Wall Control – Comprehensive Guide – 2024

Last updated on April 5th, 2024 at 10:03 am

Background

The first thing EVERYONE says when they walk into my gym, is “Wow, everything is so organized”. I’d potentially be upset if I didn’t take that as a huge compliment. Organization is both a nature and nurture trait for me. My parents were big time organization fanatics, and in my professional life I spend most of my time organizing processes and people. So when I first started my garage gym, the idea of maximizing my space through efficient organization wasn’t even a question. When I went through my 2017 total overhaul I wanted to dump the various hooks, particle board peg boards, nails, tacks, and screws that had been holding up everything for the past 4 years.

Wall Control was the obvious choice. They offer plenty of color options, both for the boards themselves and the accessories. They also support “normal” pegboard attachments, which is a huge plus for those of us not looking to simply trash the 100s of hooks we already have.

Let’s get something straight. Wall Control is the upgraded, upgraded, upgraded model of your traditional pegboards. Because of that, they are costing you more money. But that comes with a HUGE win in the garage gym. Your normal pegboards work if you only plan to hang a set of bands, some knee sleeves, and a cable attachment or two.

But once your collection grows, you start storing some heavier stuff like chains and collars, and you want it to look as good as the rest of your gym, Wall Control boards become the obvious choice. I have zero regrets paying what I did for what I now have.

Reviews

If you haven’t checked them out, start with the review of the Wall Control board I did back in May of 2018. It’ll give you a bunch of details, installation notes, and my thoughts after about 6 months of use.

Other Wall Control Reviews

Adam over at Garage Gym Lab has been using Wall Control for a few years. He even went out and covered his Hot Water Heater with a nifty DIY solution to set it up. I asked Adam for his opinion on hooks.

“I almost exclusively use the extended reach attachments and the long-reach slotted (2 7/8″) since they’re so versatile. If I could go back, I would have purchased more shelves at the beginning for belts, like you’ve done. That will be my next purchase since the belts take up so much real estate on the physical board. Otherwise, I think the vast majority of attachments can be organized using just 2-3 hooks. One suggestion for buyers is to buy more hooks than they think they need. Extras are easy to store and this way you have them handy when you make future purchases… plus you’ll avoid having to pay shipping later since a few hooks would fall below that $50 threshold.”

Adam @ Garage Gym Lab

Basement Brandon uses Wall Control in his basement gym, proving that no matter where you locate it, Wall Control is the ultimate solution for the gym. My dude Adrian at Gluck’s Gym has taken it an extra step and backlit his Wall Control (I think he took this idea from my brain, cause I definitely thought of this). And both JB at Garage-Gyms.Com and Jake at Garage Gym Experiment have Wall Control write ups.

No joke, I could probably spend more time finding even more reviews here… but I think 6 from basically every big name in home gym reviews is a solid selection. I’ve been tagged by another two dozen or more people who specifically bought theirs after seeing mine. And I’ve seen probably another hundred or more use them, including a lot of people who have recently set-up garage gyms due to the Pandemic. If I missed someone, let me know.

What Is New With Wall Control

One of the best parts of Wall Control, outside of the ability to stand up to the garage gym environment, is the customization options. Before you buy, consider your gym’s color scheme. You can grab boards in alternating color fashions, you can set up LED backdrops or make a stringer “frame” and paint it a contrast color.  You can find more inspiration here.

Since I first bought my Wall Control set up, they’ve added some additional attachment options. They also now partner with HangTime so you can create a completely custom Pegboard. Toss your logo on there, school, favorite sports team, picture of your kids, whatever. They’ll make it happen!

Gym Pegboards

Wall Control has created a new brand specifically for the Home Gym crowd called Gym Pegboards.

This is a slow release, as they are working on getting their site up to speed, branding, new hooks and accessories, and much more. So keep an eye out for some cool stuff, specifically for the Home Gym audience.

Wall Control has been a sponsor of the Garage Gym Competition for many years, and in 2024 they are using their new Gym Pegboard brand to kick it up a notch.

Ordering – Unpacking – Installation

Wall Control packages their stuff well. In multiple orders I’ve never had any dents, dings or scratches. This has always made me happy, as I was buying these for as much an aesthetic reason as a functional one.

