A two-door garage isn't an unusual feature to see on a home; after all, plenty of properties have garages with room for two vehicles. But you're less likely to see a garage with two doors located on opposite sides of the structure.

Drive-through garages are a common feature on fire stations and other larger structures, but fairly rare on residences. If you have sufficient space, however, this type of garage can offer a number of benefits.

The design of a drive-through garage is primarily meant to enable drivers to pull in through one side and leave through the other. Jeff Beneke, writing for the home design site The Spruce, says this allows you to enter and exit the garage without the often stressful process of backing up the vehicle. This is particularly beneficial when bringing a trailer into the garage, since the trailer can easily veer into a wall when reversing.

This method can also offer added security. Even if the garage cannot store both the vehicle and trailer, you can pull forward until the trailer is in the garage; you'll then be able to close the door facing the street. The magazine Family Handyman says the second door can also let you back through the garage and store a trailer out of sight in the back yard.

One disadvantage of a drive-through garage is that you might need to surrender more of your property to pavement. Don Collins, writing for Fire Apparatus Magazine, says fire stations with drive-through garages need enough room for a driveway connecting to the street from the rear door. While this can be accomplished more easily on a corner lot with a side street, it still means you'll have to plan for the added expense of paving an exit route if you want to drive your car out from the other end of the garage.

Drive-through garages can help improve the accessibility of the space, which will make it easier to store your belongings. A&H Garage Doors, an Arkansas company, says garages with a single door might require you to back the car out before you can access a lawn mower or take out a trash can. Beneke says that by storing items near the rear garage door, you can make your way to those items with much less trouble.

A second garage door does interfere with storage in other ways, however. Collins says the door will eliminate a substantial amount of wall space that might otherwise have been used for storage solutions such as shelving and cabinets. Storing items near the door allows them to be easily accessed from the outside, but also prevents you from pulling a vehicle through the other end of the garage.

A typical garage is often a musty space with poor air quality, especially if a workbench is contributing sawdust and fumes to the atmosphere. Beneke says a drive-through garage lets you open both doors to allow cross-ventilation in the space, making the air much cleaner.

The garage can also be a surprisingly vibrant social space when a second door is included. Dakota Storage Buildings, a company in Milbank, S.D., says the back yard area near the back garage door can be used as a patio rather than a driveway. This allow you to easily store furniture, a grill, yard games, and other materials in the garage during the off-season and bring them out when warm weather returns. When entertaining, opening both garage doors provides ready access to the backyard for your guests.

One potential disadvantage of a drive-through garage is added maintenance costs. Collins says the second door not only requires additional care, but also potentially greater air loss, resulting in higher heating or cooling costs.