Ron found himself in Tucson, Arizona for this next visit. This growing city surrounded by stunning desert landscapes is home to Scott and Donna Lane, whose garage had also been growing…at least what's stored in there had been growing! They decided it was time to clear the clutter and they asked Ron to help them with a little organization project
Click here for a list of what
you will need in order to complete this project.
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1. Clear out garage:
- By the time Ron arrived, Scott and Donna had already cleared out most of the garage. The Lanes garage was what Ron calls a working garage. Scott has an old Corvette that he makes frequent repairs to and he prefers doing this sort of work in his garage.
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- What the Lanes needed was both workspace and storage space.Ron's challenge was to come up with a system that would be flexible and could satisfy both of their needs. Fortunately, Ron had just the system in mind. What Ron showed the Lanes was an organization system that would cover almost the entire wall with grid panels. Along with the grids, there was a variety of accessories, fittings and fixtures available that were designed to hook directly onto the grid. This gave the Lanes the flexibility to set up their garage anyway they wanted and then would easily allow them to make changes whenever they might want to in the future.
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2. Attach grids:
- The grids had predrilled holes, which allowed for easy attachment directly to the wall studs that are typically spaced 16 inches apart.
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- The first thing they needed to do was check to see if their wall had typical stud spacing. They used electronic stud sensors to locate the studs only to discover that they were not where Ron had hoped they would be.
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- Ron marked the location of all the studs on the wall and then measured the space in between. Instead of 16-inch centers the Lanes garage had 24-inch spacing. That meant one more step in the installation process.
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- They needed to attach firing strips to each of the studs. The grid panels would then be attached to the firing strips instead of directly to the stud.
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- The firing strips would be placed five inches apart and parallel to each other. They snapped a chalk line across the wall to mark the exact locations to make these attachments.
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- They used a nail gun to attach the firing strips. Ron reminded them how important it was to maintain good balance when using a nail gun up on a ladder.
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- They secured a nail into the firing strips at each point where it crossed a wall stud. After all the firing strips were in place they were ready to begin attaching the grids.
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- They held the panels in place, drilled pilot holes and then attached the grids to the firing strips with screws. The edges of each grid panel overlapped each other and the screws locked them in place.
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- Once the grid system was up, Ron climbed on it to demonstrate its strength. Ron was careful to mention, however, that the manufacture does not recommend doing this.
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3. Attach storage and work surface accessories:
- With the grids in place, they could begin installing a variety of shelves, drawers and work surfaces. All of the different components of this system simply snapped onto the grid and were very sturdy. At this point, the hardest part was deciding where to install all of the various attachments.
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- In just a couple of hours they had covered the walls with grids and storage units.
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4. Ceiling bins:
- Next, Ron suggested that they take advantage of the often-overlooked ceiling area by installing overhead storage bins. First they attached brackets to the ceiling joists with lag screws and then attached the bins.
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- The bins could easily hold up to 40 pounds and were opened with an upward and sliding motion.
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