Installation is easy, assuming you have a stud finder, drill, drill bits, and level. The boards are relatively light, even though they are heavy duty, so installation by one person is certainly doable. Two would help make things go faster, but one is doable. Find the stud, drill some holes, line up the boards, drive the screws. That is it.

Now, in my second set up, the studs didn’t line up to where I needed to hang the boards. I cut a few fence boards to length, painted them black, and ran them on the wall as stringers. I have 6 boards, so I have 3 stringers total. One at the top, one at the middle, one at the bottom. So each board has the top two and bottom two screws drilled into my stringers.

If I was hanging something REALLY heavy on these boards, I might have added an extra stringer to the middle of each board. But this worked well. It allowed me to place the boards where I needed to, not worry about dry wall anchors, and it looks clean. You’d honestly never know I did this.

Others like KaizenDIY and Adam have installed theirs on custom cover ups over the top of electrical panels and hot water heaters. Matt Pendergraph installed his with some custom colored boards for a nice framing effect. You can get creative with this, just like I mentioned above. You’ll need a drill, a level, a marker, and some bits. An Impact Driver and a Drill would be helpful for the sake of quick work.

They Look Brand New

My boards 100% look brand new. One board by itself has been holding well over 100lbs of equipment since the day I installed it. Not a spec of warping, breaking… nothing. The hooks don’t bend, break, or budge. I very rarely am 100% satisfied with anything. Wall Control is an exception to that rule.

Right now, I have over 150 pounds of stuff on ONE board. That’s four screws into studs, on one board, holding probably 125+ pounds more than I’d ever trust to a normal pegboard of equal size. There is a small bow to the board where my heavy chains are, but as soon as I remove everything it goes back into place. No sign of wear or permanent bending or otherwise any damage that I’m concerned about. The accessories I purchased serve their purpose perfectly holding my heavy competition collars and other items. They fit rock solidly and hold everything in place.

If you are here, you probably know this and understand this by now. But you are probably asking, what most people ask… what do I buy? Every home gym is going to have different needs. Look at the reviews I linked up top and you’ll see we almost all have different assortments. So make sure you look at your space and needs before simply buying what I did.

But here is my general feedback on each piece and my recommendations on what to buy.

What Should I Buy?

I originally purchased two of the bundle 32x16in boards. This saves you a few bucks out the gate. Obviously pick whatever color you want, but I went with black to fit my aesthetic.

So that gave me 4 total boards, for 64 x 32 sq inches of storage space. In my second purchase, I bought another 4 boards, so two more packs. This gives me one section of 2 boards, and one section of 6 boards.

I don’t think I’d recommend just one board for anyone, so I think at the very least you want the two pack I listed. Any kind of wider lat bar, MAG Grip, etc. is going to need two panels of width.

The hooks you absolutely NEED

Long Reach

The Long Reach Slotted Pegboard Hooks are my most used hooks. Talking with the other guys, they agree as well. I would plan to put MOST of your attachments, hooks, and accessories on these. When in doubt, buy a few more than you think you need.

I purchased 40 of them for my original 4 boards and I only had two sitting in my extras bin. Every single attachment outside of the Spud Strap, Triceps Rope, and Prime Spreader Bar, are on these hooks. Every band, all of the Glute Loops, my wrist straps, dead wedges, ab roller, captains of crush, bowties, belt squat belt, etc. If you were going to get only one hook type, this would be it.

Extended Reach

There are a handful of items that store nicely on the longer Extended Reach hooks. I bought 6 packs of these out the gate to store things like knee wraps, fat grips, collars, and other heavier and longer items. I can even store my competition Ivanko 2.5kg collars on these (2 collars fit on 2 doubled up hooks).

Everything Else

From here, everything else is going to be unique to your own space. Look at the various things you want to hang on your boards. Pay attention to their orientation, size, shape, and more.

Shelves

I purchased four of the shelves for my original layout. I have since moved two of them to overflow storage and I’m only using two of them. They are GREAT for the top of your boards to add some extra storage space. They just don’t fit above my 6 board cable attachment layout.

