Pegboard workshop walls. Who has done this?

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red

Papa Red
Red
Senior User
I'm in the process of having a new workshop (and house) built. The workshop is a stand alone structure 26'x36' with 10' ceilings. The walls will be insulated. I'm considering what to cover the walls with. I'm liking the idea of pegboard. One advantage too is that I can easily pop off a section(s) to run wire for new outlets and so forth. Has anyone done this in their shop? Would you do it again?

OSB, shiplap and sheetrock are some other ideas. If I choose sheetrock, the builder will do it so I would have to have the electrician run all my outlets beforehand. Where if I use pegboard, I could have him run some to get me going then I can add others afterwards. Kind of thinking out loud some. I'd be interested in your thoughts and pics if you have them. Thanks.

Red
 

jfynyson

Jeremy
User
I'm in planning stage for my future shop (aren't we all). I currently have OSB walls and love it but when it was built the builder used nails. In my next shop I may install the walls myself (due to labor cost/time) but I will for sure be using screws to attach the plywood/OSB to the walls so I can quickly and easily take down a section if needed in the future. Also this way you can simply add firring strips (spelling ?) and add the peg board over that and simply do so wherever you wish and not need to worry about where studs are located.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
My garage shop had one wall of pegboard when I moved in, I thought it was great and promptly hung as many tools as possible on there.

Over time I have grown to hate it. The tools fall off the hooks, it looks like crap, holds sawdust and cob webs are difficult to clean.

I have been covering it with dedicated tool cabinets, now I getting ready (planning in my mind) to build a large nail and screw cabinet or series of them. Which should cover most of the rest of the pegboard.



If I were building a shop I would cover the walls with 1/2 inch plywood painted white or very light gray.
 

Roy G

Roy
Senior User
My FIL had pegboard in his garage over his workbench. He had painted outlines of his tools so he could see what was missing. When I last saw it, there were a lot of tool outlines and no tools. Guess it was too easy to put stuff away and not return it to its home.

Roy G
 

Raymond

Raymond
Staff member
Corporate Member
Red, I currently use pegboard on a portion of a wall in my shop.
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It is 8 feet wide by 3 feet tall, I use it to hang my mechanics tools; wrenches, sockets, pliers, hammers, files, small saws and other small hand tools.
 

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beloitdavisja

James
Corporate Member
You might want to consider a french cleat wall, and build custom holders for your tools. Like others have mentioned, peg boards are annoying to keep clean, and the hooks fall out all the time. French cleat system seems to work really well and is very sturdy.

Something like this or this
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
My previous shop had 1/2" ply on the bottom 4' of wall and pegboard on the top 4'. I painted the ply green and the pegboard an off yellow. The jury is out on whether I will do the same in the new shop. The pegboard holds a lot of tools and that can become a problem as Mike mentioned. If I were more organized and didn't tend to hang tools on top of other tools it might work better.

2014-10-04_16_03_49_800x532_.jpg


You can sort of see it in the background of the picture above. That is OVRX Barricade flooring over the concrete. I used a similar product DriCore R+ in the new shop but painted in gray instead of clear coating it. The OSB acts like camouflage if you drop a small item on it with the clear coat.

I'm currently leaning towards using T1-11 siding in the new shop as the wall covering, but haven't fully decided yet. Attaching tools and such with french cleats and special fixtures rather than pegboard.
 

gator

George
Corporate Member
I used OSB fastened to the studs with screws. I can undo a panel to run wires of whatever. I can screw fixtures to the OSB rather than pegboard. I have put some screws in the wall to hang some tools like one would do with pegboard but I can take them down if I rearrange.

George
 

Pop Golden

New User
Pop
My shop is around 650 sq, ft. All walls are covered with pegboard. There however a few caveats to this.
1. To buy this much pegboard would cost a good bit. My pegboard came from a out of business motercycle store. It was already painted white so my painting the walls yellow was no problem.
2. I DO NOT use pegboard hooks. They have a very bad habit of falling out. I custom make my tool holders & screw them to the pegboard. I also used pegboard on my hand tool slide-out panels. Again with custom tool holders.
3. I have insulation behind the pegboard. That keeps (to a point) dust from collecting in the holes.
4. Last but not least I painted my shop walls light yellow. This is bright enough to help with the lighting. Being a old graphic designer I know yellow walls are suppose to create tension. Not true! It tends to create an invigorating and happy upbeat work environment.

