ski storage- anyone tackled this problem?

[boardatwork]

Hi folks, just happened across this group and it looks like a heck of a resource- lots of experience and skill represented in here, makes for pretty interesting reading!

Anyhow, I'm pretty inexperienced with "finer" woodworking (although I am learning as I go), but am handy with the more basic carpentry stuff- built my house/garage etc but haven't really done much as far as furniture etc goes. I have certainly "caught the bug" lately though and have a few projects I want to tackle once the workload calms down a bit!

However, for this I need my garage back... It is now pretty much full of ski gear, snowboard gear etc (there are 5 of us in the family who ski and 2 of the 3 kids do both so it looks like a ski shop has exploded in my shop). I was just wondering if anyone has tackled a similar problem- I am looking for plans or ideas for storing skis/poles etc, nothing too fancy, just functional- to store the gear on "in-season". Has to be in my shop so space is an issue.

I have a few ideas of my own (basic rack) but am interested if maybe anyone else has come up with a cool solution?

thanks mick in BC

[David Starr]

I finished my ski rack a few weeks ago. Nothing more than a piece of horizonal 2*4 fastened to the studs high enough to keep the tails of the skis off the floor. Ski hangers are merely 4 inch pieces of 2*4 spaced about 3" apart. The toe pieces of the step in bindings rest on the hangers. A good 1 1/2" dado in the horizontal 2*4, some glue and a couple of 2" wood screws holds the hangers in place good and tight. Mine holds 6 pairs of skis.

David Starr

[mick]

Thanks David, sounds kind of like what I was kicking around.

[Doug Payne]

My solution is an unfinished length of pine with a series of long dowels spaced a couple of inches apart, hung more than above the floor. Long as in maybe 4", enough to insert into the board and leave exposed. I just hang the skis tip-up in pairs (they're always clipped together anyway) between pairs of dowels, and the poles just hang from their straps. Wouldn't hold a snowboard, but I don't have any of those. Total cost was a few bucks. It's neither high-tech nor fine woodworking, but it holds our skis (both downhill and xcountry) and a bunch of poles quite nicely, and takes up minimal room (zero in the garage, since it hangs in my 'office' :-) I think it took about an hour to make.

[mick]

simple is best- not looking for a showpiece, just need to recover some space. The snowboards are a real PITA (to store as well as on the slopes IMO) but this would work well for the skis. thanks for the input.

mick

[Tom B]

Mick:

Growing up in Montreal with 5 skiers I can understand the problem. My Dad solved it the same way the Dutch solved living on a canal barge - think vertical! Anything you can get overhead, high enough to clear your highest noggin, is out of the way. I have used, and currently use, racks that sway up on simple bolt hinges mounted to the rafters. Four 2X4 hangers and a hunk of rope can get a low hanging shelf up to the garage ceiling with no strain if a pulley (or 2 or 3 as a block-and-tackle if weight is an issue) is used and the stuff is out of the way until needed. My 18' canoe hangs overhead in my garage today, just to get it out of the way and keep from tying up space in the yard. My fishing rods are up there too. The other side of the 2 car garage has a lumber rack suspended from the ceiling that drops down to head height for access.

Regards.

Tom

[J.]

The family XC and downhill skis are stored vertically along the garage wall betwixt pairs of dowels driven into a 2x4 that's lagged to the concrete wall. They stand on and on the inside of an "L" shaped toe board screwed to the floor. The toe board keeps people's feet and other things that roll around the floor from knocking into the skis. Poles hand on the dowels. A bungee cord drawn across the width of the rack keeps everything tight to the wall.

The snowboards hang suspended from the ceiling joists via bungees.

Easy in, easy out. Cheap and ugly. Just perfect for the garage.

J.

[e-mail] wrote:

[mick]

Exactly what I'm after and pretty close to what I went with last night except I more or less hung the skis between close-together pairs of dowels and held all in place with a bungy cord. No toe board as the ski lengths are all over the place with the kids' skis. Skis hang up off of the floor and out of the way against the wall- quick and dirty but effective, took longer to clear out a spot than it did to throw together.

Still looking for a snowboard solution as I am out of wall and ceiling space but I can probably live with leaning them into a corner and moving them when required...

Thanks for the help.

mick

[Mike Marlow]

Hell - this one is easy. If it does not have a motor on it which produces more than 120 HP, then its proper storage is out in a snowbank in the back yard. For those ski things that meet the qualifications of greater than

120HP, then all forms of tender loving care are warranted, and authorized.

[Doug Payne]

You've obviously never been in Resolute :-)

[J.]

If you've no choice but to stick them in a corner...

...one thing I've seen recently for (temporary) snowboard storage at a local ski area was a circular piece of plywood mounted horizontally to a vertical post sunk into the ground. The plywood had slits cut into it, sort of like radii, at intervals. I fancy that this could be adapted to a corner in the garage by making a "V"- or sector-shaped plywood cutout, the edges of which would run along the adjoining wall faces. With a slit, maybe two, you might get away with stowing your boards without too much trouble, provided that the corner isn't used for much else. And come to think of it, if you go vertical with these "V" shaped things, you might get an upper and lower set of boards stowed.

J.

mick wrote:

[sailor]

1 - Get a ski bag for each pair of skis and poles. 2 - Give each family member their bag, and tell them to stick them in a corner of their room.

[mick]

Looks like a good idea, but the problem I have is that my corners are pretty much "used up" with other storage etc- every time I go into my garage I regret not building another 12' wider and longer! (like almost everyone else)

I did however find space in a shed to lash the boards to the trusses- had to do some rearranging but it works nicely. The kids have been skiing more than boarding this year (maybe there is hope for them yet!) so it's a good compromise that I am happy with. At least I'm not tripping over them any more.

thanks for the input.

mick