gladiator gearwall installation? help

[PoorOwner]

I installed the first row in the garage. I got the idea from another member Matt the blogger guy. You can see the outlets are not in the same elevation and templating them really sucked. The darn thing is heavy. I thought the outlets would just fish over the holes, but I ended up replacing with newer decora style. You can see the box extenders on the bench.

Question in the next post.

 

[PoorOwner]

My question is:

1) is it necessary to install screw on every slot (4 vertical per panel) for each stud? Seems to me 2 per stud is plenty .. e.g. hitting 5 studs with 10 screws per panel vs 20 screws per panel. I am not trying to save screws. Just wondering. Stud finder is not real confident inspiring.

Builders was supposed to use nail plate to protect plumbing and wiring through studs right?

2) I am going 3 panel (36" high) and 12' wide. Am I supposed to stagger it like picture #1 or just go 8' + 4' vertically. I wasn't paying attention to the stud spacing, so the 4' pieces only land on 2 studs. Maybe staggering will hide the weakness.

 

[bimmerZ5]

1) it depends on what you mean by "necessary"... will it hold up with half the screws, yes... is it recommended, probably not. If it was my place (and yes, i have installed Gladiator stuff in my garage) I would put all the screws. I recall that Whirlpool does their load testing with half the amount of screws; they appear to really do overkill when they say it will support *** weight per ft.

2) I would staggar them.

A few other pointers:

a) it really helps to pre-drill the holes and put the screws in so just the tip is sticking out by 1/16" in the back. it helps to have a helper hold the panel while you screw it in. if helper is not an option, screw in one screw on one side with the other end of the panel resting on the ground. then pivot that other end into place and put in another screw on the other side. then finish putting in all the screws. a screw on each side is enough to hold it in place.

b) if you hit something and the screw is *not* sinking into the wall (behind the gladiator panel), do not keep screwing as it will push the gladiator panel away from the wall. i learned the hard way and this ended up bending the panel so much that it snapped it in half. if you feel like the screw isn't going in, try hitting it with a hammer and then continue screwing in slowly to see if it starts to sink in, this usually gets you pass wood knots or other hard spots in the wood stud. if not, you might have hit a metal plate or something; in which case just skip that screw.

c) the panels are not always completely straight. that's why I think it's a good idea to stagger them. if they are not straight, you can put screws in on one side, apply pressure on the other side to straighten it out as you put in screws on that other side.

 

[PoorOwner]

Your point b and c is exactly what happens
One screw hit a knot or plate and end up threading the panel out, a big pilot hole would solve this but I am just a smaller bit. I am installing most of the screws by hand now because the impact is too powerful for me to detect any problems. The material is too expensive to be careless with.

Also I leveled it at the outlets turns out it is not straight as it goes down the other end, so I will have to find out the bow point of the edge and level that point.

The staggering seems like a good idea as the T&G will stop the smaller one above or below to pull outwards.

As to the number of screws I never felt I loaded these walls in my last garage to a very dense level to have weight concern. Unless you only hang hammers. If they rate the panels with 50% screws which is 50 lbs per square foot I would never get close to that; nor is any cabinets going on these slats. Not sure who really hang the tall cabs to cover the gearwall. The wall behind the cab would cost as much as the cabinet !