Warehouse racking for wood stacking?

[newbury]

Here's a current example of what I was getting from CL -

14' tall pallet racking - business/commercial - by owner - sale

[FONT=&quot]This heavy duty racking is less than 2 years old. LIKE NEW condition. Approximately 190 uprights are 14'x 44" & 900+ 90" beams. There are approximately (60) 94" beams and a few 12' beams. All have wire decking. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]$50 uprights $15-25 beams[/FONT]

so for $190 you get 2 14' uprights and 6 beams.

 

[Komrade]

I got decent deal on these heavy duty racks. Upgraded to 3x3 uprights. Challenge so far is uneven ground and low skill with forks. Will likely give up idea of 3rd row at 8ft and create more slack as well as make ground more even. Last pic is of warehouse racks dealer. They obviously use them extensively for sheds .

 

[Komrade]

Last pic

 

[bcp]

And put a roof on the top instead of the 3rd row of wood.

Bruce

 

[mcfarmall]

I obtained 8 uprights that were 10 feet tall that were being discarded at work...brand new but had been stored in a covered truck bay and were dusty and had some bird poop on them. I cut one of the verticals off about a foot down and then assembled the uprights to the beams 8 feet apart. Next I framed up a roof of upcycled 2 by 4's and 6's then covered with 2 sheets of 10' long Pro Rib pole barn metal to create a sloped shed roof. Each rack will hold 1.5 +/- cords of wood. I used 2) 48x48 wood pallets on the bottom and some upcycled chain link fence on the inside of the uprights so the wood can't fall out.

The beta version revealed that the beams would sag in the middle under the heavy load of wood, so I dug a little soil out with a shovel and slid a standard concrete block under it with the flat side towards the ground to support the middle and that was the solution.

I built 4 of the rack assemblies and rotate the wood through them so that I always burn wood that has been seasoned for 3 years.

This was one of my best value projects.

My son and nephew burned down my first wood framed woodshed when they were pretending to be hobos and built a makeshift fireplace alongside of it...but that's another story.

 

[Komrade]

The beams I have 6" wide (high), and was told are 6000lb capacity, so they shouldn't sag (2 pallets of green woods should be around 4000lb per my original post). They're certainly heavy.
I do plan to put a roof over it, but I plan to go with shingles to match the house and minimize noise as it's close to one of the bedrooms.
I still need to add another upright and associated shelves.
In addition, I plan to wrap around the shelves in some 'face' wood to make it look like a regular shed and bland in with the log home.
I'll share pics as I progress..
Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[Komrade]

Just an update, I continued with my project (and adding another shelf on the side) and figured I needed a retaining wall... After doing some digging and ripping the phone line (who puts that 6-8 inches into the road?.. luckily, i had a backup one) I decided against putting the racks along the sloping road, as it required a flat spot which I started to build up, but then realized it needs to be tractor length + fork length, and it did not work for my location. I have a much better (flat) spot where I plan to install this in a couple of weeks and will post then. For now the racks are disassembled.

 

[MIkeWard]

Komrade, I have a couple of suggestions for you. As you can see from the pics I posted earlier in the thread, I have made several different structures with racking. All of these structures have roofs on them and have held up very well over the last 4 years.
Your uprights are 8' and the beams seem to be 10 or 11 ft.

I would use 3 beams to make your structure, two on the top front/back and one on the bottom rear. none bottom front. The front top beam should leave one teardrop unused on the front top and two or three unused to the rear. This will give your roof some pitch. 4x4s could sit on these beams for roofing.

Instead of using brick or pavers to level the front and rear of each upright, I have found a 2x6 or 6x6 bolted to the holes in each foot of the upright works great!

When you have your beams locked onto the teardrops of the uprights make sure they are locked in using the slide lock and also use a nut bolt with washers placed in the lower hole of beam below where teardrop snaps in. This is so beam can't accidentally pop out.

I would not use the beams to hold up the wood. Especially on the bottom. The ground would do this just fine.you could put a couple of 4x4s under the bottom skids. I would also suggest that 4x4s on top of the lower full wood skids would be fine to hold up the upper wood skids. This would make the skids stable and independent of the metal racking which would then act as a protective building structure holding up the roof.

I couldn't tell from looking at the pic of loaded truck how many beams you bought.
I'm guessing you bought 4 for each bay and 3 uprights.
If you get one more upright you could make 3 bays all connected using 8 beams.
3 beams for right and left bays and 2 for center bay (only upper beams,no lower)

 

[Komrade]

Thanks. I like your ideas. I initially thought of using those long concrete beams they use over doors in masonry, as the racks obviously sank (and unevenly) while sitting on pavers, but a 2x6 or similar may do.. I am sure it'll last plenty. Currently the future spot turns into a puddle after a rainy day, but I am getting a french drain installed in that spot.

I also like avoiding using the shelves at the bottom.. that will buy me up to 6 inches of space (width of beam), and I may actually use that 2nd (3rd from floor) shelf for something lighter, as tractor can only lift roughly 8ft and I really had very little wiggle room between shelves (2-3 inches). I am not sure I'd trust these pallets to hold double the weight, and to racks do need some weght outside of themselves, but I may experiment. The beams/racks are heavy duty, so other than buying myself another 6 inches and saving a beam, I am not sure what else I win, but I do lose some flexibility with being able to move the bottom row w/o touching the top.

I did get 6 beams for each shelf because I thought I'd be able to have 3 levels on each, until I discovered that I have slope where I needed level ground.

I do plan to put the roof over them, although may just deal with tarps for now. I plan to use solar panels as roof, as the spot will be south facing and I need more panels as electricity usage increased in my household.

 

[MIkeWard]

Here are some more detailed pics for you to adapt from.
Originally I planned to do just what you have planned but that changed. No problem placing the bottom skid in but the footprint is so narrow and wide that just a touch higher up and the whole thing could topple over.
Hydraulics and forks are great but it's easy to do damage without even knowing you were pushing against something.
Just a thought you might make your wood pallets lighter and narrower by not using full pallets for the sides.
I made sides for some pallet sheds using dogear fencing pickets bought on sale at Lowes.