Arthur K, Author at - Page 7 of 17

Posted on September 24, 2022June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

600mm Deep Wire Shelf

Last week we released our latest shelf into the StoreWALL accessories range. The 600mm Deep Wire Shelf is exclusive to our Australian and New Zealand market. It has been specifically designed for those large plastic bins that we have all accumulated and want to store on our Slatwall wall panels.

600mm Deep Wire Shelf

Following a lot of requests from customers for deeper shelving options, we looked around the market for options that we could introduce which would be wide and deep enough for those clunky items that we all have at home in our garages.

StoreWALL already offers a large range of shelving options including wired shelving and shelving using our heavy-duty brackets. The depth of these options however only extends out to 381mm and many customers wanted something a lot deeper.

Shelving Options

The market is full of shelving options. Most however are either stand-alone shelves (racking) or they need to be bolted to your wall. StoreWALL is all about your Slatwall garage wall panels. Everything we offer is designed to work with your Slatwall installation.

Working with the same group which designed our Power Tool Shelf, we got to work designing our new 600mm Deep Wire Shelf.

Having only arrived in Australia a few weeks ago we have already seen huge demand for the shelves. Most customers are buying 2 or even 8 of the shelves to line the length of their garage. Being competitively priced has helped spur demand.

Specifications

The specification of the shelf is 600mm deep (off the wall), 900mm wide (end to end), and 190mm high (height of the brackets and shelf).

The shelf comes in 3 parts which you set up yourself on your wall. One shelf and 2 brackets. The brackets come with the L Shaped Lip to slot into your Slatwall. They also have pre-cut-out grooves for the wire shelf to sit into. You place one bracket at either end and the shelf on top settled into the pre-cut-out grooves.

Note, this shelf does not have the standard StoreWALL CamLok to secure it to your wall panels. It has the L Shaped Lip only.

The weight it can handle is listed as 35kgs (tested by me locally). However, our supplier advises that it can hold a lot more than this. By adding an additional bracket, you can make it stronger and then comfortably hold more in weight.

The 600mm Deep Wire Shelf is only available in Australia and New Zealand.

Posted on August 21, 2022June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

Easy Garage Storage

Cleaning up your garage with a garage wall storage solution doesn’t necessarily mean you need to renovate your entire garage lining each wall from top to bottom with wall panels. Easy garage storage can be as simple as 2 Slatwall panels on your wall taking care of a handful of annoying items that are lying around.

Garage Gallery

If you look through our Garage Gallery you will notice the breadth of StoreWALL installations we have in Australia. Most of these have been sent in directly by our customers and are rather large with at least one main wall covered.

You will also see a handful of Easy Garage Storage installations that only contain 1 or even 2 panels on a garage wall. Some of them are focused on gardening gear, others on gym equipment.

Easy Garage Storage

Installing a couple of panels is super easy. At StoreWALL, we sell our 1219mm panels in small bundled packages which include the panels and some basic accessories. We also sell them as single individual panels so that you can design your own easy garage storage solution.

Take as an example the below picture which was sent in over the weekend. Cynthia in Balmain NSW purchased:

2 x Standard 1219mm Brite White panels
2 x Standard Duty Installstrips
1 pack of screws (plastered wall)

The installation of this pack would have taken her less than an hour. Installstrips were added on either end of each panel and one in the middle. 24 screws in total would have been used.

Easy Garage Storage – Accessories

The accessories selected by Cynthia included:

White Ledge Shelf
Two small bungee hooks – one is holding the ironing board, the second the gardening lopper.
Two Heavy Duty tool Hooks – holding about 6 gardening tools from forks to spades.
Vertical Tool Hook – holding the vacuum cleaner.

Easy Garage Storage – Single Panel

The second example is from Perth where the client used several single panels each installed separately on sections of his brick wall.

In the above example, the client in Perth used 2 Heavy Duty Cradle Hooks to hold his two Whipper Snippers. He also had a Heavy Duty Utility Hook to hold is blower and several foldable chairs.

