Hi, I am Ray
You get one person, start to finish
My name is Ray. I live in Munster, and I have lived here for years. When you call the number on this site, I am the one who answers. When we get on the video call, I am the one looking at your wall. When the truck pulls up on install day, I am the one who gets out of it.
That is the whole business. There is no crew that rotates through town, no territory manager, no sales rep who writes it up and hands you off to an installer you have never met. One person quotes it, one person builds it, and that same person is still reachable after the job is done.
I do this work because I like the part where a room comes back. People put a garage or a basement off for a long time, and it is almost never because the job is hard. It is because starting means looking at it. I get to show up, put a real wall of shelving in, and hand the room back.
Owner operated, literally
What that actually means on your job
The number rings me
Not a call center and not a dispatcher. You call (219) 209-2484 and you get me, before the job and after it.
I run the estimate myself
The person pricing your shelves is the person building them. Nothing gets lost between a salesman's notes and the guy holding the drill.
I build it myself
2x4 ledgers into the studs, front uprights, cross supports, plywood decks. Your wall does not get handed to whoever happened to be free that week.
Most jobs are one day
I am in your space once and then I am out of it. You are not living around a project for a week.
Backed by a workmanship warranty
If something I built is not right, you call the same number and I come back. My name is the only name on it.
I live where I work
Munster is home. The towns on this site are my towns, and I would rather run into you at the store than avoid you.
How I build
I build the version the internet already told you to build
If you have looked into this yourself, you have seen the one failure everybody is afraid of. A shelf gets loaded in the middle, it bows, and once it bows it never comes back. Store-bought racks do it. Anything hung on drywall anchors does it.
So I carry the load in 3 places instead of 1. The back edge rides on a 2x4 ledger lagged into your wall studs, doubled where the load asks for it. The front edge sits on uprights that run all the way down to the floor. Cross supports tie front to back under every plywood deck. The deck is not holding itself up, and that is exactly why it does not sag.
Same system in a garage, a basement, or a utility room. You can see it applied to a garage wall on the custom garage shelving page, and there is a short video of the build on the home page.
The Region Build
How I build them, step by step
This is the same system on every job. It is the one the internet tells you to build, and it is the reason these shelves do not sag.
Ledgers
A 2x4 ledger runs the length of the wall and gets anchored into the studs, not the drywall.
Doubled ledgers
Where the load calls for it, the ledger is doubled up so the back edge of every shelf is carrying on two members.
Front uprights
Full height 2x4 uprights carry the front edge all the way to the floor, so nothing is hanging off the wall alone.
Extended frame
The frame is squared and extended to the depth your bins actually need, not to a catalog depth.
Cross supports
Cross members tie front to back on every level. This is what kills the sag before it starts.
Plywood decks
Plywood decks drop in on top, screwed down flat. Now it is a shelf you can stand on.
What I promise, and what I will not claim
This category is full of claims nobody can check. I would rather be short and specific, so here is mine.
Your shelving is backed by a workmanship warranty. If something I built is not holding up the way it should, you call me and I come back and take care of it. That is not a document you have to go dig out of a drawer. It is the same phone number you already used to book the call.
I will not put a price on this page, because an honest one does not exist until I have seen the wall. Shelving is priced by how much wall you are covering, how deep the shelves need to be, and how many tiers go on them. A 10 foot garage wall and a full basement run are not the same job. You get a real number on the call, before you have spent anything, and it does not move afterward.
And there are things you will not find on this site: no star ratings, no badges, no photos of somebody else's garage. The before and after on the home page is one real basement in The Region, same wall, same afternoon, pile in the corner and all.
Service area
The towns I cover
Munster is home, and the rest of it is a short drive. If you are close to this list, just ask.
Why a video call
I would rather not send a stranger to your house
Almost everybody in this trade wants to come out and look first. I understand why. I just do not think it is worth what it costs you.
An in-home estimate means finding an evening, waiting on a window, and cleaning up before a stranger arrives, for a job that is literally about the mess. Then you sit through a pitch from someone who is not going to be the one building it.
So I do it on video instead. You pick a time, we talk for about 10 minutes, and you walk your phone along the wall while you give me rough measurements. I can see the ceiling height, the framing, the water heater in the corner, and the bins you already own. That is everything I need, and the price comes right there on the call.
No visit to schedule. No tidying up first. No proposal a week later. Book a free virtual estimate and you will have a number before you have committed to anything at all.
How it works
Get your price on a quick video call
No salesman in your house. No waiting a week for a proposal. Three steps, about ten minutes.
Pick a time
Tell me your town, what you want shelves in, and a couple of day and time windows that work for you.
Quick video call
We hop on a short video call. Show me the space and rough measurements on your phone. That is the whole visit.
Get your price
I price the job right there on the call. No salesman in your house, no waiting a week for a proposal.
Straight answers
Questions people ask about working with me
Who actually shows up on install day?
I do. Same person you spoke to on the video call, same person who priced it. Owner operated is not a marketing line here, it is just how the business is set up.
Do you subcontract any of the work?
No. I build the shelving myself. That is the reason I can tell you on the call exactly how it will be put together, and the reason there is nobody to point at if it is not right.
Is the workmanship warranty in writing?
Your work is backed by a workmanship warranty, and I will walk you through what that covers on the call rather than bury terms in fine print on a web page. The practical version: if something I built is not right, call me and I will come back.
Why is there no price list on the site?
Because any number I published would be wrong for most people. Wall length, shelf depth and the number of tiers move the price more than anything else. A quick video call gets you a real figure instead of a range that means nothing. You can see how a typical job comes together on the custom garage shelving page.
Do I need to clean up before the video call?
Please do not. The mess is the information. Seeing what is actually piled against the wall tells me how deep the shelves need to be and how many tiers you want, and it is the most normal thing in the world. Nobody is judging your basement, least of all me.
What if I only need one wall done?
That is most of the work I do. One wall, done properly, clears a surprising amount of floor. If you want to start there and add later, the build is the same either way.
Can I text instead of calling?
Yes. Text (219) 209-2484 or email regionshelving@gmail.com, or just send the booking form with a couple of time windows that work for you and I will confirm one, usually the same day.
Book it
Let me price your shelves on a quick video call
Pick a couple of windows that work, show me the space on your phone, and you will have a real number before we hang up.