Burlingame Garage Door Repair Down the Side-Yard Driveway

The work

Door, gate and garage jobs on Burlingame lots

A new door at the end of a long side driveway
With a rear garage, the new door's sections and tracks, and the old door on its way out, all travel down the side-yard driveway. Burlingame's zoning code lets a single-family driveway be as narrow as nine feet six inches and no wider than the garage it serves, and a detached garage in the rear 30 percent of the lot may stand just 18 inches from the side and rear property lines. That leaves little room to stage materials or to reach the outside of the frame, so ask how the crew plans the job.
Two single doors in place of one wide one
The city's design guidebook asks that garages be played down and, where a garage faces the street, that its doors be split to single-car width rather than one double door. It also warns against off-the-shelf metal doors that do not relate to the windows and doors on the rest of the house. The guidebook is applied through design review, which does not cover a new door on an existing garage, but it shows what the city considers a good fit for these streets.
Driveway gates and their operators
Driveway gates and the motors that open them fall under the same CSLB D-28 class as garage doors. Burlingame's guidebook says gates should be pulled back from the front corners of the house so at least two cars can park in the drive, and that a pair of gates reads smaller from the street than one large gate. Placement matters here because a house needs two off-street spaces, only one of them covered, and the uncovered space may sit in tandem on the driveway.
Rebuilding an old garage or adding a new one
A new garage attached to a house goes through design review and needs a Special Permit, but rebuilding an existing attached garage that stays a garage needs neither, and an existing one may be extended by up to 10 feet without the Special Permit. A detached rear garage more than 28 feet wide or deep needs a Special Permit. On interior lots the floor-area limit allows up to 400 extra square feet for a detached garage and other accessory structures, or 350 on corner lots.

A shopping street in downtown Burlingame. Photo: Javelinca, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The houses here

Garages at the back, driveways along the side

Hundreds of Burlingame lots were sold after the 1906 earthquake, the town incorporated in 1908, and neighboring Easton was annexed in 1910. The city's Neighborhood Design Guidebook sorts the garages that followed into three patterns, detached rear garages, attached rear garages and attached front garages, and says the pattern tends to match the age of the neighborhood. It describes rear-yard garages as so widespread here that side yards often double as driveways. The zoning code still carries a trace of the older layouts: a garage may stand in front of a house only where the house sits in the rear 60 percent of its lot and was built before January 15, 1954.

Free request

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Get quotes for garage door work in Burlingame

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Free to request, and you agree the scope and price with the person you hire before work starts. In California, a job over $1,000 in labor and materials, or one that needs a building permit, must be done by a contractor licensed by the CSLB in the right class. Ask for the license number and check it at cslb.ca.gov.

Permits and local rules

The code sections behind a Burlingame garage door quote

Chapter 25.40: garage and door sizes
Garages and carports for single-family homes must measure at least 10 feet wide and 18 feet long inside for each required space, with seven feet of unobstructed height from the floor to the lowest projection on the ceiling. Minimum garage door widths are eight feet for a one-car garage and 16 feet for a two-car garage. Required covered spaces may not be arranged in tandem, and a single-family driveway must be at least nine feet six inches wide and no wider than the garage it serves.
Burlingame Municipal Code, Chapter 25.40 (opens in a new tab)
Section 25.68.020: when a garage triggers design review
Design review covers new houses, most second-story additions and, by name, construction of a new garage attached to a single-family house. The same section states that altering or reconstructing an existing attached garage that will continue in use as a garage is not subject to design review. When review does apply, one of the considerations the Planning Commission weighs is respect for the parking and garage patterns of the neighborhood, which is where the guidebook's preference for rear garages and single-width doors comes in.
Burlingame Municipal Code, Chapter 25.68 (opens in a new tab)
Hillside Area Construction Permit
Inside the Hillside Overlay Zone, a Hillside Area Construction Permit is required for every new house, every new accessory structure and any addition, including a change in roof elevation. Plans are sent to all owners within 100 feet for a 10-day review. If no one calls the project up for a Planning Commission hearing in that time, the permit is approved and the building permit application can follow. A new detached garage on the hillside streets around Trousdale Drive and Mills Canyon falls under it.
City of Burlingame Planning Division (opens in a new tab)
Health and Safety Code 19892, and who can enforce it
Since July 1, 2019, California has barred making for sale, selling or installing a home garage door opener that cannot keep running, without interruption, on a backup battery when the power fails. A replacement door may not be connected to an existing opener that lacks one, however old the opener is. Under Section 19891, the local building department, an affected consumer or the district attorney may take a violation to court, with the penalty counted per opener. In the city that department is Burlingame's Building Division; in Burlingame Hills it is the county's.
California Legislative Information (opens in a new tab)

State license for this work: D-28 Doors, Gates and Activating Devices, B General Building. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (opens in a new tab).