Easy Garage Storage – Gym

Our final example is also from Sydney. This client used two 1219mm Brite White panels to store his gym equipment. This included 2 shelves to hold a range of mats. Alongside this he had several hooks to hold handheld weights and a Heavy Duty Utility hook to hold a medicine ball.

Posted on June 25, 2022June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

Brick Wall Hooks

Earlier this month (June 2022), I received a call from a local Ashburton resident who was looking for some help with turning his impossible garage brick wall into useful garage storage area. Tim was keen on purchasing a road bike that he wanted to hang with brick wall hooks as well as clean up the gardening tools and ladder that were sitting on the garage floor.

There is something about drilling into walls that scares the hell out of people. Tim’s garage is large enough for 2 vehicles and is split between brick and some plastered areas. The left wall which was brick was where he wanted to install brick wall hooks, shelving and baskets. This wall area was split into 4 sections separated by pillars (see photo below).

Each section was about 1100mm wide and the height was about 1800mm. The middle (second) section had the garage door bracket at the top end of it.

Impossbile Brick Wall

The challenge for most people installing brick wall hooks is choosing the correct fasteners to secure them with and having the right tools to actually create drill holes into the brickwork. Then you have the complexity of placing hooks in places that down the track need to be moved. For most people, these walls are generally left bare or covered with a set of standalone shelves.

Tim was caught in this trap but had watched one of the recent block series where a garage makeover was completed by one of the couples and was inspired to see if slatwalls could solve his problem.

I’ll admit we were not the first company he contacted for a price. However, we were the last.

Wall Panel Colours

Tim was keen on the Rustic Cedar colour for these walls but we were, unfortunately, a little low in stock. He and his wife settled for the Whitewood which in the end they were quite happy with.

StoreWALL’s range of PVC Garage Slatwall Panel colours is extensive. From your Whites to your Greys, Blacks, and Wood-like finishes, I don’t think there is a supplier anywhere in the world which can match us. Unfortunately, however, we do run out of stock from time to time as some colours like the whites are super popular.

Each section took 6 panels stacked one of the other. We used 3 installstrips across each section (as you can see in the first photo above). In total, we used 12 x 2438mm panels and about 24 installstrips. The garage door bracket required us to cut out a section from two panels so that we could fit it in. I did it with a jigsaw. StoreWALL panels are pretty easy to work with when it comes to cutouts.

Brick Wall Hooks

Tim purchased several accessories which are not shown in the pictures. He chose a:

Ledge Shelf for his car care kit.
Rotating Bike Hook for the bike he was looking to add.
Heavy Duty Utility Hook for his ladder.
Heavy Duty Universal Hook for his foldable chairs.
Heavy Duty Tool Hook for his gardening tools.
Several smaller hooks.
Heavy Duty Deep Basket.
Vertical Tool Hook for his garden blower.

Tim can now use all of his impossible brick wall. He can add and remove his accessories as often as he needs to. No more drilling holes nor worrying about where to place them.

Posted on June 16, 2022February 13, 2024 by Arthur K

Black Slatwall Panels

Over the next month (June/July 2022) we hope to introduce our latest slatwall colour – Black Slatwall Panels.

StoreWALL panels in black are a highly sought-after colour, especially from retailers fitting out their stores. StoreWALL in the US recently introduced Black Slatwall Panels in the Standard Duty range.

Ensuring our Australian customers are always able to access everything StoreWALL in the US offers plus more, we are now also stocking Black Slatwall Panels in Australia.

Black Slatwall Panels – 1219mm and 2438mm

Both 1219mm and 2438mm cartons in Black are now in stock in Australia. The Black range is currently only available in the Standard Duty. At this stage, there is no additional information if it will also be made available in the Heavy Duty range.

Pricing

These panels will be priced the same as our Brite White and Weathered Grey panels which are also available in the 1219mm length.

Panels will only be available in cartons of 4 panels. They will not be sold as individual panels at this stage.

Application

Interestingly, most Australian garages are painted white. Therefore most StoreWALL Australia customers purchase Brite White panels to match their white walls. Second in line is our Weathered Grey colour. I definitely think that many customers who want a contrasting colour in their garage, workshop or office will consider Black.

