Arthur K, Author at - Page 8 of 18

Posted on June 24, 2023June 24, 2023 by Arthur K

Solid Red Brick Walls

Our latest installation in the suburb of Toorak (Melbourne) was in an old garage made from solid red brick walls.

The garage had a couple of really old StorEase panels and some accessories. They were screwed straight into the wall. We removed these. The owner of this house was in the middle of undertaking some renovations and we were asked to install StoreWALL on both sides of the garage.

The first wall area measured 4m in length and 2.1m in height. On the opposite side, we installed a smaller section of 2m x 2.1m.

Wall 1 – 4m Solid Red Brick Walls

For Wall 1, we used 1 x 2.4m panel plus a second 1.5m panel. This gave us our 4m. We also used the smaller off-cuts in the wall in order to reduce waste. To reach the 2.1m height we used 7 x Standard Duty Slatwall Panels.

I have installed lots of brick wall garages. Old and new. Many older homes have sold red brick walls. These are tough bricks to drill into. The other challenging feature of these garage walls was just how irregular they were. To cover this up they had semi-rendered the walls and painted them so they looked smooth (kind of).

You can also see that above the wall at about 2.1m we also had a bracket which held the garage door.

We started the installation about 245mm from the garage floor. The drilling was tough and we had to pack behind some of the installstrips in order to keep them flat. To fasten the installstrips we used Nail Anchors which we sell on our website but so do all hardware stores. We used 5mm anchors and a 5mm 4-cut drill bit. To be fair, I used several drill bits on this job as the walls chewed them up.

Each installstrip has 12 holes for anchoring to the wall. I hammered a minimum of 9 anchors for each one.

In order to hang the 7 rows of Standard Duty Slatwall Panels, we used 2 rows of installstrips and then a 3rd row of just a single installstrip section. Our installstrips were spaced about 600mm apart and we positioned them so that they sat behind any joins. Having two joining panels share an installstrip delivers a nicer, smoother join. This took a little measuring.

Tips

I am always learning with these installations as no walls are alike and brick walls, specifically Sold Red Brick Walls are the most challenging.

In order to save the customer on waste, we used the smaller offcuts on the wall. It meant more joins. If I was to do this wall again, I would have just used two panels along the wall. 1 x 2438mm + 1562mm. It would have saved a lot of effort in positioning the installstrips in the right location for the joins. The result is more waste.

My second tip relates to the 3rd row of installstrips for the 7th row of panels. Rather than using a single section of the installstrip for this top row, it can be easier to use two sections. In this case, you add the lower section on row 6 and the top section on row 7. This makes it easier when trying to align the installstrips for that top row.

Garage Door Bracket

I had to cut around the bracket in order to fit the 7th row. It was fiddly work as the bracket covered two panels. I used a jigsaw for the cut. The 6th panel was cut at the top, the 7th panel was cut from the bottom.

Wall 2 – 2m x 2.1m Solid Red Brick Walls

The second wall was covered with 1 panel cut to 2m. As per wall one, we had 2 rows of 3 section installstrips to support the first 6 panels. The top row used just one section of the installstrip.

As there were no joins on this wall, it was must quicker to panel. The biggest challenge we had were the bricks. A section of wall 700mm x 700mm was made from much harder bricks and so the drilling took longer.

Conclusion

The red bricks were hard work. This job took 1.5 people (junior support) about 7hrs to complete. I drilled over 120 holes. The outcome is a garage storage solution that will last for years and allow the owner to hang almost anything they store in their garage.

Posted on June 24, 2023August 28, 2023 by Arthur K

Gladiator Garageworks has Closed

It seems Gladiator Garageworks has closed its operations in Australia and is no longer distributing the Gladiator range. To be clear, this only impacts sales in Australia.

We managed to access some Gladiator Hooks (via their fire sale) if you are looking for them. We have listed them on eBay via this page.

https://www.ebay.com.au/usr/GladiatorAccessories

The range of hooks we could access includes:

Small Items Hooks (pack of 8)
Dual Hook
Cradle Hook
Scoop Hook
S Hook
Vertical Bike Hook
Wide Hook

You are welcome to call us if you have questions.

Compatibility with StoreWALL

I have recently received several calls from customers asking about compatibility between StoreWALL accessories and the Gladiator panels.

The challenge with compatibility is the distance between the grooves on the panels. Gladiators’ accessories are designed to fit and lock based on the distance between their panel’s grooves. Finding compatible accessories means finding panels and accessories with the same groove distance.

The other notable feature of the Gladiator panel groove is that both the top and bottom are indented (U shape at both ends). This means that a compatible accessory will need to lock into the shape of the groove.

You can learn more about our compatibility here.

If you aren’t comfortable buying via eBay then I suggest considering a StoreWALL Standard Duty Panel. Installed with our unique Installstrips, you will enjoy a cleaner installation, a garage storage solution that is stronger than anything else you will find, and the best range of garage storage accessories.

