How a modular storage installation actually unfolds, week by week

What to take away

A modular storage project is short compared with construction, typically three to eight weeks. Almost all of the value sits in the first two weeks, before anybody orders anything.

Week one: inventory

Take everything out of the space and sort it. Record how many items are tall, how many are heavy, how many are used weekly and how many are archival.

Weigh a representative box. Most people underestimate book and tool weight by a wide margin, and that estimate is what determines shelf ratings and fixing type. Skipping it produces either half empty bays or a system that was full on installation day, and our piece on modular storage regrets puts that outcome first on its list.

This is the step people want to skip. A system designed without it is a guess.

Week one: substrate and clearance survey

Establish what the wall actually is: drywall over wood studs, steel studs, plaster and lath, or masonry. Find the studs and mark them. Note any wiring, plumbing or ducting you know about, and any access panel that must stay reachable.

Then measure the standing room. Aisle width makes storage usable. The Access Board's guide to clear floor and turning space under the ABA Standards is a helpful reference for approaches to storage elements in covered facilities.

It notes that clear floor space is required at accessible elements including storage cabinets. Centering the space on the element is advisable generally and required at certain elements such as washers and dryers.

Your closet is not a covered facility. But if the standing room in front of a bay is not comfortable, the bay will be used badly.

Week two: design and specification

Lay out bays, shelf heights and component types. Set the most used shelf spacings deliberately, because they will not be changed later.

Give each of those decisions a date. Our piece on design firm problems and fixes recommends a decision schedule tied to the point where each choice starts blocking something else.

Weeks two to five: ordering

Stock systems: days to two weeks. Semi custom components and specialty finishes: three to six weeks. Order spares of any bracket or clip you are likely to want later.

Installation day

Most single closet or single wall installs take between three hours and a day. Confirm the fixings actually used match what the design assumed, and photograph the wall before anything is covered.

Weeks one and two after: load and adjust

Load progressively rather than all at once, and check for deflection as you go. Live with it for two weeks, then make the adjustments you have discovered you need.

The final step: a safety walkthrough

Before calling it finished, check that nothing new blocks an exit, an escape window, a heat source clearance, an electrical panel or a ceiling device.

The last one matters. The National Fire Protection Association's guidance on smoke alarms puts the stakes plainly: working alarms cut the risk of dying in a home fire roughly in half. New shelving that crowds a ceiling alarm undoes that quietly, so look up before you finish.

The specification criteria this schedule feeds are in our modular storage review guide, and the construction scale version of the same sequence is in our remodeling timeline.

Common questions