When you couple the Black panels with our Grey accessories, I believe you will end up with a very complementary colour combination for your storage area.

We will be sure to share some photos once our first customers start using the new Black Slatwall colour.

Posted on May 22, 2022June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

Blueboard Garage Walls

This week we completed a StoreWALL installation in a new home with Blueboard Garage Walls. In fact, this is the second such installation this year where the material used for cladding the customer’s internal garage wall was not plaster but a cement sheet material.

Garage Cladding

The first instance was in a new home in Sandringham which had used an external cladding similar to this James Hardie Matrix product. The client had used it to clad much of the house’s exterior and then continued it into several storage rooms.

StoreWALL was tasked with installing StoreWALL panels in each of the storage rooms, paneling from floor to ceiling.

See below for some pre and post installation photos.

Whilst installing StoreWALL was no different from the process of installing on a plastered wall, the effort required was considerably more. This was because the surface we were screwing into to attach the installstrips was much harder. The thickness of the cladding material was about 8-10mm but it really put our impact driver to the test.

I avoided pre-drilling in most cases but occasionally it was necessary.

One of the advantages of the surface however was that the density of the panel created a very strong grip for our screws even where no stud existed. This was helpful when we needed to add additional installstrips.

As a cladding surface, this James Hardie product seemed a great alternative to plasterboard.

Blueboard Garage Wall

This weekend we completed our latest installation in a new home in Kew. The garage was under the house this time and the walls were built with studs at 600mm centers and covered with Blueboard which was then lightly rendered. The render gave that cement feeling to the wall. It also made it a little hard to drill through.

In fact, drilling through the Blueboard was quite difficult. I found instances where I actually needed to pre-drill the hole first in order to screw through it. The cement finish actually blunted several of my drill bits in the process.

The wall pictured above was only one corner of a very large underground garage. The dimensions of the paneled area were 3.6m (W) x 2.7m (H) and 3.3m (W) x 2.7m (H). We left about 10mm under the bottom panel and about 25mm above the top panel. Being a corner, we needed to also ensure that the panels on both sides of the wall lined up nicely.

We were lucky with the larger wall to have one of our panel joins actually land on a stud. In this case, we ensured that the panels shared an installstrip. For the second join, we added an additional installstrip that both panels could share. The density of the blueboard garage wall created a strong grip for the screws.

There is no limit to how StoreWALL Garage Wall Panels can be used. No matter the garage wall surface, be it Plasterboard, Brick, Blueboard or Cladding, StoreWALL can be hung on it to create a great storage area for you.

Posted on March 23, 2022June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

Garage Storage on “The Block”

2021 saw Channel 9’s “The Block’ feature a Garage Storage system from a local Melbourne supplier. It may not have been StoreWALL (more on this later) but Garage Storage on “The Block” gave many viewers some new ideas on how they could reorganise their garage area.

You can find details of the actual suppliers used by Ronnie and Georgia here. I don’t recall the budget they allocated to their Garage Solution but looking at the size of the wall and the range of accessories included, they would have pushed close to the $6 – $8k mark.

The end result for the garage looks great. It combines wall panels with shelving across the top and then a range of tall and short cupboards at the far end. It also features a small bench area upon which someone can work.

StoreWALL on The Block

Around 3 years ago, we were contacted by a couple of Contestants from The Block. Well, that is how they introduced themselves at the time. They were looking for Brite White Wall Panels for their garage and unfortunately at the time we were very low in stock and couldn’t help them. So we missed our opportunity in the limelight.

However, the use of wall panels on the 2021 season show was a great inclusion and as I mentioned earlier a great result for the eventual owners of the home that was renovated.

Garage Storage on “The Block”

Wall panels not only look great in the garage, but they also deliver lots of flexibility for the homeowner. For a double garage that endeavours to fit two vehicles, using the wall for storage is the right approach. Your stored items stay flat against the wall and can be stored high or even low. This provides you with more room to safely open your garage doors.

I don’t watch “The Block” religiously, but upon visiting a client today to measure their wall and provide a quote, they reminded me about the show and that they had also contacted the supplier.

