Municipal requirements vary

Working with a RACKsteel project consultant starts with questions about your operation, pallet weights and sizes, and material handling equipment. Our in-house team prepares preliminary designs with storage options for you to consider.

Make sure to provide us with the site plan and accurate office and warehouse drawings to ensure the drawings are prepared for engineering review.

Before racking capacity and stamped drawings can be provided, there are certain documents our engineering partners require.

1.) Stamped structural drawings (typically S1 and S2) of your building

2.) Geotechnical report and Site Class of the property

A slab letter approving the slab is adequate for the proposed racking system will be required to accompany your racking permit application. 

There are numerous partners we can recommend to help obtain the necessary documents. Contact our Project Sales team for more information.

You will need drawings stamped by an engineer showing the rack system is approved for your use. Once the layout and elevations are finalized, the property conditions such as seismic zoning, geotechnical information, and slab data will be analyzed and maximum capacities for your rack system will be provided.

Contact a fire suppression engineer to issue a stamped letter approving the rack system layout. It will indicate the rack system is acceptable for your building sprinkler system. For example, the fire engineer will need to review the following:

1. The pallet racking layout and elevation drawings
2. Your product classification and details of what is being stored

If the fire suppression system in your building is determined to need upgrades, you can consider getting quotes from sprinkler companies to improve the system, or you can adjust the racking system as recommended to be suitable for your building. It’s best you consider this step early in the process. 

The fire suppression letter will in most cases need to be submitted with your racking permit application.

Other key items related to fire suppression to consider:

• There are sufficient aisles and exit areas in the plan
• Travel distances to exits do not exceed 45 meters in a sprinklered building
• Fire safety equipment is accessible 
• Exits are properly identified and are not blocked 
• Emergency lighting is properly utilized in all required areas

You will need additional paperwork such as an authorization form filled out by the property owner, a permit application form, and other documents depending on your municipality. Once you have that in addition to the engineered pallet rack package, you can submit the application to City Hall. 

Once the permit application is accepted and approved by your municipality, the engineer will conduct a final inspection after installation and prepare their own letter of approval. The municipality final inspection will expect to see this letter of approval with the permit application package before the final municipal sign off.