Part by part

Three parts of town, three different garage questions

Easton Addition and the other pre-war blocks
On the older blocks, a rebuilt garage is expected to follow the pattern of the neighboring houses, and where their garages sit at the rear, the guidebook says new ones should too. The exception that lets a garage stand in front of a house set deep on its lot applies only to houses built before January 15, 1954.
The Hillside Overlay around Trousdale Drive and Mills Canyon
These streets need a Hillside Area Construction Permit for a new garage or any other new accessory structure, so neighbors can weigh the effect on distant views. Separately, the State Fire Marshal's February 2025 map shades a band along the city's western edge in Very High, High and Moderate fire hazard zones; ask the Building Division whether a replacement door there must meet wildfire rules.
Burlingame Hills
Burlingame Hills is unincorporated San Mateo County, not part of the city. The county's Planning and Building Department reviews and inspects work that needs a building permit in unincorporated areas, and the neighborhood's sewers belong to a county district formed in 1935. Burlingame's own zoning rules on this page do not govern lots there.

Before you hire

Questions for the installer before you sign

Check the D-28 Doors, Gates and Activating Devices license at cslb.ca.gov; the same class covers driveway gates and their operators.
For a garage at the back of the lot, ask how the new door will travel down the side driveway and where it will be staged.
On a street-facing garage, ask for a price on two single doors as well as one double door before deciding.
Replacing only the door? Confirm in writing that your existing opener has a battery backup, or price a new opener too.
In Burlingame Hills, make sure any permit the job needs is taken out with San Mateo County, not with the city.

Questions

Burlingame garage door and gate questions

Does replacing a garage door in Burlingame need design review?

No. Design review applies to new houses, most second-story additions and new garages attached to a house, and the code says altering or reconstructing an existing attached garage that stays a garage is not subject to it. Whether the job needs a building permit is a question for the Building Division, which takes applications for every permit type online through eTRAKiT.

Our front garage has one wide door. Can we switch to two single doors?

Yes, and the city's guidebook favors it: where a garage faces the street, it asks for doors split to single-car width. If the attached garage is ever rebuilt, two single doors also ease the front setback, from 35 feet for a two-car garage to 25 feet side by side, or 20 and 25 feet staggered. The code's minimum widths are 8 feet for one car and 16 for two, so confirm how a pair is measured.

How big must our garage be to count as the covered parking space?

Each required space needs a clear interior of at least 10 by 18 feet and seven feet of headroom to the lowest projection on the ceiling, behind a door at least 8 feet wide for one car. A single-family house needs two off-street spaces, one of them covered, and covered spaces may not be stacked in tandem, so check shelving or equipment against those dimensions before a remodel.

We live in Burlingame Hills. Does the City of Burlingame issue our permits?

No. Burlingame Hills is unincorporated San Mateo County, and the county's Planning and Building Department reviews and inspects projects that need building permits in unincorporated areas. The area's sewers are run by the county's Burlingame Hills Sewer Maintenance District, formed in 1935, and the city's zoning code, including its garage setbacks and door widths, does not govern your lot.

Who can act if an installer puts in an opener without a battery backup?

Under Health and Safety Code Section 19891, a case can be brought by the local building department, by the affected consumer or by the district attorney, and the civil penalty is counted for each opener out of compliance. If the consumer brings the case, the penalty is paid to the consumer; if the agency does, it goes to the agency to offset its costs.

Keep exploring

More on garage door work and Burlingame

Other trades in Burlingame

Guides and smaller jobs

Hiring a handyman in California: the $1,000 line, the license check, the deposit

Where this page belongs

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

Doors for Burlingame's backyard garages, split fronts and driveway gates

Door, gate and garage jobs on Burlingame lots

A new door at the end of a long side driveway

Two single doors in place of one wide one

Driveway gates and their operators

Rebuilding an old garage or adding a new one

Garages at the back, driveways along the side

Get quotes for garage door work in Burlingame

The code sections behind a Burlingame garage door quote

Chapter 25.40: garage and door sizes

Section 25.68.020: when a garage triggers design review

Hillside Area Construction Permit

Health and Safety Code 19892, and who can enforce it

Three parts of town, three different garage questions

Easton Addition and the other pre-war blocks

The Hillside Overlay around Trousdale Drive and Mills Canyon

Burlingame Hills