It is a shame that Gladiator Garageworks has closed in Australia and the Gladiator range is no longer available. Maybe some other distributor will begin to sell it. There is no shortage of garage storage options available at the moment, particularly at the lower-quality end. Gladiator was a quality system.

Posted on April 8, 2023June 9, 2023 by Arthur K

Hanging Your E-Bike

E-bikes are becoming ever more popular. They might look like your regular bike, but your e-bike is probably 10kgs or even 20kgs heavier. Hanging your e-bike safely is a key concern for many e-bike owners.

I recently helped a customer from the Toowoomba area in Qld, who had a long list of items she needed to store in her garage. During one of our many calls, Amey (not her real name) told me that on her list was an e-bike.

E-bike Weight

Not having owned an e-bike, I was a little naive as to the weight that an e-bike carries. StoreWALL offers a very broad range of bike hooks that are very popular for your regular bikes. Our standard bike hook will support a weight of over 30kgs, which is much more than a regular bike will weigh. The StoreWALL Rotating Bike Hook can support 100kgs. In terms of weight support, you can’t beat 100kgs.

A key consideration when using bike hooks is the process of adding and removing your bike from the actual hook. By this I mean, raising your bike on its back wheel and lifting it off the ground to attach it to your hook. This process might not mean much to a young man, however, some older folk and even females might not be so confident.

Hanging Your e-bike

Amey, however, expressed concern about the weight of her e-bike which is closer to 30kgs+, and her ability to lift her bike on and off the StoreWALL Rotating Bike Hook. The video below shows the process for you.

StoreWALL Rotating Bike Hook in action

I showed her the Steadyrack accessory we also offer and how it works with the actual SteadyRack Bike Bracket. The option of just lifting your bike and rolling it into the SteadyRack Bike Bracket suited Amey better for hanging her e-bike. Video below shows the process.

Steadyrack Bike Brackets being used with StoreWALL

SteadyRack Bike Brackets are sold by many bike stores including 99 Bikes (no affiliation with StoreWALL). StoreWALL sells a pair of brackets that allow you to secure the SteadyRack Hook to your StoreWALL Wall Panels. The brackets use CamLok which gives you the added advantage of being able to move your SteadyRack Bike Hook around your wall as you need to. This is a much better option compared to fixing it directly to your wall.

SteadyRack Vs StoreWALL’s Rotating Bike Hook

When asked this question, I usually tell my customers that there is a big price difference between the two solutions if they want to use them with their StoreWALL wall panels. If you already own Steadyrack, then the choice is much simpler. Roughly, when you combine Steadyrack and the StoreWALL bracket to use it on the wall panels, you are looking at $250 per bike. The StoreWALL Rotating Bike Hook is around $100 and will deliver the same solution for you.

In general, the hooks do very much the same thing in that they allow you to hang your bike perpendicular to the wall and then also allow you to swing your bike left or right in order to save space. The main difference is in the action needed to latch the bike to the actual hook. Once on the wall, both hooks are engineered to safely hold the bike in place.

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

New Ultra Duty Hooks

StoreWALL Ultra Duty Paddle Board Bracket

StoreWALL has recently released a new range of Ultra Duty Hooks. The range includes 4 new hooks/brackets which are stronger than any other hooks offered by StoreWALL.

The new Ultra Duty Hook range is designed with a larger back plate and two CamLoks. The design is actually similar to the Steady Rack Bracket that we offer. Each hook can hold up to 200lbs or around 90kgs. Obviously, you will need to be using StoreWALL panels if you want to use this new range of hooks. And if you are looking to push the weight limit, you will most likely require the Heavy Duty Wall Panel range (including HD Installstrips).

There are four new accessories in the new Ultra Duty Hook range.

Ultra Duty Wide Hook

Think the StoreWALL Wide Hook but 2 or 3 times larger. The Ultra Duty Wide Hook is 304mm in height, 330mm in width, and 254mm in depth. Weight capacity of up to 90kgs.

Ultra Duty Utility Hook

The Ultra Duty Utility Hook looks like a huge HD Universal Hook. Its dimensions are 304mm in height, 152mm in width, and 381mm in depth. It also has a weight capacity of up to 90kgs.

Ultra Duty 635mm – Surf & Paddle Board Bracket

StoreWALL’s latest Surf & Paddle Board accessory adds to our existing bracket range but this option sits flat off the wall making it easier for Surf Boards and Canoes to be lifted and taken off the wall and then returned.

Its dimensions are 203mm in height, 152mm in width, and 635mm in depth. It also has a weight capacity of up to 90kgs.

Ultra Duty 381mm – Surf & Paddle Board Bracket

StoreWALL will also offer a smaller 381mm version of the Surf and Paddle Board Bracket. It will sit 381mm off the wall.

Its dimensions are 203mm in height, 152mm in width, and 381mm in depth. Weight capacity is up to 90kgs.

