m wide.
The easy answer is usually to put a wide carport behind the front setback, down the side or at the back of the block, where these rules do not apply.
Along a boundary
A carport can sit close to a side or rear boundary when everything in that setback adds up to no more than 9 m along the boundary, it is no more than 4.5 m high (3.5 m average), and it stays 1.5 m from a neighbour’s habitable room window. A long tandem carport can use up that 9 m on its own.
Acreage limits
- Logan: sheds and carports can total 150 m² before stricter clearances and a 5.5 m height limit apply, and over 300 m² the work needs council assessment.
- Scenic Rim: in residential zones all outbuildings together are capped at 55 m² on lots of 600 m² or less, 110 m² up to 2,000 m² and 200 m² above that, and they can be no taller than the house.
- Gold Coast: detached outbuildings trigger an amenity assessment past 36 m² on lots under 800 m², stepping up with lot size.
A 9 × 6 m triple carport is 54 m², so on a small Scenic Rim lot or a Gold Coast estate lot it can use most of the allowance on its own. Add the existing shed before you decide on the size.
Driveways
A wider carport often means a wider driveway. Councils limit crossover widths: Logan caps a residential crossover at 5 m, and the Gold Coast standard drawing allows 5 m for a double garage. A second crossover needs more than 30 m of frontage in Logan and at least 40 m on the Gold Coast. Plan the carport and the driveway together.
Getting the size right
Send us a list of what you want to park, with sizes if you have them. We measure up, check the setbacks and allowances for your lot and design the carport to fit, in genuine Colorbond and BlueScope steel.