Garage Shelving Solutions: Three Mountings, One Choice
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Part of the garage organization guide.
Garage shelving solutions come in three mountings, and the choice is made by your wall and your floor rather than by the shelf. Free standing, wall mounted, ceiling mounted.
Open shelving gives the most capacity for the money. Matching bins are what make it look finished.
- 3mountings, and your garage picks, not the shelf
- 1the depth the car leaves you, page 3 of the planner
- 2the clear wall run, page 2
- 3the height under the open door, page 4
Scan with a detector that finds metal and live wires while the power is still on, then turn that circuit off at the panel, then drill. If anything in your garage runs on gas, a water heater, a furnace or a dryer, a gas line may run in that wall too, and that is not something to find with a drill. When you are not certain what is behind the spot you picked, have the holes placed by a licensed professional. The full list of checks is in the garage guide.
Establish what your wall is built from before you buy. The instructions supplied with the unit list the wall types it is approved for and the fixings each one needs.
Free standing is not fixing free. Tall units still get anchored back to the wall, into the structure behind it, following the instructions that come with them. So if your wall cannot take a fixing at all, stay with low units.
Weight. Read the weight rating for the exact unit, printed on the packaging or in the instructions.
Our free Garage Fit Planner takes the figures in order: the clear wall run on page 2, the depth the car leaves you on page 3, and the height under the open door on page 4. Four steps, five printable pages, filled in at the garage with a tape measure.
Where the load goes in each of the three garage shelving solutions
What to measure
The depth the car leaves you, the clear wall run, and the height under the open garage door
Free standing is decided by your floor, wall mounted by your wall, ceiling mounted by the height under your open door. Take the three figures first, and most of the catalog rules itself out.
The three mountings, one at a time
1
Free standing, when you have floor to spend
Stands on the concrete floor and carries its own load. Nothing to drill into the wall, and it moves if you change your mind. It takes floor, which is the thing a garage has least of once a car is in it.
2
Wall mounted, when you do not
Frees the floor completely, which is what makes a garage feel bigger. The load goes into the wall, and what the fixing has to reach is named in the instructions that come with the unit. Wall mounted garage shelving covers what to check on the wall itself, including what runs inside it.
3
Ceiling mounted, for what you rarely fetch
Uses the space above the car. Suited to what you rarely fetch, and awkward for anything you want weekly. Overhead garage storage covers the door clearance and the fixing.
Armadillo Tough sells free standing, wall mounted and ceiling mounted shelving in what the maker describes as heavy gauge steel, so you can compare the heights and depths side by side instead of across two catalogs. See the shelving
The three mountings side by sidewhere the load goes, and what each suits
| Mounting | Where the load goes | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Free standing | Down to the floor | A wall you cannot fix into, if you keep the units low |
| Wall mounted | Into the wall | Keeping the floor clear |
| Ceiling mounted | Into the structure above | What you rarely reach for |
Picking between garage shelving solutions without regretting itfour rules
Start from the floor. If you can park and still walk around the car, free standing works. If you cannot, go up the wall. The four systems a garage can use are set out in garage storage systems.
Keep one run at hand height for what you use weekly, whatever the mounting.
Match the bins that go on the shelves. Open shelving shows everything, and mismatched boxes are what makes a tidy garage look untidy.
Read the weight rating for the exact unit, printed on the packaging or in the instructions.
Frequently asked questionsthree answers
What is the best shelving for a garage?
It depends on your floor. Free standing when you have room around the car, wall mounted when you do not, ceiling mounted for what you rarely touch.
Does garage shelving need to be fixed to the wall?
Wall mounted shelving fixes by definition. Free standing units stand on the floor, and tall ones still get anchored back, following their instructions.
How deep should garage shelving be?
Park the car, open the doors and measure what is left. That figure is your limit, whatever the catalog offers. The measuring sequence covers it in full.
Which of the three mountings does your garage allow?
Three figures off your own walls, and the catalog shrinks to what fits.
Park, open both doors, measure from the door to the wall. Page 3 of the planner.
The uninterrupted wall, with windows, panels and the heater taken off it. Page 2.
Open the door fully, then measure floor to the lowest part of it. Page 4.
Leave empty to get your three limits as a shopping list instead.
Three figures off your own garage and one off the listing. We put no clearance figure of our own on any of them, because what counts as room to walk past a car is yours to judge standing in it. Where the load goes in each of the three mountings is in the table above. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Three figures, taken in order
Our free Garage Fit Planner takes the figures in order: the clear wall run on page 2, the depth the car leaves you on page 3, and the height under the open door on page 4. Four steps, five printable pages, filled in at the garage with a tape measure.
See the three mountings together
Buying from one range lets you compare the heights and depths side by side instead of across two catalogs.
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