The new range of hooks has only recently been released in the US. We hope to be able to order some quantities in the second half of 2023. Pricing for each hook/bracket is yet to be determined.

Posted on January 29, 2023June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

Storing Tools Over a Bench

Slatwall is the ideal garage system if you are looking at storing tools over a bench in your garage or storage area.

Cleaning out your garage and introducing a garage system to organise your items is a popular project for many Australian families during the summer. Spending more time outdoors sends us into our garages more often and the need to organise becomes more apparent.

Over the past few weeks, I have helped several customers with a small storage solution to sit over an existing or new bench they are building.

This is a very simple tool storage system with just a few panels for a small area. In most cases, it will simply be used for smaller lightweight tools that are regularly accessed.

Storing Tools Over a Bench – Garage System

When I was growing up, my father used to have hundreds of tools. Unfortunately, he stored them in drawers and buckets. It was a compact solution but never helped him when he was actually looking for the ones he needed. Over time he graduated to hang the most popular and useful tools on his wall or on a smaller plate on his bench. It kept them close at hand when he needed them.

Tool Shelf Ideas — Brite White over bench

If you have a small bench space in your garage then the last thing you want to do is to fill the bench with tools. The freer you can keep the bench, the more useful it will be for you. Using the wall space adjacent to your bench is the ideal space for those more popular smaller hand tools.

SlatWalls for Storing Tools

StoreWALL’s slatwalls are ideal for small and large projects and the best garage system for that over-bench area in your garage. Why? Rather than just having 1 rack of tools, or screwing tools holders into your wall, why not have the wall lined with a garage system which allows you to hang your tools anywhere on that wall area. Slatwall will line your wall with grooves which can then be fitted with hooks or shelving so you can store your items.

Designing Your Bench Space

A customer I spoke to this week, was designing a new cupboard and bench area in her garage. It was being made by a kitchen cabinet company. The length of her bench was 1.8m and the proposed wall area above the bench 500mm. I offered her two options for using StoreWALL. We could hang two panels one on top of the other giving her a height of 610mm (305.8mmx2). She could either cut the top panel down to make her 500mm height or raise her wall area to 610mm to fit the full panels. Given it was only in the design stages, she was leaning towards raising the height of her wall area.

Another gentleman based in Perth used 4 Heady Duty 1219mm panels for his over-bench area. He requested 2 of the 4 panels be cut in half so that he could join them to make 1.8m in length. The height using the Heavy Duty panels reached was 762mm.

StoreWALL panels are super customisable when it comes to size and shape. They can be joined to make the length you need. They can also be stacked to make the height you need. You can then cut them both vertically and horizontally to fit the exact space you need. Furthermore, if your wall has powerpoints or other items pocking out, StoreWALL panels can be cut to fit them and provide a clean finish to your wall.

Posted on October 1, 2022June 10, 2023 by Arthur K

StoreWALL Shipping Options

Covid has done a real number on the transportation industry. Not only are they now so much busier, but they are also suffering from a lack of staff. This has resulted in many of them significantly lifting their rates and reducing the type of parcels they are willing to collect.

Parcels over 2m long have been severely impacted. Over the past 6 months, we have seen courier rates for our 2.4m cartons almost double with several couriers such as Startrack who deliver pretty much everywhere, pull out altogether. This means that we are no longer able to use Startrack as a courier for our longer cartons.

Reduced courier options and higher rates have resulted in StoreWALL removing our free shipping offer which was super popular. It has also resulted in us having to regularly review and adjust our shipping rates.

Real Cost of Shipping

To give you an example, the cost to ship a 2.5m carton weighing 20kg from Melbourne to Sydney is now about $100. This is approx 20% of the value of the item. We are currently charging approx $75 for this on our shopping cart. And it doesn’t get much cheaper if you have 2 or 3 of them. 3 cartons are about $220. It is madness!

No one likes to pay for shipping. I understand this. The challenge we have at StoreWALL is that we are a small (and growing) business but we don’t have distribution centres in other states to ship directly to you. Everything ships from Melbourne. The other challenge is that we ship large and long cartons to residential addresses. Couriers don’t really like these combinations and now charge a lot more for the service.

Quote Me Separately

To make your shopping experience quick and transparent, we have all of our pricing listed on our website including shipping. This has enabled you to see exactly what your garage storage project will cost you should you choose StoreWALL. This hasn’t changed. We are still showing you shipping rates even for larger and longer items (they are just much higher than last year). However, in order to help reduce your shipping costs, we have introduced a “Quote Me Separately” Shipping option when you add items longer than 2m to your shopping cart.

Quote Me Separately is optional, but it enables you to create your shopping cart and then contact us via email so that we can manually quote you for shipping. Once we receive this request, we can contact a few couriers to try and generate a sharper shipping charge for you.

You are under no obligation to accept our automated nor manually quoted shipping charges. Please note that no order will leave until full payment of both materials and shipping is made.

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.