If you are looking to improve a storage area or turn a room into something more useful than just a place where old junk is kept, then maybe consider a recent job that we carried out for a client of ours down in Sussex. We tend to find that the most inaccessible places on a business site are the areas that attract the most clutter. These are the areas that are overlooked and sometimes not considered useful for much purpose of the business. We were asked to come to site with a view of evaluating the third floor. This being the floor that had always been viewed as the ‘dust collector’ space!

Our guy Steve recognised the immediate potential for a proper storage area. The company had been storing spare component parts on the other two floors for years in a somewhat ‘ad hoc’ way. So Steve suggested dedicating the slow-moving component parts all to one new area only, where engineers could come and retrieve the parts as required. We drew up a plan and a quote to install runs of long span shelving that could utilise the third floor area. Immediately our client said that it would be extremely difficult to take all the shelving components up 3 floors from a car park that was nearly 75 metres away. Well, no problem at all really, as we have a great team of dedicated installers who were used to erecting shelving and racking in the most difficult of places. There is no lift on site, so the staircase was the only means of access. These are tough fellas and they just saw it as a normal physical challenge to overcome and within 2 days of arriving on site, they had erected the whole shelving system to the delight of the customer. This is stage 1 of a 9 stage project at several other sites. In total we erected:  48 x uprights 200cm x 60cm, 120 x single beams 110cm, 60 x steel board panels 110cm x 60cm, plus all the associated cross bracings, base plates, bolts, screws and safety pins that are required to complete the system.

Longspan shelving is best used for hand-loaded. bulky or medium-weight items in warehouses, stockrooms, workshops and retail back rooms. Common cases include tools and parts, cartons, files and archives, vehicle parts, timber lengths and irregularly shaped goods.

Best uses

• Stockroom storage for retail, trade counters and material component parts.
• Workshop and garage organisation for tools, spares and equipment.
• Warehouse picking areas for cartons, boxes and small to medium items.
• Archive and document storage in offices or schools.
• Spare parts storage in automotive, manufacturing and maintenance settings.
• Long or awkward items such as timber, piping and similar lengths.

Why it works well
Longspan shelving gives easy access to every shelf, so it suits fast picking and regular stock rotation. It is also adjustable and modular, which makes it useful when storage needs change or space is tight. In terms, it is a practical middle ground between basic shelving and full pallet racking.

Best fit
It is most suitable when goods are stored and retrieved by hand rather than by forklift. It is less suitable for pallet loads on the shelves themselves, which is why it is usually chosen for smaller loads, bulky items and mixed stock.

Other considerations
There were many types of shelving we could have chosen to use for this particular job but we felt that Longspan racking was the most suitable solution.

 

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