How Should I Dismantle My Warehouse Pallet Racking?

In any warehousing business there often comes a time when you need to dismantle your racking. Maybe you are re-locating your warehouse operation, or updating your equipment, or replacing damaged racking. In some cases you may even be closing your business. In these and a variety of other situations you may want to take apart your assembly. But how would you go about this?

The first thing to say is that taking apart your racking must be done safely, and to ensure that this is the case in the UK you will want to make sure that you follow Health & Safety legislation.

The Health and Safety Executive has issued the Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations, which came into force in 2007, and these should guide your actions when dismantling warehouse pallet racking.

When you study these regulations you will understand that, whatever the size of the job or the nature of the site, we all have a responsibility to make sure that the working conditions are healthy and safe. This applies from before the start of the operation to the completion of the work. Before doing anything you need to assess the task, the personnel and the equipment available to you in the light of the regulations. For instance, do the people involved have the necessary skill, knowledge and aptitude to carry the work through, and do you have the right equipment for the job at your disposal?

Having made your assessment of the resources available to you, the next step is to prepare a detailed and suitable strategy to enable you to safely and efficiently dismantle your warehouse racking.

Once you have formulated your plan for the, you will need to put it in writing in an organised, unambiguous way. You then need to ensure that your plan is communicated clearly to all the people involved, and that your supervisors and managers are fully conversant with what is required of them. Make sure that the chain of command and responsibility is clearly defined to all people involved.

It is very important that plenty of time is available for the work to be carried out, so that your personnel are not under time pressure. As we all must know, we are much more likely to make mistakes when we do things in a hurry. When handling the large and heavy materials that are involved in warehouse pallet racking any hasty action can have very serious cost and health & safety consequences.

Leaving aside Health and Safety requirements, there are other considerations that you need to take into account at the planning stage of the operation. For instance, will you need special tools when dismantling your warehouse pallet racking? It is quite possible that you will. If you try to do the job using tools that are not suitable for the job this may well increase delay and cost. It may also increase the pressure on your people, increasing the chances of error or accident.

Without being too pessimistic, it will be apparent, from the few examples given above, that there is more involved in dismantling your racking than meets the eye! In fact, there are so many important technical and safety issues to be taken into account, and a mistake can be so costly, that the best course is usually to engage the services of an expert to do the work for you.

We have an expert team of people who have years of experience in the supply, transport, installation and dismantling of all types of racking. We are ready and able to help you in the planning and implementation of any operation related to warehouse pallet racking, so please don’t hesitate – contact us!