SlatWalls for Your Home
Slatwalls are a popular backboard used primarily in retail outlets. The backboard comes with grooves equally spaced which are then used to hold hooks, shelves, baskets and pretty much anything used by the retail outlet to display its merchandise. Over the past 10 years however, slatwalls have become available for everyday home use. This includes use in the kitchen, pantry cupboards, laundry, workshop and garage.
MDF Slatwalls
Typically slatwalls are made from MDF or some form of particle board. This makes them relatively light weight and generally easy to cut into all sizes and shapes. Most importantly the use of MDF or particle board also makes them pretty cheap. Consider that today you can buy a 1200 x 1200 mm (Square) board with grooves spaced at 100mm for about $60 ex.
Your boards can also be coloured, come with aluminium trims for added protection and be custom cut. Obviously pricing increases with each addon or custom feature.
Read our latest article on Why You Don’t Want MDF Slatwalls if you are looking to re-organise your garage or workshop.
Why Slatwalls
The greatest advantage of a slatwall is its versatility. The grooves allow for accessories such as hooks, shelves, baskets and brackets to be added. They can be placed in specific locations on the board and moved. They are essentially moved as required making the display totally flexible. In a retail environment with displays changing regularly this is really important.
This versatility however is also important for those considering them for home use. Consider your own garage and what is stored today compared to what you had 2 or even 5 years ago. Slatwalls allow you to change as often as you need to without having to pull the whole garage apart.
Should shelves be your key need today, then fit out your garage wall with baskets and shelves. If in two years your needs are for some extra bags to hold balls or hooks to hold bikes and sporting equipment, then add them in. As time goes by just replace your accessories or adjust them.
Durability
MDF or particle board are a cost effective option but not really durable, particularly in a workshop or garage. MDF is not water or weather proof, it also isn’t very durable from knocks. Each hit creates a dint which stays forever and is unfortunately also visible. Typically coloured MDF panels will just have an external layer of paint. Once scratched, that layer is removed and you see the wooden colour underneath.
Another challenge with slatwalls built for retail outlets is that the range of accessories can be very limited. They also don’t come with any locking mechanism to protect your items. Accessing these accessories needs to be via a specialist store catering for retail outlets.
Most MDF slatwalls use 100mm spacing for the grooves. This is not compatible with most garage storage solutions should you be looking to use their accessories on your walls.
Why StoreWALL Slatwalls
StoreWALL’s range of slatwalls carry all of the features of your typical slatwall except they are super durable and totally weather proof. Our slatwalls are made from Thermoplastic with a solid core. The importance of the solid core is that it makes each panel super hard to dent. If they do end up dented, the colour you see is the same colour as the exterior, making those dents harder to distinguish.
Perfect Garage Wall
Rather than installing StoreWALL’s slatwalls directly onto your wall with visible screws, we offer the installstrip. Installstrips are metallic strips which are first screwed to your wall (plaster, brick, concrete). Our slatwalls are then clipped (yep as easy as that) to their strips so that you don’t need to actually create holes in the slatwalls.
The result is a much cleaner finish and a much stronger wall!
Standard StoreWALL wall panel sizing is 1.2m and 2.4m lengths. All of our panels can be cut to size with a drop or circular saw (we can help you with some of these cuts). Being solid core also has additional advantages like being 100% waterproof, mould, mildew and stain resistant. They are also very easy to clean. You can literally hose the wall down.
StoreWALL’s wall panel range comes in 3 grades, Basic Duty, Standard Duty and Heavy Duty. You can read about the differences below. Most Australian customers purchase the Standard Duty range.
Plaster, Brick or Concrete Wall
Another great advantage of StoreWALL’s slatwall solution is that it can transform any garage. From your typical studded plastered wall, to garages with brick walls and even those with concrete walls.
Our Installstrips can be used in any type of wall giving you the perfect wall finish and an opportunity to transform your garage. Below is a video of a brick wall installation we recently completed.
Perfect Garage Storage
A key advantage of StoreWALL’s accessories over what you will find at your hardware store is CamLok, our unique locking mechanism. Accessories like hooks can be easily moved around and then locked into place with CamLok. A simple twist of the lock and your accessory will not come off the wall no matter how hard you try. See the video below for yourself. Not only does CamLok secure your goods, it also protects your boards from scratching them when you move your accessories around.
StoreWALL’s range of accessories includes Hooks, Baskets, Shelves, Tote Bags, Brackets and Bins.
When it comes to accessories, whilst we offer a great range of accessories (over 20 hooks), our slatwalls can also be used with other accessories. I suggest you do your research here however to ensure that spacing and sizing fits with your walls or existing accessories.
StoreWALL’s accessories can be used with the StorEase Panel sold by Bunnings. They can also be used with the GarageTek panels.
And finally if you also have a conscious about what happens to the slatwalls afterlife, yes we are 100% Recyclable (Class 3 recyclable).
