Schererville, Lake County
The third bay stopped being a parking spot a while ago
A lot of Schererville is newer subdivision housing, and newer here means bigger. Three car garages are ordinary. Full basements under the whole footprint are ordinary. The ceilings in both run higher than what I find in the older towns west of here.
That sounds like a storage problem that solves itself. It does the opposite. A bigger house collects more, and a third bay is the most convenient place in the world to put it. First the bikes and the lawn equipment. Then the boxes that never got unpacked. Then the holiday tubs, the camping bins, the kid gear that got outgrown but not given away. By the second winter that bay is full, and nothing in it is on a shelf.
So in Schererville the job is almost never about squeezing something in. It is about volume: how much wall you have, how high it goes, and how many tiers you can get out of it before you run out of ceiling. That is a good problem to have. It just needs a plan and a stud finder.
In a 3 car garage, the wall is longer than you think
Run a tape along the back wall of a 3 car garage and you are usually past 30 feet before you have counted a single side wall. Almost all of that is empty above waist height. It is drywalled, it is framed on 16 inch centers, and it is carrying nothing at all.
Worth saying plainly: a long run of shelving on a wall like that is not a small upgrade. Take 8 feet of it, give it 4 tiers deep enough for a large tote, and you have more real storage than the whole bay ever gave you as a pile. Then you get the bay back on top of it.
Taller ceilings pay twice. They let me add a tier that simply would not fit in an older garage, and that top tier is the right home for everything you touch once a year, which is most of what is on your floor right now. The bottom deck sits up off the slab, so the floor sweeps clean and the snowblower has somewhere to live in July.
What I end up building on a long Schererville wall:
- Continuous runs, so the tier heights line up down the entire wall instead of stepping up and down bay to bay.
- One extra tier where the ceiling gives it up, usually the one carrying the once a year bins.
- Deeper bays at one end for coolers, totes and lawn gear, shallower bays at the other for paint, hand tools and the things you want at eye level.
- A clear lane left for the garage door track, the hose bib, the panel and the door that swings into the house.
The build itself does not change because the house is newer. 2x4 ledgers lagged into the studs, doubled where the load calls for it, front uprights carried all the way to the floor, cross supports under every deck, plywood on top. That is the same load path I use on every job, and it is the reason it scales up cleanly instead of sagging in the middle of a long span.
What I build here
Five jobs, one system, sized to a bigger house
Schererville jobs tend to be longer runs and more tiers than average. The method underneath them is identical.
Garage shelving
Floor to ceiling runs down the long wall, with the third bay usually doing the heavy lifting. Tier spacing set by the totes you already own.
See how it worksBasement storage shelving
A full basement under a newer house is a lot of open wall. Long runs, high bottom deck, everything up off the slab and out of the finished side.
See how it worksWall-mounted and heavy-duty shelving
Doubled ledgers, front uprights to the floor, cross supports on every level. This is what a 30 foot run needs to stay flat when it is loaded.
See how it worksUtility and storage room shelving
The laundry room, the mechanical corner and the space under the stairs. Small rooms get measured, never guessed.
See how it worksGarage and basement organization
The whole job. Sort what is out there, build the wall, then give the totes, the tools and the seasonal gear a permanent address.
See how it worksThe rest of The Region
Schererville is one of 9 towns I build in across Lake County, and the estimate runs the same way in all of them.
See the service area
Under the whole footprint
The basement is the other half of the Schererville job
Plenty of the calls I get from Schererville are not about the garage at all. A newer house here usually has a full basement under the whole footprint, and a good number of them are unfinished or only part finished. That means one long open wall and a mechanical corner.
Those basements are easier to build in than the older ones I work in elsewhere in the county. The joists sit higher, the framing is regular, and the walls are normally studded and insulated instead of bare block. I can run taller and longer without planning the whole thing around a low duct trunk.
What I watch here is the line between finished and unfinished, because that line tends to move. People finish half the basement, then finish more of it 2 years later. So I build to the line you actually want now, keep the long runs off the walls you are likely to drywall later, and leave the furnace, the water heater, the sump and the panel with clear working room in front of them. Here is how the basement build works.
