How Wide a Parking Stall Is on Asphalt

A common planning width for a standard car stall is about 9 feet, with 8.5 feet where cars are smaller and 10 feet where doors need more room. Length is often about 18 feet. These are planning dimensions, not a city code. The stripe itself uses part of the width.

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Nine feet is a planning width, not a statute

A common planning width for a standard car stall on asphalt is about 9 feet. Layouts sometimes use 8.5 feet where the cars are smaller and the aisle can tolerate it, and about 10 feet where people need more room to open doors. Length is often about 18 feet. These are planning dimensions people use to sketch a lot. They are not your city's code, and they are not an accessible stall. Measure the asphalt you already have before you promise a stall count to a tenant or a board. A stripe has width of its own, and that paint comes out of the stall. If you paint the line down the middle of the boundary, each stall loses half the stripe. Ignore that and the doors hit.

One stall as a tonnage example

A 9 by 18 foot stall is 162 square feet of pavement if the whole rectangle is asphalt. The stall is rarely paved alone. The aisle in front of it is paved too, and the tons follow all of that area. If you want a planning figure for the stall rectangle only, at 2 inches of compacted hot mix and 145 pounds per cubic foot, multiply 9 times 18 times 2, divide by 12, times 145, divide by 2,000. That is 162 times 145 divided by 12,000, about 2.0 tons. At 1.5 inches the same rectangle is about 1.5 tons. Those are planning estimates for the stall area only. The plant ticket is the real weight. Add the aisle or you will under-order the lot.

Count stalls from the pavement you can stripe

Start with the asphalt edges, not with a hoped-for count. Divide the row length by the planning width you chose, then subtract end islands, columns, and the accessible stalls that use a different module. A 90 foot row at 9 feet is 10 stalls only if nothing steals width and the stripe module matches. A 10 foot module on that same row is 9 stalls. Write the width you used on the sketch so the painter and the paver share it. If the lot will be overlaid, confirm the stripe is laid out after the new mat, on the final edges. Overlay tons use the same 145 pound planning density on the full paved area, aisles included, and the plant ticket is the real weight. Check the local standard before you publish a count.

A practical sequence

Use about 9 feet as a planning stall width, and confirm the local standard.
Remember 8.5 and 10 foot modules change the count, and the stripe uses width.
Plan stall tons from the rectangle at 145 pounds per cubic foot, then add the aisle.
Measure the asphalt you have before you promise a stall count.

The mistake to skip

Promising a stall count from a 9 foot module without measuring the pavement or subtracting stripes, islands, and accessible aisles.

Questions people ask

Is every parking stall 9 by 18?

About 9 feet wide and about 18 feet long is a common planning size. Some layouts use 8.5 feet, and some use 10 feet for door room. These are not a city code by themselves. The stripe width comes out of the stall. Measure the asphalt, check the local standard, and lay out accessible stalls separately.

How many tons are in one stall?

A 9 by 18 foot rectangle is 162 square feet. At 2 inches and 145 pounds per cubic foot, that is about 2.0 tons as a planning estimate. At 1.5 inches it is about 1.5 tons. The plant ticket is the real weight. The aisle in front of the stall is extra paved area and extra tons.

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