Help needed re: Bike Storage
TheBigYin
Posts: 5,686 Member
My situation is this... I have a small room between the back door and the kitchen which is pretty much my bike workshop and place to park the bikes that are in "active use" (so, currently the Dolan, CaadX and the Little Red Inbred. To keep 3 bikes in there, pretty much means that one of them has to be hung from a wall-mount. So far, So Good.
This room was basically intended as a laundry / utility room when the house was built, and was never actually plastered - the walls were at one point covered in wallboarding, but this became pretty awful and at the last time we rewired the house, I removed all the boards and did a "temporary" cover with heavy wallpaper,"until next summer, when I can properly get it plastered/skimmed and finish it. Sadly, this was the winter just before my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and, well - frankly, I just didn't do anything - so the "temporary" fix has been in place (with a coat or two of emulsion paint to freshen it up) for coming up to 12 years now.
I'm finally at the point of doing the house up properly - one room at a time. But when It comes to the bike room, i'm out of answers. The room's so small, that the bikes DO have to be in close proximity to the wall, so saying "mount the hooks further away from the wall" isn't really a solution. Whatever I do with the wall where the bikes are, any plaster is going to take a beating. Ditto, any timber boarding. It's only my "bike cave" so doing something massively expensive isn't ideal. Anything that goes on the wall will be over a fresh coating of plaster, and would need to be removable without ripping half the wall down. It'd also have to be water resistant, and washable/wipe-down-to-clean, because I do admit that I don't actually wash my bike after EVERY ride.
My first thoughts were to finish the room as normal, but get a couple of sheets of clear acrylic sheet and screw them to the wall, to protect the finish/plaster. My worry is that being cack-handed, I'd probably end up cracking the sheet... A better solution would be something like the slightly padded rubberised finishes that I've seen employed in some food factories (primarily for hygiene purposes, because it's resilient to dings/dents that plaster would take and end up harbouring germs...) but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called.
Anyone got any suggestions ?
This room was basically intended as a laundry / utility room when the house was built, and was never actually plastered - the walls were at one point covered in wallboarding, but this became pretty awful and at the last time we rewired the house, I removed all the boards and did a "temporary" cover with heavy wallpaper,"until next summer, when I can properly get it plastered/skimmed and finish it. Sadly, this was the winter just before my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and, well - frankly, I just didn't do anything - so the "temporary" fix has been in place (with a coat or two of emulsion paint to freshen it up) for coming up to 12 years now.
I'm finally at the point of doing the house up properly - one room at a time. But when It comes to the bike room, i'm out of answers. The room's so small, that the bikes DO have to be in close proximity to the wall, so saying "mount the hooks further away from the wall" isn't really a solution. Whatever I do with the wall where the bikes are, any plaster is going to take a beating. Ditto, any timber boarding. It's only my "bike cave" so doing something massively expensive isn't ideal. Anything that goes on the wall will be over a fresh coating of plaster, and would need to be removable without ripping half the wall down. It'd also have to be water resistant, and washable/wipe-down-to-clean, because I do admit that I don't actually wash my bike after EVERY ride.
My first thoughts were to finish the room as normal, but get a couple of sheets of clear acrylic sheet and screw them to the wall, to protect the finish/plaster. My worry is that being cack-handed, I'd probably end up cracking the sheet... A better solution would be something like the slightly padded rubberised finishes that I've seen employed in some food factories (primarily for hygiene purposes, because it's resilient to dings/dents that plaster would take and end up harbouring germs...) but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called.
Anyone got any suggestions ?
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Replies
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I hang bikes from the ceiling with u-hooks. It does mean you need a tall ceiling though. The way I do it is to run two 2 x 4s. In the past I just ran the hook into a ceiling joist but I like having the 2 x 4 screwed into the ceiling much better now.0
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yeah - wall hanging is pretty much the only solution tbh...it's more of a "wall covering" problem, than a bike hanging/storage problem really - that's the constraints of this house I'm afraid. Really miss having a proper double-drive in garage/workshop but this place just isn't on that scale.0
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Oh darn it - I hit the back button on the wrong webpage. Now I need to re-write this. Sigh.
