Pretty much anytime you’re responsible for solving a problem, the little things make a difference far out of proportion to their cost or size.  When you’re designing a rack system for a customer, there are several little things that can make all the difference.

You’ll find a couple of those things below.  By anticipating the need for each of them you can avoid scrambling to solve problems and look like a hero instead.

Concrete Wedge Anchors

Yeah, I know that this one is pretty much a “gimme”, but you’d be surprised how often anchors are forgotten or ignored.

While it’s true that rack systems under eight feet tall that are used exclusively for hand-stack storage can be installed without anchors, ensuring the safety of your customer is probably worth less than $5 an upright.  For that matter, the industrial clip shelving that we talked about a couple of newsletters ago might be a less expensive hand-stack solution.

Remember that anchors are usually installed once per footplate (two per frame).  However, in high seismic zones, as many as eight per frame could be needed.

Shims