You could use some of the smaller shelves on the board itself depending on your storage needs. Say if you had an extensive collection of knee wraps, or ammonia inhalants, or something similar that could stack nicely. Otherwise, I like to keep the majority of the board open for attachments and various hook related items, while using the available space on the top for the shelves to maximize my abilities.

Bins

I own one of these and have used it for storing extra carabiners, extra hooks, pens, paper, smelling salts, and other loose items. It gets all of the various leftovers into one convenient space.

Handle Bracket

I own one of these, but do not recommend it unless you have a very specific need. I’ve seen people hang a Shoulderok from it, and I hang my Kleva Deadlift Jack from it.

Standard Slotted Hooks

I own three packs of these. They work well for a handful of items, but what you can do with these, you can do with the Long Reach hooks. If you see something that REALLY needs to store tight to the board to fit, these are great. I have a few cables, a pair of scissors, and some other items that store on these very well. But again, I could have probably done the same thing with the long reach hooks.

90 Degree Bend

I’ve got one pack of these. They come in handy for some of the weirder attachments, but again, I think you could get away with the Long Reach. The Standard Slotted and 90 Degree Bend are the ONLY hooks I currently have extras of. They are so close to the board itself that the majority of bigger items just don’t lay properly. I would skip these.

Aerosol Spray Can Holder

I bought this with my recent build out. I store 2 Gym Pins in two of the holes, and then use the extra space for miscellaneous filming equipment and other nick nacks. My Fat Grips and extra carabiners are stored on the front of the piece too, so there is no dead space.

Rubber Coating

My dude PSFHybrid recommends the Rubber Coating for the hooks as well. This makes sure all of your stuff stays looking clean. I do not have these.

“I did add the available rubber stripping they sell to most of my hooks to add an extra layer of protection. Cheap and easy to do. Would recommend for higher end attachments, ShoulderRok, etc.

TJ from PSF Hybrid

Fat Grip Cable Attachments

My dude mccrazymd over on Instagram sent me this picture. You can see he has a lot of grip tools. He used the Paint Brush Hooks for the various “tube” items like Fat Grips. And he used the U-Hooks for the fat cable attachments like the Dog Bone and other implements.

Non Wall Control Items

Because the boards are metal, you can use the SIDES of the boards for extra storage if need be. I hang my jump rope and I’ve hung other items off the side using these magnetic hooks.

These aren’t Wall Control items themselves, but can add some extra storage possibility. You can also use your standard pegboard hooks, but I never found they were very good quality so they don’t lay flat and all around just aren’t up to snuff with the quality of Wall Control.

Shopping List

If I was making a Wall Control Board Package for the Garage Gym Community, this is what I’d include:

Four boards by buying two of the bundle 32x16in boards.

Ten packs of the Long Reach Slotted Pegboard Hooks so you get 40 right out the gate.

Five packs of the Extended Reach hooks.

Four of the shelves to put on top of the four boards. One bin to store various nick nacks and extras.

Then of course add any extra hooks and attachments that make sense for your specific equipment, such as if you store camera items, or some tools in the gym, etc.

The standard package above would be about $350 plus tax and ship. If you use code GGC it’ll save you some extra cash as well.

Two Occasional Glitches

I have occasionally heard people complain that their hooks are loose. That typically has an easy solution. Take some pliers and GENTLY bend these little tabs backwards. By backwards, I mean if the hook was in the pegboard, you would be bending the tabs back towards the pegboard itself. These tabs hold the hook in place and keep it from rocking back and forth. So, a little adjustment and you are good to go.

The only other one, is that occasionally a hook comes with a little EXTRA powder coat. I mentioned this in my initial review. If you contact Wall Control they are very likely to send you replacements, and let you keep your current ones. Take a knife, be careful, and scrape away a little powder coat until it fits in the board.

Wrap-Up

Once again, I think Wall Control offers a product that should be on any garage gym owners short list. Take your time and make sure to order a set that matches your gym, grab some quality hooks, and start accumulating some top-notch gear to showcase. You won’t be sure if the Wall Control boards or the attachments look better.

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