Pop
:eusa_danc
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member

That kind of system would be ideal in the new shop if I can take the time to implement it. Having dedicated hangers for specific tools might keep me from using the pegboard hangers from being multi-purpose and hanging several on one unit and making it difficult to get to the one in the back - or even finding it buried in the clutter. Did I mention I'm a little disorganized.
 

jcz

Johnny
Corporate Member
I had a small shop that I fully covered the walls with peg board. Got a good deal on it so I figured "why not". I ended up actually using the peg board on one small portion of one wall and hung pictures and posters on the rest. I will not go back with peg board in my next shop.
 

Jim M.

Woody
Corporate Member
I've always liked pegboard, I've had them in most of my shops. I will say this get a good grade of board, not the big box stuff, I bought mine from a supplier who builds store displays. I put OSB on my shop walls with screws, which allows me access for more outlets if needed, then I set my outlets out enough to make them flush with the pegboard.

When I went to pick up my pegboard, he had slatwall in 4x8 sheets, I almost went with it, you might want to take a look at that as well.
 

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Gotcha6

Dennis
Staff member
Corporate Member
I used pegboard on a lot of my shop when I upfitted it. Being a pack rat by nature, the system invites clutter, though. Not sure I would use as much on a do over, but like one other poster, I got a good deal on it. Mounted it on 3/4" wide standoffs screwed through the 5/8" WR drywall into the studs. I try to get heavy duty hooks and have found bargains at Habitat Restore in the past.
 

Charlie

Charlie
Corporate Member
IMO, Sheetrock and put everything in cabinets. So much neater. Check my shop gallery for ideas.
 

nn4jw

New User
Jim
I do have a couple of 4x8 pegboards, one behind each bench along the side walls of my garage shop. There are a few things hung there and I haven't had any problems with the hooks. I was never one to try to hang all my tools up though, except when I first started many years ago. Things changed too often and I don't have enough wall space for that anyway. What it's useful for to me is so stuff doesn't fall off behind the benches, and any wall covering would serve that purpose. A couple of pieces of pegboard were just more affordable and I wasn't going to cover the whole wall anyway.
 

Gripbd

BD
User
I have peg board on the wall behind my miter saw. My plan is to install the white melamine hardboard on the other walls. That way I can use dry erase pens to write out notes to myself. For shopping lists, I’ll take a picture of the notes with my phone. I use the peg board for items that don’t fit conveniently in drawers and that I want to have easy access to (framing square, face shield, ear protectors, some bulky jigs, etc.)
 

cpw

Charles
Corporate Member
When we first bought our current house a section of the basement was covered with nothing but pegboard and it was pretty awful. Over the years lots of dust had accumulated behind the board and since it was fastened directly to the studs you couldn't have used any of the holes in front of a stud, top to bottom.

When I redid it I added insulation and sheathed with OSB, then I mounted my pegboard to the OSB using spacers behind designed for that purpose (During the project I discovered plastic tubing that was much cheaper that was easy to cut to length with a jig and hacksaw). I also made a notch in a long piece of scrap to slide the spacers into place from underneath the lower edge and hold them while I drove in the screws. The spacers give you about ½" standoff from your wall for the peg hooks.

With the OSB walls I can put a nail or screw anywhere. If I need to be sure of extra support I make sure to hit a stud.
 
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red

Papa Red
Red
Senior User
Good replies. Not sure the direction I'm going yet. Thanks to all who responded. Really appreciated.

Red
 

BWhitney

Bruce
Corporate Member
Wood magazine from October 2006 has an article entitled Shop-in-a-box Tool Cabinet. I built two and use them in my garage workshop. They use plywood and peg board and store an inordinate amount of tools (and stuff). I mounted them on cleats on top of sheet rock.
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