What should you do about empty pallets, especially when you are determining the best way to configure pallet racking? Find out here!
Pallets are incredibly useful parts of any warehouse. They help protect the items you are organizing before you can get to them and more importantly, they help your warehouse workers stay organized. But what should you do about empty pallets, especially when you are determining the best way to configure pallet racking? Find out here!
Determine Where to Place Them
The first step of pallet racking is to determine where you want your pallets to go. Typically, this would mean storing the pallets outside your warehouse, leaving them under cover of plastic tarps. But since weather can be unpredictable along the east coast and all over the country, this may not be the best idea in wet fall weather or cold winter weather. If you do need to place empty pallets outside, make sure they meet all guidelines set by state and federal regulatory bodies. For instance, the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) suggests that you keep a maximum of fifty pallets within twenty feet of your building, in case a fire should start.
Identify Potential Safety Hazards
Fire is just one of the many safety hazards that could affect your empty pallets. That’s why proper pallet racking is so important – because you don’t want to put your warehouse workers and any visitors in harm’s way. Make sure the pallets aren’t placed by any flammable liquids or other materials that could cause a fire or help the fire spread. Then keep an eye out for where the ground beneath your feet is uneven. Ceilings and overhangs can damage your pallets, so that means you need to make sure you don’t stack them too high, either.
Don’t Go Too High
Height limits for pallet racking are meant to protect your employees and the pallets themselves. Although pallets can be stacked safely without support racks, when you do this you can’t go over fifteen feet in height for each stack. If you build stacks that are over six feet high, make sure that they are adequately covered by sprinklers, which is another fire prevention method.
Limit Your Stacks
When it comes to pallet racking and making new stacks, you need to limit the number of stacks that you use. By ensuring better organization, you can make it safer to work around, and it will look neater for when potential customers come by to view your products. You will also need to separate the pallets based on the material they are made of (wood or plastic) and by their quality (how sturdy they are, and if any nails are protruding from them.)
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