Slatwall, Slat Panels, Slatted Wall Panels, Slatboard
Slatboard Factsheet
Specification
This can be purchased in sheets which are 8' high by 4' wide (nearest
metric equivalent is 2400mm high by 1200mm) so that each sheet can
cover a good wall area and it is available in a huge choice of colours
and finishes.
Slatboard is basically a sheet of MDF with horizontal slots cut into
the board at regular intervals. For most applications these slots are
100mm between centres but other 'pitches' are available depending upon
your products. If you look along these slots you will see that they are
actually shaped like the letter T lying on its side. So the width of
the slot is about 5mm on the face of the board but as much as 15mm
within the board. Once these boards are fixed to the wall you can then
choose from a multitude of display fittings (eg single prongs, euro
arms, acrylic shelves) which slide into the slots. So cover your wall
in slatboard and then choose the fittings that best suit the way you
want to display your products.
Fitting
Slatboard is extremely easy to fit as long as you bear in
mind the following points:
- The panels are quite heavy (each one weighs approximately
30kg) and need two people to safely manoeuvre into position. One way
around this handling issue is to buy smaller panels (eg 1200mm by
1200mm) which are much easier to handle but are not as cost effective.
- In order to get a nice job you need to be aware of the
levels of your walls. Imagine that you have a long wall and stand a
panel on the floor against the wall at one end, checking that the slots
are truly horizontal. You then put another panel next to it
and find that, in order to line up the slots, the bottom of
the second board needs to be lower than the floor! The likely cause of
this is that the floor of the shop is not level and so you will need to
either raise the first board off the floor or lower the second board by
cutting the bottom.
- If your walls are not flat then you need to use something
to pad-out the slatboard so that it is true to the vertical. This is
one of the most time-consuming obstacles that you can have with
slatboard but it is important to get it right or else the whole job
will look sloppy. The proessional way to deal with a wall that is not
true is to fit wooden battens to the wall and fit the slatboard to
these. But there are shortcuts that can be taken by using expanding
foam to make mounting pads or blobs of plaster.
Once you are ready to fix the boards to the wall then it is simply a
matter of drilling through the back of the slots into the wall,
inserting the appropriate plugs and screwing through. For a panel which
is 2400mm high by 1200mm wide you would be advised to have 3 fixings in
each of 4 slots which would give you 12 fixings for the whole panel.
Some people drill the holes in the slatboard, put the board in
position, mark through the holes, remove the board and drill the holes.
This is a technically sound method but difficult in practice to put
(and keep) such a heavy board in exactly the right position.
Our method
is to put the board in position, drill through the board and into the
wall, put the wallplug through the board into the wall, put the screw
(must have a larger head than the diameter of the hole) into the wall
plug a few turns and then tap the head of the screw so that the
wallplug is pushed through the board and well into the hole. Finally
tighten the screw as normal.
Once the boards are fixed to the wall then you can
use slatboard inserts to snap-into the slots and cover the
screws. Most slatboards have slots which are cut to
allow room for the inserts and still leave enough space for
the fittings. Plastic inserts are available in a wide range of colours
and some customers like to go for the ones made from aluminium. Our tip
is that using a plastic insert with a shiny, metallic finish is much
more cost effective than using aluminium inserts. Remember that the
role of the inserts is predominantly aesthetic as they hide the bare
wood in the slot and cover the fixing screws.
Where to find or ask for advice
We are happy to help with any questions or problems that you may have with slatboard. Whether you are considering a purchase or even if you have already purchased from somewhere else, please feel free to give us a call. If you are at the planning stage then we would be happy to talk you through the different conficurations and identify the ways in which you can keep the cost down,