ingenious
Active member
After years of digging through piles in my garage to find pliers or a screwdriver, I decided it was time to get organized. I knew a slat wall system of some sort was the right approach for the walls but, there remained a significant amount of research to do on accessories and comparisons between the different vendors. Cabinets and storage also required a lot of research because it needed to perform well and also look great. Flooring required research as well. There are quite a few vendors and types of flooring out there and I would be stuck with whatever I chose so I needed to pretty sure my selection was correct.
I live on the Space Coast of Florida, as I write this, it is 43 degrees outside. Over the summer, it hit 100 degrees and maybe over for a day or two. I’ve seen the low temperature around 32 and the high around 104 in the 16 years I have been living here. The garage faces north so I do not get any direct sunlight to speak of.
I’ve broken this down into four parts:
Section 1: Flooring Part 1 and Part 2
Section 2: Slat Wall Part 1 and Part 2
Section 3: Slat Wall Accessories
Section 4: Floor Items, Lighting, and Other
I will try to list any pros or cons when I have them and provide my costs for each item.
All pictures are available here: https://ingenious.smugmug.com/Garage-Makeover/
And we’re off…
Floor Items: The goal of having slat wall is to get everything off the floor, right? Nice and organized. Visible. Easy access. For me, that wasn’t even a possibility but I could at least strive for getting almost everything off the floor.
I was seriously torn between New Age cabinets and Gladiator. I finally made a decision to go with Gladiator. Those working with or rallying behind New Age should understand that they were extremely close to being selected. The original plan called for the tall cabinet to be hung on the slat wall. The New Age tall cabinet is 24” deep. Gladiator’s is 18” deep. While bigger is better and all that, 24” was not something I would attempt to hang on my slat wall. That is about the only reason I had to push me to Gladiator. New Age looks like an extremely well made product and everyone should evaluate their own criteria and make their own informed decisions.
The modified plan precluded the tall cabinet from being mounted on the wall. I was planning to hang it on the wall and even have two sets of mounting brackets sitting in my garage that I ordered about three weeks after I got the tall cabinet in. So, plans change and one adapts. I will be returning one set of brackets. The other I will use as needs dictate when I need to hang a non-gladiator thing on the wall. Case in point is that wonderful Craftsman shop vac. It is affixed to one of the brackets that otherwise would have been used on the tall cabinet.
I didn’t order much ‘ground level’ stuff. Workbench, three cabinets, and a tool chest. Here’s the pricing:
All Gladiator floor items: $1,362.28
Tool chest: $921.97
The floor items wound up being the most expensive part of this whole project. That was to be expected though given the type of items they are.
My Lowes order finally shows up. Work bench, tall cabinet and two modular GearDrawers.
The tall cabinet holds a heck of a lot. I have a bunch of stuff in it but it isn’t packed to the gills or anything. I can get to 90% of the contents without having to remove other items.
The GearDrawer cabinets also hold a lot of stuff. Shelves are very deep (front-to-back) and they move well. I do wish they were soft close slides like New Age has. Wonder if I can install soft close slides now? I did not opt to get the bamboo or hardwood top to the GearDrawers. As a friend of mine pointed out, once you put the top on items can roll off onto the floor because the top extends up past the edge of the rim holding it in. Good point so no tops for me. I can easily pull these out on the included casters and use them as another work surface when needed.
The work bench is a thing of beauty to me at least. I had nothing before. Nice top and very sturdy. Still need a power strip for it and the one Gladiator sells is not a very good design. I want to be able to mount it to the rear of the work surface and the outlets have to be spaced out enough to accommodate large power adaptors and they must face upward. The Gladiator design has the outlets on the front of the power strip where cords will eat up bench space. USB ports would be a plus. 8 outlets total. There ya go, if you know of any power strips meeting the above requirements, please let me know.
The tool chest is also beautiful. Soft close drawers are wonderful to operate. I still have a couple of the drawers empty because the reality is that I really don’t own a **** load of tools. A 41-Inch rolling tool chest with a 41-Inch top chest which also opens to expose a cavernous interior complete with power strip was WAY more than I really needed but, it was available as a set $400 below MSRP so I couldn’t pass it up.