The customer who is also in Melbourne had recently moved into a new home and had no storage at all in their garage. They had lots of “kid gear” to store plus lots of gardening equipment. The garage had 2 great walls for wall storage and a possible third. Whilst it was 2.5m in height and 6.4m in length, I recommended applying panels to the middle section with 350mm left at the top and bottom of the wall. Along the length, they were looking at about 4.8m of panels. So the total square meters of the main wall would be 8.64sqm.

I will keep you posted if we end up completing the wall for the client with some pictures.

Posted on March 13, 2022February 12, 2024 by Arthur K

Garage Slatwall Options

Garage slatwall systems are becoming more and more popular in Australia. This is because storage decisions for homes (even new ones) are often underestimated. This article is about your “garage slatwall installation” and how much of your garage wall(s) you should consider covering with slatwall.

We receive calls every week from customers who have landed on our website and like the idea of a wall-panel garage storage system. It makes good use of walls that otherwise may only hold some hooks and maybe shelves. It looks great and is mould proof and provides many options regarding the types of accessories that can used, from baskets to hooks, brackets, bins, and bags.

The question many people have, however, is how much of my wall(s) should I cover with slatwall panels?

Measuring your wall area

The first step is to determine how much wall space you have. From this measurement, you can then start to work on how much wall space you want to apply slatwall panels to. This will be determined by how much you have to store and your budget.

Measuring your walls is as easy as width x height. Just use a measuring tape on all available wall areas. Consider the two side walls and the back wall.

How much slatwall area do I need?

If you are storing adult-sized bikes, ladders, large gardening tools, and water sports equipment like surfboards and canoes/kayaks, you will require one or even two walls.

Consider that adult bikes whether stored horizontally or perpendicular to a wall are about 2m in length and 60cm in width (handlebar width). Multiply this by the number of bikes you are storing, and you might quickly fill an entire wall with bikes.

Kayaks are long and need to be stored up high and out of the way.

Do I panel a full wall or part wall?

This is a decorating/design question rather than one about storage. Some people like the fact that their entire wall looks the same, ie it has the same look/texture from top to bottom. In this case, they will panel it all from the top of the skirting board to below the cornice.

From a storage perspective, it is not necessary to slatwall your entire wall. The area 1m from the skirting board (ie your floor) and say 30cm from your ceiling can be left as is. This is because you are unlikely to hang or store items that low or high. If budget is a consideration, this is a great way to reduce total panels and therefore material and labor costs.

There are some exceptions. Whilst I write this, I can also reflect on some homes we have installed StoreWALL in, which have paneled their entire wall and used much of it. In those high areas close to the ceiling, customers have installed shelving and stored items that are irregularly used. For those lower areas close to the floor, they have hung bags and baskets.

Working out your costs

Most people starting their slatwall journey are just after a simple quote that will give them some guidance as to how much the project will cost them. Knowing your wall’s dimensions helps. This information can then be used with our Panel Estimator to calculate the potential cost. Alternatively, you can also email us @ info@storewall.com.au these dimensions and we can quote you.

Below is an example of such an email:

Hi

I am interested in your product to instal on my garage’s wall in order to organise my tools including power tools (domestic not professional):

The following are the relevant measurements:

wall number 1 the right section on the photo:height: 180 cmwidth: 117 cm
wall number 2 the left section on the photo:height: 139.5 cmwidth: 149 cm

Regards

M

This is what the customer received from us:

Garage Slatwall Installation

Below are examples of full and part garage slatwall installations. Some of these have been completed by us here in Melbourne and some by customers in other states. Both approaches work and have given customers with enough wall space to manage their storage needs.

Storewall installation — Part Wall Installations

In summary, your garage slatwall installation is down to your personal design preferences and your budget. We can help guide you with both of these so that you make the best choice for your storage needs.

Posted on January 30, 2022June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

Mouldy Garage Wall

This article is not about how to fix a mouldy garage wall, rather it is about how to continue to use it so that you can store the many items sitting beside it on the ground taking up your precious garage floor space.

