Why Buy Wide Span Shelving (Also Known As Bulk Shelving) That Is For Sale

When the average person thinks of racking for business or personal applications, they don’t have a clue that they have literally hundreds of different racking options to choose from.  Last week we compared boltless metal shelving with open and closed clip shelving.  Now let us introduce another good option that is a bit more heavy-duty than those two; bulk shelving, which incidentally can also be called wide span shelving.

Remember that wide span/bulk shelving can be a term for a shelving unit that includes pallet racking AND boltless options, so with a bit of latitude in speaking, wide span/bulk shelving is a general category—however what we will address here is the use of a more shallow type of heavy duty shelving that doesn’t require, or can fit, a pallet on its shelves.

“It’s pretty much an extra duty shelving that is a step between boltless shelving and pallet racking,” explains Cameron Canfield who is an experienced sales rep for BuyMetalShelving.com

Basically this type of shelving is primarily seen in warehouses, but not where pallets are often used with products.

“This is for your heavier items that you wouldn’t necessarily want to store on boltless shelving but at the same time it serves better in tight quarters for example where you wouldn’t have room to drive a folk lift in and out.  It’s pretty much anything that you need to store that is bulky and heavy that would go over really well on these shelving units,” adds Canfield.

Warehouse managers tend to choose wide span shelving over normal pallet racking for one good reason—you don’t want to put and store product on a pallet.

“For example I’ve sold a few of these to engine repair places to store parts like engine blocks and different automotive parts that are heavier and in some cases really bulky and heavy that wouldn’t do well on applications like a pallet rack because the item isn’t on a pallet, either.” Said Canfield.

Another great feature is that Wide Span Shelving holds quite a bit more weight than boltless shelving options or open clip shelving.

“A short span is like a 4 foot span and you can get 4,150 pounds per shelf on that.  So you can get over two tons on a storage space, per shelf,” said Canfield.  “It goes all the way up to 96 inches, or eight feet, and that will still store 2,150 pounds per shelf.”

That upright capacity will be 18,000 pounds.  When compared directly to boltless shelving options, the wide span shelving makes more sense—especially if you don’t plan on having a fork lift to deal with.

“A lot of people are not going to be utilizing and storing products that are on pallets will prefer to go with this option because you can pack it in a lot tighter than you would with a normal pallet rack because you’re not going to have to drive a forklift between rows,” said Canfield.  “Also this is a good middle step for people that don’t necessarily need pallet rack but they need more weight capacity than what typical boltless shelving can offer.”

The feature which makes boltless shelving and open/closed clip shelving so popular is also provided with wide span shelving as well, and that is you don’t need tools to assemble it.

“It is very easy to put together.  Bulk shelving is actually a tool-less assembly they beams will actually attach into pre-slotted holes on the upright and then the center spacers are on six inch centers so you can put center supports in the shelf as you see fit or according to the weight capacity it will need to hold,” said Canfield.  “And you can adjust those center supports in six inch increments.”

Once the frames are up and secure, you add the decking which pretty much comes in three options.

“Wide span shelving comes with a choice of flat wire decking corrugated decking or the traditional plywood decking that you can choose according to what your needs are.  You can choose the medium gray finish which is what it quick ships in, it’s a good looking shelf,” said Canfield.

Now when it comes to the decking, a lot of people prefer a flat wire decking if they have any kind of fire suppression sprinkler system because it is more permeable and you can more easily adhere to the fire code than other decking options.

The solid metal deck is made for maybe areas where you’re going to have high humidity or moisture or things like that where plywood decking would tend to warp or be damaged by the humidity or water.

Some people prefer a corrugated steel deck, it just depends on what your application is, where you are located and what you plan on storing.

And finally this type of shelving comes in a quick ship option for those needing this rugged, dependable shelving as fast as possible.

“In quick ship we have all the way up to 192 inches but if you need larger sizes, they can be custom made but the lead time will go up to about four weeks for that,” adds Canfield.

So, we hope those little facts and statistics help you as you look for the shelving solution for your warehouse.