Tag Archives: modular buildings

Why You Need to Protect your Equipment with Guardrail

accidents do happen

Damage to modular building panel from run in with fork truck tine

Regardless of how much training you’ve had, or how careful you are, accidents can happen.  Even your best fork truck driver can make a mistake. I recently had a customer contact me with just such a situation.

Last year the customer had put in a quality assurance lab and office using our A-wall modular building system.  Unfortunately, their best fork truck driver slipped up and ran into the wall. They were lucky: no one was injured, and he was able to stop before he caused any significant structural damage.  It did however knock a knock a 2”x4” hole on the one side of the wall panel and a larger hole on the inside where it pushed through. Since the damage was localized to a couple small holes in a single panel and there was no structural damage to any of the other components, the customer contacted a local drywall contractor to repair the damage to the panel, and we were able to provide him with a sheet of vinyl to cover the patches with.

use industrial guardrail to protect your equipment  and personnel in areas with fork traffic

Industrial guardrail protects your equipment from fork traffic

This all could have been avoided if the customer put up a line of industrial guardrail around the perimeter.  Our industrial guardrail is available in single and double rail configurations, and our standard non-liftout system is designed for a 10,000 lb at 4 mph breakthrough.  It’s bolt together design is easy to install and comes with all required hardware, including the concrete anchors. We offer a wide variety of lengths and off-center welded baseplates to configure a layout that will best fit your facility’s layout.  We can even provide you with a heavy duty gate system that can stop a 13,500 lb fork truck moving at 6.5 mph, yet fold out of the wall to allow passage. Next time you’re thinking about putting in a structure in an area with fork traffic, don’t forget about adding guardrail to protect your workers and your equipment.  You might not be as lucky as this customer was.

Two Wall and Three Wall In-Plant Offices

two wall modular building system

Two wall in-plant office system utilizing the customer’s existing block walls

Many of the in-plant offices we provide customers are located around the perimeter of their building, and we are often asked about the possibility of utilizing the existing wall.  Depending on the site conditions, a two or three wall system could offer a significant cost savings versus a typical four wall in-plant office.  Today, I’d like to talk a little about how an in-plant office can utilize your existing building walls and some of the factors to consider if a two or three wall modular building system is a good fit for your space.

Panelized building system connecting to existing block wall

By utilizing the customer’s existing block wall, they were able to design a row of offices along the back wall of their facility without needing to reroute their existing lines

One thing to consider when thinking about designing a two or three wall in-plant office is what kind of walls are in place.  If we are going to utilize your existing walls, we are going to need to tie into them in a couple different places.  We will need to attach a piece of channel called a wall start from the floor to the top of the panel, wherever the panel would connect to the building wall.  As we typically use a corrugated roof deck to form the membrane that holds the building together, we will also need to attach an angle along the enclosed length of the wall at the panel height.  Because of this, the walls need to be substantial enough to be tied into.  Block, stud and gypsum, or concrete walls are great.  Steel skinned buildings are not.  The wall should also be even across the locations where the building would tie in.  If there’s a significant gap, such as in some brick walls, you’ll need to add some flashing to seal off the gaps into the building.  In some buildings there has been a wall built in front of the steel skin wall.  Remember to make sure the height of the front wall is taller than the height of the building panels.

Modular wall system above and below a mezzanine

A four wall in-plant office above the mezzanine with a two wall modular building system below the deck

Recently, we have done a number of mezzanine supported in-plant offices along the perimeters of the customers’ buildings, and are often asked if we could utilize the existing building walls.  The issue here, though, is that even though you might not realize it, there is some movement on the platform different from the existing building wall.  These forces would weaken the structural integrity of the building system.  At the ground level below the mezzanine, we can potentially utilize the existing building walls, but we would need to go with a four wall system on top of the platform.

two wall building system below a mezzanine

This two wall modular building system allowed our customer to separate production from the employee entrance.

A two wall modular building system offers a number of advantages, such as the ability to utilize existing windows/wiring, as well as a cost savings from using fewer materials and labor.  If you are looking at putting in some in-plant offices, it might be worth your while to consider going with a two or three wall building system.