Be wary when buying used lumber racking

ftuaNrs ro a recent spate of lumberyard closures, an I increasing number of auctions have been selling off used racking systems. Certainly, the initial price tag cin be significantly lower than buying new lumber racks. And, the buyer receives the racking immediately, without waiting for it to be engineered and built.

But are there hidden costs or dangers?

First, know that cost savings are highly variable, as well. According to Doug Taylor, K&S Services Group, Duncan, B.C., "The cost savings, depending on where you live and what the laws are, can be huge or very small. You can save as much as 707o of the cost of the racking or as Iittle as 5Vo.lf you are in an area that must have all racking engineered before being installed, this can run up your price to where your saving is very little. And, if you go ahead and stand it without the engineering, they may make you take it down, have it engineered, and then re-install it."

Clint Darnell, Sunbelt, Alpharetta, Ga., warns that it can be difficult to ensure second-hand racking is code compliant. "Most municipalities are now requiring permitting and engineered plans with racking systems. If you have purchased a system that does not have the documentation behind it, you will have to generate these documents with a third-party engineer. This will be added time and expense and negate a percentage of the savings you initially real- ized with your purchase."

An even greater danger, says Damell, "is purchasing a system that has been designed for a certain application, and reusing it in another way that it was not designed for. For example, sheet goods rack and roofing rack are different capacities, and if you try to put heavier pallets in a system designed for a lesser application you will run into some safety issues."

When buying from a liquidator, the seller is usually not a racking expert. "The seller doesn't always know what he is selling, and the buyer doesn't know what he is getting," says Jerry Ritz, Auto-Stak Systems, Westwood, N.J. "Not all manufacturers stamp the capacity into their products. You can have two 5" beams with different capacities. But they are both 5". Most of the problems stem from the fact that the buyer usually settles for something that might do thejob because they think they got a deal."

Ritz can cite several near-disasters involving misapplied used racking. At one yard, he recalls, "it was a used drivein rack. The rack collapsed. Fortunately no one was injured, because it happened during the night. The system was designed for a different size pallet. The customer's pallets were smaller and only caught the edges of the pallet rails. They should have been told to use a slave pallet the size that the system was originally designed for."

K&S's Taylor advises buying used racking only from someone who knows the products and knows if it must be engineered. "You may end up with a product that is not compatible with your current system, or the frames and beams may not be compatible with each other, and this will become a major safety issue," he says. "Make sure you look for any damage to the racking or the welds. Many dealers say it is okay, but it is very unsafe, an engineer will not pass it, and, again, you are out all that money. If you are dealing with a reputable racking supplier and they carry used, you should not have any problems with this. Most used racking from them is inspected and refurbished."

Sunbelt's Darnell suggests all used racking be inspected by an engineer for cracked welds, excessive rust, and other signs of wear and tear that can decrease durability and capacity before putting it into service.

When you add in these other expenses, hassles, uncertainties, and possible absence of a factory warranty, Darnell says, "the savings for used rack are often not that great-maybe l0 to 207o.That typically isn't enough to iustifv the risk."

By fames Olsen