RACKING DISMANTLING

Method: How a Safe Dismantle Actually Runs

We start with a site survey and a written RAMS pack specific to the building: run layout, brand and profile, beam levels, floor fixings, exclusion zones, MEWP access, banksman positions and the traffic route for loading. If the racking is damaged — and on a dilapidated site it usually is — the survey grades it first, because a red-risk upright changes the sequence and sometimes requires temporary propping before anyone touches a beam.

On site, teams work top down within a barriered exclusion zone. Beams are released with connector safety pins removed by hand, lowered rather than dropped, and stacked and banded by size on the floor. Frames are only unbolted from the slab once all beams and any run-spacers are clear. Components are sorted by brand and profile as they come down — mixing Dexion with Link 51 on a pallet destroys most of the resale value.

All our installation and dismantling operatives are SEIRS-carded, IPAF-trained for MEWP work and CSCS-carded, and we carry £10m public liability. We work nights, weekends and phased sequences so trading sites can keep despatching around us.

• Written RAMS and site-specific method statement before mobilisation
• SEIRS-carded racking installers, IPAF and CSCS accredited
• £10m public liability, DBS-checked operatives
• Top-down removal with barriered exclusion zones and banksman
• Components sorted and banded by brand and profile for resale
• Floor bolts cut flush and holes made safe on completion

Dilapidations, Buy-Back and What Your Racking Is Worth

Most calls we take about dismantling are really about a lease end. The landlord wants the building back clear, the schedule of dilapidations has a date on it, and the racking is in the way. In that situation the racking is an asset, not a liability — provided it is a brand with a live second-hand market and the components come down undamaged.

Value depends on brand, profile, quantity, condition and how quickly it can be lifted. A large single-brand run of clean uprights and straight beams may cover the full cost of dismantling and removal, sometimes with money back. A small quantity of an obsolete profile with bent beams will not, and we will say so at survey rather than after the job.

We provide a valuation, a dismantle price and a net figure in one document, plus waste transfer notes for anything scrapped and photographs of the cleared floor for your dilapidations file.

Relocation and Re-Installation

Where you are moving rather than closing, we dismantle, transport, store if the new building is not ready, and re-install to a fresh CAD layout at the new site. Relocation is where the sorting discipline pays: components labelled by run and level go back up in a fraction of the time, and nothing arrives short.

Re-installation is treated as a new installation. The layout is re-drawn for the new building's clear height, sprinkler layout and column grid — very few warehouses are the same shape twice — and the system is handed over with fresh load notices, a handover certificate and a marked-up drawing. We also recommend a SEMA-approved inspection after any relocation, because components that were sound in the old building can be damaged in transit.