StoreWALL Wall Panels

StoreWALL Wall Panels are water resistant and mould proof. They do not obsorb water even if your wall does. Therefore if you have a problem with your mouldy garage wall, using StoreWALL panels over this wall does not mean our panels and your stored items will attract the mould.

StoreWALL’s panels are made from hardened plastic.

Physical properties PVC storeWALL

Density – Average 16 / cu ft
Decorative surface thickness .687″ (11/16′)
Modulus of rupture 27 mpa
Modulus of Elasticity – Average 29 mpa
Internal bond 100 psi
Water absorption – 0%
Linear expansion 0%
Thickness swell 0%
Moisture content – as shipped 0%
Formaldehyde emission 0.00 ppm
Flame spread 45
Fire classification IIB

Using StoreWALL on your wall over the mouldy section allows you to protect your stored items as our panels will not attract moisture and nor should our accessories holding your items. All of our accessories are powder coated and typically come with rubber tips providing additional protection for your stored items.

With StoreWALL sitting between your mouldy wall and your stored items, you can still store them anywhere on your wall that you like.

Installing on a Mouldy Garage Wall

Installing your StoreWALL panels on your mouldy garage wall will typically first begin with the installation of our Installstrips. These metal brackets are made from heavy duty galvanised steel. They will not rust nor change shape due to moisture build up on your wall. I have had installstrips sit outside for years installed on an exterior wall with no change to them.

When installing our Installstrips, you will need to ensure they are screwed into a hard and secure section of your wall. If the mortar between your bricks has been affected by the moisture build up and is soft or brittle, then I would avoid screwing into the mortar as much as you can. Instread screw into the actual brick which will be hard and more secure.

When installing StoreWALL with Installstrips, it’s the installstrips that will carry most of the weight of your items, so it’s important that they are secured correctly to your wall. Watch the video below for instructions.

There are many reasons why your wall might be attracting moisture which is not drying up. Getting the problem fixed is important but if you have tried this and can’t solve it, covering the wall with StoreWALL will at a mimimum make it usuable. This will ensure that your stored items are safe and secure off the ground where they may be a hazard to you and your vehicle.

Posted on December 18, 2021July 15, 2023 by Arthur K

Pegboard Versus StoreWALL

StoreWALL panels are regularly compared to Pegboard solutions offered by many Hardware and even Homeware stores. To help you better understand the differences, I completed my own Pegboard Versus StoreWALL comparison.

Bunnings sells several Pegboard solutions, both MDF and in a metal finish. The metal finish Pegboard is from Pinnacle which also supplies a large range of shelving at Bunnings. I decided to buy a Pegboard as well as some accessories so that I could test drive storing a range of power tools.

The below video review takes a look at how the Pinnacle Pegboard is installed and how its PowerTool accessories work.

The video review also takes a look at StoreWALL and what is on offer in terms of PowerTool storage.

Pinnacle Pegboard

Pinnacle’s Pegboard comes in several sizes, the smaller 900mm x 450mm panel is about $39. I also purchased a packet of the Heavy Duty Tool Clips which includes 4 pieces for about $13.

The Pegboard is installed with a few screws using pre-drilled holes on the Pegboard. There are 8 holes in total (2 at each corner). You could drill additional holes if you needed to and in locations better suited to your wall. The Pinnacle Pegboard does not come with fasteners. So you will need to source these yourself.

I am a little concerned about how well 4 screws will go holding up the actual pegboard, particularly if the total weight of what is being stored starts to climb over 10kgs. The Bunnings website doesn’t seem to provide a weight rating for it.

The Pinnacle Pegboard looks sturdy, it is powder-coated black. Being a pegboard, the vast number of punctured holes allows you to add accessories anywhere on the wall.

If you read the reviews on the Bunnings website, they are generally positive. I think most people are just happy to find something they can install themselves and clean up their garage. There are concerns about the powder coating being easy to scratch. The biggest concerns however are that some users found the pegboard complicated to mount securely to their wall.

