How to measure your storeroom to fit your storage rack
Almost every rack that does not fit fails on the same handful of measurements. Take these numbers once, write them down, and you will order the right rack the first time.
This guide uses a 4-room BTO household shelter as the worked example, because it is the room we are asked about most. The same method works for a condo store, an office supply room or a back-of-house cupboard — measure the walls, subtract the obstructions, then choose the rack.
Start with the floor plan, then measure for real
Your HDB or BTO floor plan is a good place to begin: it tells you the shape of the room, where the door sits and which walls are worth shelving. What it will not give you is a reliable length. Storeroom and household shelter sizes vary from block to block, and the plan does not show skirting, pipe boxing or the electrical switch box on the wall.
Treat the plan as the sketch and your tape measure as the source of truth. Print the plan, or take a photo of it, and write your own measurements straight onto it as you go.
The measurements to take
Work around the room in order. You need a tape measure, a pen and about ten minutes.
-
Label your walls A, B, C, D
Stand in the doorway and letter the walls clockwise, starting with the longest. Everything after this refers back to those letters, and it is the fastest way for us to understand your room when you send the numbers in. Note where the door is, which way it swings, and mark any wall you cannot use.
-
Measure each wall at floor level, skirting to skirting
Put the tape on the floor, not at waist height. A rack stands on the floor, so the measurement that matters is the one taken between the skirting boards, which is usually a couple of centimetres shorter than the wall higher up. Record the length of walls A, B, C and D.
-
Take 1 cm to 2 cm off each length
Never plan a shelf to the exact wall length. Walls are rarely perfectly square, and a rack that fits on paper to the millimetre becomes a wrestling match in the room. A 1 cm to 2 cm working gap costs you no useful storage and makes assembly simple.
-
Measure the ceiling height
Most HDB ceilings are around 2.6 metres and our standard racks stand about 2 metres tall, so the height is rarely the problem — but a bulkhead, ducting or a false ceiling above the doorway can be. Measure at the spot where the rack will stand, and again at the door, then use the smaller of the two.
-
Measure the door opening and the door swing
The rack arrives flat-packed and goes in through that opening, so measure the clear width with the door held fully open, and the height of the opening as well. Then swing the door and see how far the leaf reaches into the room. Household shelter doors are heavy and open inwards; the arc they sweep cannot hold shelving.
-
Note the obstructions on the wall
Look for the electrical switch box or distribution board, pipe boxing, a ventilation sleeve and any wall-mounted fittings. In most storerooms these do not rule out a rack — they simply decide which tier heights you choose, or which wall the taller section sits on. Write down the height of the obstruction off the floor and how wide it is.
The clearances people forget
When a rack has to go back, it is almost never because the room was too small. It is because one of these three was measured optimistically.
The door opening, not the doorway
Measure the clear width with the door standing open, from the door leaf to the opposite frame. On a household shelter the steel door and its hinges can steal several centimetres off the nominal opening.
The door swing
Storeroom and shelter doors normally open inwards. Stand in the doorway and swing the door fully open, then measure how far into the room the leaf reaches. Nothing can be planned in that arc — not shelving, not the boxes you will stack in front.
Skirting at the base of the wall
Many storerooms have skirting running along the side walls. A rack stands on the floor, so it meets the skirting, not the plaster above it. Measure skirting to skirting and the number is often 2 cm to 4 cm shorter than the wall you see.
Worked example: a 4-room BTO household shelter
Here are the four wall lengths from a real shelter, measured at floor level and already adjusted for skirting. Two of the walls are long enough to carry a rack; the other two are not, but they still affect the plan.
| Wall | Measured length | What it is good for |
|---|---|---|
| Wall A | 180 cm | The long run. Takes the second rack once Rack A is in place. |
| Wall B | 115 cm | The short run. This is where the main rack goes. |
| Wall C | 70 cm | Short return wall — usually left clear for the door. |
| Wall D | 20 cm | A stub of wall. Too short for a rack, but it eats into Wall A. |
Place the main rack on the shorter wall first
Always start with the shorter of the two usable walls. That rack is the one everything else has to work around, so it is called Rack A. On Wall B, measured at 115 cm, a 110 cm × 45 cm rack drops in with the working gap you left in step 3.
Fixing Rack A first is what stops the two racks fighting over the corner. Get this the wrong way round and the second rack ends up 45 cm short of where you wanted it.
Then size the second rack from what is left
Rack B goes on the longer wall, and its length is not the wall length. Subtract the depth of Rack A from Wall A to find the space that is genuinely free: 180 cm less 45 cm leaves 135 cm, so a 130 cm × 45 cm rack is the best fit here.
That single subtraction is the step most people miss. Order to the raw wall length and the two racks collide in the corner.
Comparing an L-shape against a U-shape layout is worth doing at this point if three of your walls are usable.
On depth: for most BTO household shelters a 45 cm depth is right. 50 cm and 60 cm racks crowd the room and interfere with the door swing, while 30 cm to 40 cm is too shallow to take a suitcase lying flat.
Choose the tiering to match what you are storing
Length and depth fix the footprint; tiering decides how the height is divided. A 3-tier layout leaves tall gaps for luggage, camping gear and a vacuum cleaner. A 6-tier layout suits boxes, files and pantry stock. Many rooms are best served by a mix — a taller bay on one wall, closer shelves on the other.
Shelves are adjustable, so this is not a decision you are locked into. If you are unsure, tell us the three bulkiest things going into the room and we will pick the tiering around them. The tiering options for an HDB household shelter show the configurations we install most often.
Send us your numbers and we will size the rack
Wall lengths, ceiling height, door opening, and a note of anything on the walls. That is all we need to come back with a layout and a price.
There is no charge for the recommendation, and no obligation to order. If the numbers say a single straight rack is the better answer, that is what we will tell you. Once you are happy with the layout, delivery is a flat S$40 anywhere in Singapore within 3 working days.
Frequently Asked Questions
What measurements do you need before you can quote me?
Four numbers get you a usable answer: the length of each wall you want to shelve, the depth you can afford to lose into the room, the ceiling height, and the clear width of the door opening. A photo of the room and your HDB floor plan help too. Send them through the quick rack quotation form and we will come back with a layout.
How much gap should I leave between the rack and the wall?
Leave 1 cm to 2 cm at each end. A shelf cut to the exact wall length has nowhere to go if the wall is a few millimetres out of square, and you will fight it during assembly. That small tolerance costs you nothing in storage but makes the difference between a rack that drops in and one that has to be forced. Our storeroom rack sizes step in convenient increments for exactly this reason.
Will a 2 metre rack fit under an HDB ceiling?
Yes. Most HDB ceilings sit at roughly 2.6 metres and our standard racks stand about 2 metres tall, so you keep a comfortable margin overhead. The catch is usually a bulkhead, a false ceiling or ducting above the storeroom door, so measure the height at the point where the rack will actually stand rather than in the middle of the room.
What rack depth works best in a BTO household shelter?
45 cm is the sweet spot for most BTO shelters. 50 cm and 60 cm depths tend to crowd the room and make the door swing awkward, while 30 cm to 40 cm is too shallow for bulky items such as luggage. If your shelter has an unusual shape, the L-shaped rack with no centre pole usually recovers more of the floor than two straight racks.
Can you plan the layout for me if I send my floor plan?
We do this every day, at no charge. Send your wall measurements, and your HDB or BTO floor plan if you have it, and we will mark up which rack goes on which wall and which tiering suits what you are storing. Start at the quotation form, or read how an L-shaped rack changes an HDB shelter first.