If you live in a brick home built before the 1990s, there’s a reasonable chance your garage has piers. Those vertical brick columns that run up the interior walls at regular intervals — typically every 900mm to 1200mm apart — are a structural feature of older brick veneer and double-brick construction. They’re there for a reason. But they’ve also turned what should be a perfectly usable storage wall into a wall that most people simply give up on.
The gaps between the piers are irregular. Standard shelving won’t span them cleanly. Freestanding units don’t fit neatly against them. So the tools lean in the corners, the garden gear goes on the floor, and that entire wall ends up doing nothing at all.
It doesn’t have to stay that way.
The Problem with Piers
The piers themselves aren’t the issue. The issue is that most garage storage systems are designed for flat, unobstructed walls. Pre-made shelving units, flat-pack garage cabinets, standard pegboard — none of these are built to work around projections in the wall surface. You either mount them flat against the pier face (losing depth and usefulness) or you abandon the wall altogether.
What you actually need is a system that can be cut to fit the space you have, not the space you wish you had.
How StoreWALL Panels Fit Between Piers
StoreWALL slatwall panels are made from solid-core PVC and cut cleanly with a standard drop saw or circular saw — the same tools you’d use to cut timber. There’s no special blade required and no complicated technique. You measure the gap between your piers, cut the panel to that width, and it fits neatly into the space.
Here’s what that process looks like in practice:
- Measure each gap between your piers — they’re often not identical, so measure each one individually before ordering
- Order your panels — Standard Duty 1219mm panels are the most common choice; their 1219mm length works well across most pier spacings and the 304mm height stacks cleanly in rows
- Cut to width — a drop saw gives the cleanest result; a circular saw with a fine-tooth blade also works well. Not comfortable cutting? We offer a free cutting service — contact us with your measurements and we’ll cut panels to size before dispatch
- Fix your InstallStrips — use mushroom nail-in anchors to fix InstallStrips directly into the brick between the piers; the panels then hook onto the strips from behind with no visible screws through the panel face
- Add your accessories — hooks, shelves, baskets and bins all lock in with CamLok™ across the full width of the panel
What This Looks Like in a Real Garage
What This Looks Like in a Real GarageThe photo above shows exactly this scenario — a brick garage with five pier bays along the side wall, each fitted with white Standard Duty panels below the window sill line. The panels are cut to the width of each bay and sit flush with the pier face. The brick piers frame each panel section naturally, giving the wall a structured, finished look even before a single hook goes in.
At this point in the installation the panels are in place and the accessories haven’t been added yet — but you can already see the transformation. Five bays of previously unusable wall are now a structured storage surface ready to take hooks, shelves, baskets and bins across every bay.
What About the Piers Themselves?
The piers don’t need to be hidden or covered. Most customers simply work around them — panels sit between the piers, flush with the pier face. The brick piers become a natural frame for each storage section rather than an obstacle to work around.
For deeper piers where the panel sits proud of the pier face, a piece of StoreWALL Wide Trim on each vertical edge gives a clean finished line where the panel meets the brick. It’s available in all panel colours and cuts easily to any height.
What Can You Store on It?
Once your panels are in, the full StoreWALL accessory range is available — more than 30 hooks, multiple shelf types, wire shelves, baskets, bins and brackets. A typical pier-gap panel of 800mm–900mm wide will give you enough groove space to store a dozen garden tools, two or three baskets and a shelf. Stack two or three rows of panels in each gap and you’ve created a storage wall that easily replaces an entire freestanding shelving unit — at half the depth and with none of the floor footprint.
A wall with five pier bays like the one shown here gives you five independent storage zones — one for garden tools, one for sports gear, one for the workshop, one for seasonal items and one for the kids. Everything visible, everything accessible, and the floor completely clear.
The Wall Nobody Used Is Now the Best Wall in the Garage
This is one of the most satisfying installation types we see. A wall that has sat unused for years — sometimes decades — becomes the most functional wall in the garage. Garden tools off the floor. Workshop accessories sorted and visible. Kids’ sports gear in baskets. The cars park where they’re supposed to.
If you’ve got a brick home with piers and you’ve been staring at that wall wondering what to do with it, get in touch. We can help you measure the gaps, select the right panels and cut them to size. The wall you couldn’t use is closer to being sorted than you think.