Lighting and Other: Previous lighting was inadequate so I wanted to add more. I also wanted to get away from fluorescent and go with LED. A friend mentioned Utilitech LED lighting and I researched them a bit and went with the 48” lights you see in the pictures. One big draw for me was that the lights come with a small piece allowing you to daisy chain your lights together which makes adding lights a breeze. I want to add 3 more lights, okay, maybe 4. That will give me three over stalls 1 and 3 and then 2 across the front. Here is what I used for lighting. Picked these up at Lowes for about $50 each.
I also purchased the Lutron Maestro switch and their RadioSavr occupancy sensor. Replaced old on/off switch with the Maestro and then linked it with the sensor. Mounted sensor on ceiling and now the lights come on when I walk or drive into the garage and stay on so long as I have not fallen asleep.
Other: I am very anti-noise so I replaced the large garage door rollers with 13-ball bearing rollers from Amazon. Set of 10 nylon rollers for $20. Great reviews. Door is much quieter. Also used some white lithium grease on the torsion spring. I need to tighten that up about a quarter-turn so I guess door balancing is in my future. Lastly, I lubricated the Genie screw drive. My Genie garage door opener is 16 years old and going strong. The entire door opening/closing process is much quieter now. I should have measured the sound levels before and after with my SPL meters.
I also added multi-color LED lighting to the top back edge of both slat walls. Controllable with a remote and can be set to flash, fade, etc. Dimmable and you can even set your own favorite colors. Mine would be red but you probably figured that out by now. Since I had painted all the garage walls with ultra high gloss white paint prior to installing the slat wall, I am pleased that the LED light does a great job bouncing off the new paint. I will follow-up at some point and paint the ceiling in the same color. The intensity isn’t really as bad as it looks in the picture. Plus, the lights are dimmable. With the garage doors closed and only the overhead lighting on, the LEDs at full intensity provide a nice ambience.
Conclusion: There were a few other incidental purchases required for this project. All together they probably add up to maybe $500. Everything else was about $5,200 give or take so the entire project from floor to ceiling was done for about $6,000. All DIY except that I did hire an electrician to add an outlet next to the workbench.
That’s pretty much it. If you have questions, just drop them onto this thread.
I live on the Space Coast of Florida, as I write this, it is 43 degrees outside. Over the summer, it hit 100 degrees and maybe over for a day or two. I’ve seen the low temperature around 32 and the high around 104 in the 16 years I have been living here. The garage faces north so I do not get any direct sunlight to speak of.
I’ve broken this down into four parts:
Section 1: Flooring Part 1 and Part 2
Section 2: Slat Wall Part 1 and Part 2
Section 3: Slat Wall Accessories
Section 4: Floor Items, Lighting, and Other
I will try to list any pros or cons when I have them and provide my costs for each item.
All pictures are available here: https://ingenious.smugmug.com/Garage-Makeover/
And we’re off…
Floor Items: The goal of having slat wall is to get everything off the floor, right? Nice and organized. Visible. Easy access. For me, that wasn’t even a possibility but I could at least strive for getting almost everything off the floor.
I was seriously torn between New Age cabinets and Gladiator. I finally made a decision to go with Gladiator. Those working with or rallying behind New Age should understand that they were extremely close to being selected. The original plan called for the tall cabinet to be hung on the slat wall. The New Age tall cabinet is 24” deep. Gladiator’s is 18” deep. While bigger is better and all that, 24” was not something I would attempt to hang on my slat wall. That is about the only reason I had to push me to Gladiator. New Age looks like an extremely well made product and everyone should evaluate their own criteria and make their own informed decisions.
The modified plan precluded the tall cabinet from being mounted on the wall. I was planning to hang it on the wall and even have two sets of mounting brackets sitting in my garage that I ordered about three weeks after I got the tall cabinet in. So, plans change and one adapts. I will be returning one set of brackets. The other I will use as needs dictate when I need to hang a non-gladiator thing on the wall. Case in point is that wonderful Craftsman shop vac. It is affixed to one of the brackets that otherwise would have been used on the tall cabinet.
