[Closed] Garage Shelving recommendations

I have these down one side of my garage;

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/hejne-1-section-softwood-s39031411/

I think I have about 4, all joined together. Holds plenty stuff all in big storage bins. Really impressed.

I used BigDug shelving complete with Really Useful boxes. It's been excellent and I recommend. I have the workbench, several shelves and flooring. Plus a big drum for the kites. It was not particularly cheap, but the combination of shelving and boxes has been very neat and tidy.

I made my own as I wanted to put a workbench in a corner and then floor to ceiling shelves along most of the rest of that wall. Wasn't too difficult and got me exactly what I needed, eg right height, width, and depth for storage boxes, a shelf the right height for the kids to store their bits. I used a lot of 2x2 for the frame and then MDF for the shelving. It also helped me justify owning things like a circular saw which gets used once a year or so.

I have some of the budget Big Dug shelving in my garage - 1200mm wide ones. Pretty decent for the money. Very stable and can take a fair old weight.

Should probably have painted or varnished the mdf as my garage can get a bit damp at times and there are a few patches of mould.

I got some G-Rack, er, racking. It seems pretty good.

Screwfix heavy duty ones are good.

I made my own from 2 x 4s and 12mm ply, screwed to the wall.  It sounds agricultural but actually looks OK.  It's very robust and takes a lot of weight.  It's also very easy to customise it for available wall space, height, depth and vertical spacing of shelves.

The machine mart ones aren't bad - but I'm in the process of swapping over to domestic twinslot shelving. The weight limits are way over anything I'd be likely to put on them, get more flexibility over where shelves go, and will let me keep the floor clear to roll things underneath. Plus it's cheap and I have plenty of scrap MDF to use up.

I have a combo - big dug + really useful 64 L boxes for big stuff. Machine mart for smaller boxes.

All of it does the job of holding things off the floor.

I've got a few different ones, last ones I bought we're big dug and they're good.

The bigdug stuff is ace, we used that for my brother's unit.

But I'm building my own out of my childhood bunk bed, 2 MFI wardrobes, and some random bits of wood I found in the garden.

Take care if using bare MDF and you have bare steel in the vicinity. I put a bare MDF shelf up near my lathe to store lathe tooling. After a while I noticed that the tooling and the lathe adjacent had a layer of corrosion forming on the bare steel.

Having now painted the shelf the corrosion phenomenon has disappeared. I Googled MDF and it does appear to be acidic and can promote an acidic atmosphere.

Can recommend the screwfix shelves. They take up to 60kg.

I’ve also got he budget Big Dug ones, which are great. My 2 afterthoughts are:

- if you can go deeper as they don’t take up that much extra space
- it’s far better to buy a system than try to find cheaper boxes later as it’s not always easy or cheap to do so

Do you need heavy duty racking? I've got 2 of THESE in my garage,  got them both when they were on offer though. Really impressed with them, loaded with all sorts from mower engine blocks to full oil cans the can take fair weights. I can well believe the 625kg per shelf ratings.

I like my big dug unit. they are shelves. they work. and they survive the shed environment.
But if I were to choose again, I'd want more flexibility. Something like @simon_g suggests maybe.

Bigdug are OK but bought tufferman this time as they do corner shelves

I've been looking this week as I'm having a sort out in the garage. Looked at big dug and the rest, but went for a couple of racks from screwfix as they are on offer. 2 for £70 seemed reasonable. Linky: Screwfix 5-tier-steel-heavy-duty-shelving-900-x-450-x-1800mm

Also toying with the idea of a big tool chest or bench with tool drawers so I can actually find what I'm looking for instead of rummaging through my tool box!

I bought the Screwfix ones as they were cheap and seem strong enough for my needs once built.

Braced out the base with some 2x1 battens so I could put the bottom shelf higher up and use the floor.

I have the bigdug heavy duty in the garage and some lightweight ones from amazon in the shed. The lightweight ones would do for more general storage.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01HL3VH32/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks for all the advice and recommendations. There’s a few options to look at.

There's always heavy duty shelving going on Facebook marketplace.

I got a load for my workshop for very little.

The lightweight stuff has a lot of exposed sharp metal on the sides. If you catch your finger when putting something on the shelf it’s like a knife. Found out the hard way but now have gaffer tape over all the edges.

Yeah, I didn't like mine much, was pretty happy to get rid of it. It's also super noisy, which might or might not be an issue.

I have a some tambour units I got from an office clearance company that stores all tools and chemicals, stops my son being able to get at them.

I've got some G Rack shelving a few months back and am happy with it. I'd read that the MDF can go mouldy in damp envionments so I sealed it with woodstain and it's been fine so far. I'd happily buy it again.