If part of your basement is walled off as a laundry or a mechanical room, that space gets its own treatment rather than a shortened version of the big run. Utility rooms are their own thing.
Schererville is never a scheduling problem
US 30 and US 41 cross in Schererville, which is why half of Lake County ends up driving through here to shop. It is also why nobody in town wants another appointment on a Saturday.
So the estimate is not an appointment. It is a video call. You pick a couple of windows that suit you, we get on your phone, you walk me down the wall and give me rough measurements, and I price the job before we hang up. Nothing to schedule around, nothing to tidy up first, and nobody standing in your garage with a clipboard.
That matters more on a big job than a small one. A 30 foot run is exactly the kind of quote a bigger outfit would want to send someone out for, and then send someone out for again. I do not need to. Show me the bay, tell me what is going on the shelves, and you get a real number on the call.
When I do turn up, it is the day I build. Most jobs go in and get finished in a day, and you park in the bay that night. It is me on the call and me on the ladder, and the work is backed by a workmanship warranty. Book a window that works or call (219) 209-2484.
How it works
Get your number in about 10 minutes
Three steps. No visit to schedule, no cleaning up first, no waiting a week for a proposal.
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
Schererville shelving questions
I want the third bay for storage but I still want to park 3 cars eventually. Can I have both?
Usually yes, and that is the most common ask I get in Schererville. The trick is depth. A run that stops around 18 to 20 inches deep still swallows large totes 2 across, and it leaves the bay clear enough to park in. What eats a bay is not shelving, it is a pile with no edges. We set the depth on the call using where the car actually sits and where the doors actually swing.
How long a run can you build in one day?
More than people expect. Most single wall jobs, including the long ones in a 3 car garage, are a one day install. If your job is genuinely bigger than a day, I will tell you that on the call rather than on the morning I show up. I would rather set the expectation than beat it by accident.
My garage walls are drywalled and finished. Can you still anchor into the studs?
Yes, and finished walls are normal on newer Schererville houses. I locate the framing and lag the 2x4 ledger into the studs, not into the drywall. Nothing on the shelf is held up by a drywall anchor. The front uprights carry to the slab as well, so the load is shared between the wall and the floor.
Half our basement is finished and half is not. Where should the shelving go?
On the unfinished side, but built with the finished side in mind. I keep the long runs off any wall you are likely to drywall later, keep a clear path to the furnace, water heater, sump and panel, and set the tier heights so the whole thing reads as deliberate storage rather than leftover space. If you tell me on the call what you plan to finish next, I will build around that plan instead of against it.
Does a longer run cost more per foot than a short one?
No, longer runs generally get more efficient per foot, because the setup, the layout and the leveling happen once no matter how far the shelving goes. What actually drives the number is total wall covered, shelf depth and number of tiers. I am not going to print a price here, because a price without your wall in it is a guess. You get the real number on the video call.
Which towns near Schererville do you cover?
All the neighbours. Dyer and St. John are right there, Highland and Griffith are a short run north, and Munster, Crown Point, Hammond and Merrillville are all on the list. The service areas page has the full rundown.
Related reading
More on this, in plain English
The questions I get asked most, written down so you can read them before you ever call me.
Garage Organization in Northwest Indiana: Where to Start
Where to start with garage organization in Northwest Indiana: zone by how often you touch things, keep the walk path clear, and plan for the winter sw.
Read itWhat Shelf Size Fits Standard Storage Totes?
A large storage tote needs about 19 to 20 inches of shelf depth and 18 inches of clear height between tiers. How to size a shelf to the bins you own.
Read itHow Much Does Custom Garage Shelving Cost?
What custom garage shelving really costs: the 6 things that drive the price, honest market context for DIY, custom builds and cabinet systems, and how.
Read itBook it
Let me price your Schererville shelves on a video call
Pick a couple of windows that work for you, walk me down the garage wall or the basement wall on your phone, and you will have a real number before we hang up.