I didn’t order much ‘ground level’ stuff. Workbench, three cabinets, and a tool chest. Here’s the pricing:
All Gladiator floor items: $1,362.28
Tool chest: $921.97
The floor items wound up being the most expensive part of this whole project. That was to be expected though given the type of items they are.
My Lowes order finally shows up. Work bench, tall cabinet and two modular GearDrawers.
The tall cabinet holds a heck of a lot. I have a bunch of stuff in it but it isn’t packed to the gills or anything. I can get to 90% of the contents without having to remove other items.
The GearDrawer cabinets also hold a lot of stuff. Shelves are very deep (front-to-back) and they move well. I do wish they were soft close slides like New Age has. Wonder if I can install soft close slides now? I did not opt to get the bamboo or hardwood top to the GearDrawers. As a friend of mine pointed out, once you put the top on items can roll off onto the floor because the top extends up past the edge of the rim holding it in. Good point so no tops for me. I can easily pull these out on the included casters and use them as another work surface when needed.
The work bench is a thing of beauty to me at least. I had nothing before. Nice top and very sturdy. Still need a power strip for it and the one Gladiator sells is not a very good design. I want to be able to mount it to the rear of the work surface and the outlets have to be spaced out enough to accommodate large power adaptors and they must face upward. The Gladiator design has the outlets on the front of the power strip where cords will eat up bench space. USB ports would be a plus. 8 outlets total. There ya go, if you know of any power strips meeting the above requirements, please let me know.
The tool chest is also beautiful. Soft close drawers are wonderful to operate. I still have a couple of the drawers empty because the reality is that I really don’t own a **** load of tools. A 41-Inch rolling tool chest with a 41-Inch top chest which also opens to expose a cavernous interior complete with power strip was WAY more than I really needed but, it was available as a set $400 below MSRP so I couldn’t pass it up.
Lighting and Other: Previous lighting was inadequate so I wanted to add more. I also wanted to get away from fluorescent and go with LED. A friend mentioned Utilitech LED lighting and I researched them a bit and went with the 48” lights you see in the pictures. One big draw for me was that the lights come with a small piece allowing you to daisy chain your lights together which makes adding lights a breeze. I want to add 3 more lights, okay, maybe 4. That will give me three over stalls 1 and 3 and then 2 across the front. Here is what I used for lighting. Picked these up at Lowes for about $50 each.
I also purchased the Lutron Maestro switch and their RadioSavr occupancy sensor. Replaced old on/off switch with the Maestro and then linked it with the sensor. Mounted sensor on ceiling and now the lights come on when I walk or drive into the garage and stay on so long as I have not fallen asleep.
Other: I am very anti-noise so I replaced the large garage door rollers with 13-ball bearing rollers from Amazon. Set of 10 nylon rollers for $20. Great reviews. Door is much quieter. Also used some white lithium grease on the torsion spring. I need to tighten that up about a quarter-turn so I guess door balancing is in my future. Lastly, I lubricated the Genie screw drive. My Genie garage door opener is 16 years old and going strong. The entire door opening/closing process is much quieter now. I should have measured the sound levels before and after with my SPL meters.
I also added multi-color LED lighting to the top back edge of both slat walls. Controllable with a remote and can be set to flash, fade, etc. Dimmable and you can even set your own favorite colors. Mine would be red but you probably figured that out by now. Since I had painted all the garage walls with ultra high gloss white paint prior to installing the slat wall, I am pleased that the LED light does a great job bouncing off the new paint. I will follow-up at some point and paint the ceiling in the same color. The intensity isn’t really as bad as it looks in the picture. Plus, the lights are dimmable. With the garage doors closed and only the overhead lighting on, the LEDs at full intensity provide a nice ambience.
Conclusion: There were a few other incidental purchases required for this project. All together they probably add up to maybe $500. Everything else was about $5,200 give or take so the entire project from floor to ceiling was done for about $6,000. All DIY except that I did hire an electrician to add an outlet next to the workbench.
That’s pretty much it. If you have questions, just drop them onto this thread.
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