Ok - over the pond we have stores that sell stuff from re-models - Habitat for Humanity runs most of the one's I've seen. But people and contractors bring the stuff that is in good shape that they don't want to pay to toss. You can find all kinds of things like new sinks, doors, cabinets, etc. So - what about looking for the back wall of a commercial kitchen - those are mostly alluminum sheets so they would be easy to mount, clean and who cares about the scratches.
Then you could also do what they did in my rental house kitchen. They put linoleum on the wall behind the stove and under the cabinets above the counters around the sink. It's very easy to clean. I just have to remember to not put a hot lid up against it at the stove. I don't think your bikes are going to be hot enough to melt the vinyl flooring though.
In fact - flooring on the wall is a pretty good idea. They have so many options now that it could even look like wood or stone and until someone touched it, no one would know.
http://www.karndean.com/en/floors
And if you wanted it a bit softer to give some cushion to the bikes,
http://uk.harlequinfloors.com/en/products-services/floors-overview/vinyl-floors/
I bet if you called that last one and told them what size you are looking for, they probably have some stuff that is left over from installing floors in other places that they'd sell for cheap since normally they are stuck with those odds and ends pieces.0 -
I would recommend FRP panels over the plaster.
Are you using real plaster or "drywall" as we do here in the USA?
FRP are plastic panels that we use often here for commercial kitchens, laundry rooms etc.
They are usually glued to the wall but they can be installed with regular
screws and finish washers.
http://m.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-4-ft-x-8-ft-White-090-FRP-Wall-Board-MFTF12IXA480009600/1003898360 -
The FPR is an interesting take too though I'm thinking that looks a bit pricey. Probably depends on your size that you are dealing with.
http://www.nevamar.co.uk/nevamar_products_frp.html0 -
Oh - and while your area may not have this room, I like this idea. I like re-purposing things and I've heard how the u hooks are actually really bad for your rims - too much weight on the rim after a while throws the true off sometimes.
http://dornob.com/handlebar-bicycle-hanger-suspends-your-ride-from-the-wall/#axzz3ACeRYiSQ
We need to do this where we are storing our bikes though I'm not sure the landlord would like that. We bring them inside since I pointed out to the hubby that our garage is not secure and anyone with an opener could open our garage and walk away with our bikes. At the moment, they stand around his tv room like a herd of something and we all have to manuver around them to let the dog out the back door. "Don't knock over my bike!"0 -
My husband put up ply wood in our garage instead of dry wall. It's not pretty but you can hang anything from it and not worry about it getting damaged. Then we have Rubbermaid "Fast track" rail and bike hooks.
Rail:
http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?CatName=GarageOrganization&SubcatId=FastTrackGarageOrganizationSystem&Prod_ID=RP091559
Bike Hook:
http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?CatName=GarageOrganization&SubcatId=FastTrackGarageOrganizationSystem&Prod_ID=RP0912920 -
Some interesting ideas here - I'm thinking that something like a laminate flooring maybe in something that looks like travertine limestone would look rather cool, and be tough enough to cope with the potential knocks and dirt - after all if it's strong enough for walking on, the odd knock from a handlebar is nothing.
As to the "Hangers"... I like the idea of the Bars as a hanger... Indeed, Taking it to the next level, It'd be rather cool to do something like Picasso's "Head of A Bull" - an old Stem, a socket mount to fasten it to the wall, and some tatty old leather saddle if I can source one on Fleabay...
The whole thing is, I would like the "back room" to actually look more like a room in the house, and less like a workshop... it's the secondary entrance into the house, and therefore any storage solution has to basically look good as well as being functional... hence things like 4x2" battens on the wall or sheets of plywood as wallboarding is just not going to happen. They're fine in a garage environment - i'd happily have used a sheet of fibreboard flooring insulation covered in whitewash in a garage - or had them racked to the roof, but that's not suitable in this case. It's bad enough I've put up with the last 12 years or so of squalor in there - it's not something I'm going to continue with.0 -
and when I say Squalor...
