WAREHOUSE SHELVING UK

Longspan, Rivet and Multi-Tier: Choosing the Right System

Longspan shelving uses the same upright-and-beam principle as pallet racking, scaled down. Bays commonly run 1,000–2,400 mm wide, 400–900 mm deep and 2,000–3,000 mm high, with beam levels adjustable on 25 mm or 50 mm pitch. It is the right answer whenever cartons are heavy, the shelf span is long, or you need to change level heights as stock changes.

Boltless rivet shelving is faster to erect and cheaper per bay, but capacity per level is lower and levels are less easily reconfigured under load. We generally recommend it for spares stores, workshop backup and archive rather than for a working pick face turning over hundreds of lines a day.

Where floor area is genuinely exhausted, multi-tier shelving is the honest fix. Two or three levels of longspan connected by staircases and pick-and-pass gates can triple picking frontage in the same footprint. It brings building-control considerations — fire escape distances, edge protection, load-out gates — and we design those in from the first drawing rather than bolting them on afterwards.

• Longspan bays 1,000–2,400 mm wide, 400–900 mm deep
• Shelf levels rated 200–500 kg UDL depending on span and deck
• Chipboard, steel panel or wire mesh decking to suit sprinklers
• Boltless rivet shelving for spares, archive and workshop stores
• Multi-tier installations with staircases, gates and edge protection
• Bin, louvre panel and small-parts storage integrated into bays

Deck Choice, Sprinklers and Fire Regulations

Decking is the decision most buyers get wrong. Solid chipboard or steel panel decks block water from ceiling sprinklers, which is why insurers and fire engineers frequently insist on open wire mesh decking above a certain height or commodity classification. Mesh decking also stops small items disappearing behind shelves and lets you see stock from below.

If your building has ceiling sprinklers only, plan the top shelf level to leave at least 500 mm clear below deflector heads. Solid-decked shelving stacked to the roof is one of the most common issues that comes up in a fire risk assessment of a warehouse, and it is far cheaper to design around it than to re-deck fifty bays after an insurer visit.

Ergonomics, Pick Rates and Layout

A shelving run that ignores ergonomics costs money every single day. We place fastest-moving lines in the golden zone between 750 mm and 1,500 mm from the floor, slow movers high and heavy movers low, and keep pick aisles at a minimum of 1,000 mm for trolley access — 1,400 mm where two pickers pass or a pick cart is used.

Aisle runs should be aligned with your pick sequence, not with the building's steelwork. On a typical 500-line spares operation, re-sequencing bays to match pick paths and adding clear bay-and-level labelling cuts walking time noticeably without buying a single extra shelf. We supply labelled bay and level identification as part of every shelving installation.

All shelving over 2,000 mm high should be wall- or floor-fixed and, like racking, is covered by weekly recorded visual checks under HSG76. Overloaded shelf levels showing deflection greater than span/200 should be offloaded and re-rated.

Shelving Questions We Are Asked on Every Survey

How much weight can a shelf really take? The rating on a longspan level is a uniformly distributed load. Concentrate the same weight in the middle of the span with a single heavy item and you can exceed the beam's design condition even though the total is within the number on the label. If you store dense point loads — motors, castings, batteries — tell us at survey and we will shorten the bay or specify a deeper beam section.

Can shelving be added to existing runs? Almost always, provided the profile can be identified. Longspan uprights and beams vary by manufacturer, and connector geometry is not interchangeable between brands, so we photograph and measure the existing profile before quoting extensions rather than assuming a match.

Is used shelving worth buying? For archive, spares and workshop stores, yes — it is one of the best value purchases in the industry, and we hold graded used longspan in the Midlands. For a customer-facing trade counter or a food-grade area, new usually wins because the finish and consistency matter as much as the capacity.