The self-supporting warehouse: benefits and advantages compared to other types of warehouses

Can you imagine avoiding civil works and all its procedures to create your warehouse? It is possible, with self-supporting storage systems. This type of installation is used for storing goods, but it also represents the main structure of the building and supports its enclosure, thus forming an industrial storage warehouse.

Self-supporting storage systems are high-rise structures where the shelving forms a compact group with the warehouse’s roof and facades, thus avoiding civil works. In these structures, the shelving is the support for the building itself. It is especially recommended when we need to store goods at height, because it allows you to make the most of the available space and volume.

In this article, we analyze the characteristics of self-supporting warehouses and the advantages they offer compared to other types of warehouses.

Characteristics of Self-Supporting Warehouses

• It represents the best solution for warehouses intended to stock the largest number of unit loads.
• Their shelving not only supports the loads of the goods and the handling equipment. They are also subject to the effects of snow loads, wind actions, temperature actions, and seismic actions according to their location.
• The self-supporting warehouse allows for storage with systems operated by manual forklifts or through automated equipment.
• It enables storing goods at great heights, thus achieving better utilization of the available space.
• This type of warehouse improves construction times. Furthermore, it significantly reduces the costs represented by other solutions, such as the construction of a non-self-supporting warehouse.

The Advantages of Self-Supporting Warehouses

The benefits of self-supporting warehouses compared to other types of warehouses are many and varied:

• The most important one is that it equips the warehouse and avoids the civil construction of an industrial warehouse. Therefore, there is no need to erect a building as a preliminary step to installing the warehouse.
• This translates into a lower investment cost, without forgetting that the execution time is also shorter. It is a simple construction and a much cheaper solution than having to build a warehouse from scratch. In short, it is much more cost-effective than a traditional warehouse.
• It is a building designed to fit the necessary measurements, and the design contemplates both the warehouse structure and the shelving at the same time. Thus, space utilization is much greater.
• It can be built to a great height. The only limits are local regulations, or the reach of the handling equipment used. Hence, most self-supporting warehouses include shelving operated by automated handling equipment. For example, stacker cranes or miniloads, with which loads can be moved to great heights with absolute safety.

Safety Above All

Self-supporting warehouses must not only support the loads generated by the stored goods and the stresses derived from the handling equipment. They must also be prepared to withstand the typical actions of a building. For example, the action of wind, roof overloads (from maintenance work, snow fall, etc.), or the dead loads of the structure and the enclosures (both roof and facades). As if that were not enough, the seismic coefficient corresponding to the area where it is installed must be considered.

Self-supporting warehouses, like any other civil engineering structure, fall into the category of building structures. However, with their particularities: in addition to the characteristics of a standard building, the specificities of shelving must be taken into account.

Therefore, in the design and construction of these facilities, not only must the construction standards of each country be followed and the actions that may affect the structure be considered (those already mentioned before such as wind, seismic, or roof overloads, for example). The specific regulations for metal shelving must also be respected.