Pinnacle Heavy Duty Tool Clip

The Heavy Duty Tool Clip is a very lightweight accessory that is attached to the Pegboard with a couple of teeth at the back of the accessory. Two plastic screws are also provided to secure it to the Pegboard. I was able to install the screws and secure them to the Pegboard but screwing them all of the way was difficult. Reading the reviews on the Bunnings site, some people have commented with similar experiences.

The accessory itself is usable but it is stiff and you will need your Pegboard to be firmly fitted to your wall so that you can securely attach and remove your accessories. Whilst there is no max weight that each accessory can hold, it seems strong enough to support your typical impact drill set.

Pegboard Versus StoreWALL

In the video review, I also include a review of two of StoreWALL’s PowerTool Accessories. There are in fact many more which I will cover in a separate video. The two in the video include:

PowerTool Hook
450mm PowerTool Storage Rack

When it comes to durability and fit for purpose, I don’t think you can really compare what StoreWALL offers to a Pegboard. Pegboards are OK for lightweight items, but as your requirements start to grow, the lightweight nature of the Pegboard solution starts to limit what you can use it for. Pegboard Versus StoreWALL is not a fair comparison.

StoreWALL’s panels are a lot thicker and sturdier than your Pegboard (both MDF and Metal). Our installation options using the StoreWALL installstrips provide for greater weight capacity and therefore the ability to store even your heaviest PowerTools ie Hammer Drills, Power Saws, and even bigger items such as Chain Saws.

Furthermore, the video clearly shows the difference in our range of accessories. Our Hooks are Industrial grade, built for heavy items. They will not leave your wall and last a lifetime.

The other key thing to remember with pegboards is that they aren’t designed for storing your larger items like ladders, chairs, hoses, bikes or anything that is actually more than 20cm in length/height. Your investment in a StoreWALL wall panel definitely is.

So what’s the catch? There is a price difference. $52 buys you a 900mm x 450mm Pegboard and 4 Heavy Duty Tool Clips. One StoreWALL panel will set you back about $66. The PowerTool Hook or Rack are about $40 each. Yes, there is a difference in the investment you will need to make with StoreWALL. However, this investment will last a lifetime.

Posted on November 19, 2021June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

Power Tool Storage Rack

This month we added yet another new Shelf to our catalogue, the Power Tool Storage Rack. This new shelf is specifically designed to store multiple power tools and be used on your StoreWALL wall panels. It can also be used with many other slatwall and garage wall panel systems.

WALL MOUNTED POWER TOOL RACK

This Power Tool Storage Rack was originally designed to be screwed onto your wall. However, we have converted it into a versatile Rack for your slatwall installation allowing you to attach it to most slatwall systems available in Australia. Load your power tools onto the rack and have them easily accessible on your wall when you need them.

SUPPORTS UP TO FOUR POWER DRILLS

This new Rack has been designed to hold up to four power tools. Use it to store your driver drills, hammer drills, impact drills, and any other drill type you may own.

FREE YOUR WORKBENCH

StoreWALL is everything about making better use of your wall space. Our new rack is designed to utilise the unused space on your wall, freeing up your workbench and work area. Keep your expensive power tools free from kid’s hands by hanging them on your wall.

SUPER DURABLE STEEL

Our new Storage Rack is made super durable from powder-coated steel, which will resist rusting and last for years.

DESIGNED FOR SLATWALLS

Designed to work with your StoreWALL Panels. Simply slip it into your StoreWALL groove. Move it around your wall as you need to. No need to drill messy holes in your walls. Let your slatwall system do the work for you. Our Storage Rack will work with most slatwall systems on the market, including the StorEase system sold by Bunnings.

Note this shelf is not fitted with StoreWALL’s CamLok but like several of our other shelves, has a lip allowing it to be easily and securely fitted into the slatwall groove.

Power Tool Storage Rack Dimensions

457mm (width) x 229mm (depth) x 6.4mm (height)

Power Tool Storage Ideas

Our Power Tool Storage Rack is one of many accessories StoreWALL offers for your power tools. Also check out our Power Tool Hook, Vertical Tool Hook, and our Tool Organiser. These accessories are also designed specifically to help you with your Power Tool Storage ideas.