(now you can see why a) space is at a premium, and b) why I want to make it look a bit better than now!)0 -
So some really cool flooring on the wall that looks like wood or tile or granite and some really artistic bike parts restyled for hangers and one lovely poster framed up from your favorite ride and you are all set for some functionaly beauty that will make you fill good and yet do well for the bike storage and the tools. Do post a picture when you are done sir as it's always nice to see what other folks come up with.0
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it could be a project for after the Vuelta (at the earliest)... No real rush, and i'd like to "do it once, but do it right"0
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Hmm, depending on the ceiling height, you might be able to get all three up on the wall in some fashion.
You could put your clear sheet of acrylic behind them too once you refinish the wall. One nice thing about that is that it is easily wiped down and you can replace it from time to time as it gets scuffed up without much trouble. Just pre-drill the screw holes you will use to mount it, and maybe some kind of washer also to spread the load of the screw head over the plastic better so it won't crack as you worried.0 -
And this site has a few ideas about different way to store multiple bikes in compacts ways.
http://www.goodideasforyou.com/ideas-a-inspirations/summer-a-gardening/diy-bicycle-racks.html0 -
This is what I use in my garage
http://feedbacksports.com/shop/Velo-Hinge-P81.aspx
It is hinged so once you put them on the hanger, you can essentially make it parallel to the wall. I'll try to take a pic of my setup tonight0 -
Hmm, depending on the ceiling height, you might be able to get all three up on the wall in some fashion.
You could put your clear sheet of acrylic behind them too once you refinish the wall. One nice thing about that is that it is easily wiped down and you can replace it from time to time as it gets scuffed up without much trouble. Just pre-drill the screw holes you will use to mount it, and maybe some kind of washer also to spread the load of the screw head over the plastic better so it won't crack as you worried.
Ceiling is about 3 inches above the top line of the photo above sadly - it's quite low (and being a big lad, I do ride fairly big bikes, so it's only 2 bikes on the wall I reckon (or one on the wall, and one leaning against) - in winter the Dolan will be upstairs, mothballed, and the CaadX will be on the wall, in roadbike trim, leaving just the MTB to lean up the wall.
I was certainly thinking of pre-drilling and using "cup washers" as you said to spread the load, but I'm now seriously considering the idea of some form of travertine limestone patterned flooring material...0 -
I have the perfect solution. I would definitely say beadboard paneling. As a woman, aesthetics sometimes comes above functionality. I know... sad but true. Men don't always understand this concept, unless it is in the dating world, then they wrote the book on it. Back to paneling, the beadboard paneling would look really cute and fresh. It's pretty resilient, you can wipe it down easy, many people use it in there bathrooms so it has to be somewhat durable to water splashes. If you did it 3/4 of the way up the wall you could put some molding across the top and run a shelf a long the top to put your tools and etc on. I would recommend cute baskets, to organize (disguise) the tools, but that is just me. I agree with David, hooks on the ceiling. and hang the 2 bikes that you don't use as often and keep the one you ride every day down so you can get to it easily. The great thing about the beadboard paneling is that you can just nail it up on top of what is on the walls right now. Some base and crown and you have a fabulous little nook for your bike stuff. I actually love home projects.. I love ripping stuff out and using nail guns and chop saws, etc. So much fun! If I lived closer I would come "Martha" your mud room!
Anyway, just a lady's perspective. Your wife will appreciate it. Cheers!0 -
Here is the image(s)
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I'd say get one or 2 bike stands that let you double stack them and paint the wall with an industrial semi-gloss waterproof paint. If you ever wanted to restore the room for "regular use" all it would take is a re-paint.0
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There is a product out called "Kemlite". They use it in food grade manufacturing plants for walls and ceilings and the interior of refrigerated truck trailers. Very durable, light, textured and easy to work with. Go check out the inside of one of your refrigerated delivery trucks.
Here is a link to one company here stateside that handles it:
http://www.cranecomposites.com/industries/tr.html
Good luck.0 -
Mat, Kemlite & FRP are the same type product.0
