Pictured above: boltless shelving at our B7 project, installed in rows across an empty unit on a new epoxy floor and photographed before any stock went on. Most small stores begin as a bare room like this one, and the decision that matters is made before the first shelf goes up.

A question we get regularly from small businesses is some version of: "Is my job too small for you?" It deserves a straight answer rather than a sales reply. The straight answer is that there is a floor. Our smallest racking installs are 20 to 50 pallet positions. Below that, boltless shelving is often the better answer. And where the budget is under about S$5,000, the scope usually does not justify a site survey, so we say so and point you to a local shelving supplier instead.

That is not a brush-off. It is a description of where pallet racking stops making sense, and it is worth understanding before you ask anyone, us included, for a quote. This article sets out how to tell which side of the line your store is on, what to do in each case, and what to measure first so that the conversation takes five minutes rather than five rounds.

The first question: who puts it away?

Size in square metres is the wrong place to start. The question that settles most small-store decisions is what actually puts the goods on the shelf.

• If a person carries it and places it by hand, you are looking at shelving.
• If a machine lifts a loaded pallet and sets it down, you are looking at pallet racking.

The two are engineered for different loads. Pallet racking is designed for a concentrated load arriving on the end of a truck. Boltless shelving is designed for distributed load placed gently by hand. We go through that split in full in boltless shelving vs pallet racking; for a small store the point to take from it is that a palletised product does not become "shelving stock" just because the store is small.

Three situations, three answers

1. Cartons, parts and stock you handle by hand

This is shelving territory, and for most small stores it is the whole answer. The boltless systems we install use rivet-lock construction and suit carton picking, retail back-of-house, parts bins and archive storage. Shelves are hand-loadable up to 200 kg per level, with a powder-coated finish, in standard sizes of 900 x 300 x 1800 mm and 1200 x 450 x 1800 mm, or custom where the space demands it. Where hand-loaded stock is heavier, there is also a Medium-Duty range rated at 800 kg per level.

Read the 200 kg figure for what it is. It is a per-level rating for reasonably spread, hand-placed load. It is not a pallet rating, and it is not a licence to put one heavy item in the middle of a shelf. The number to hold any shelving supplier to, ours or anyone's, is the rated load per level in kg, written down, and how that rating assumes the load is spread.

2. A handful of pallets

If you store fewer than about 20 pallet positions, you are below the size of job we take on as pallet racking, and we would rather tell you that on the first message than after a site visit. A local shelving supplier will very likely serve you better, and at the small end it is the honest recommendation.

It does not mean the pallets have to sit in a heap. Two things are worth doing whichever way you go. First, find out what the stock actually is: pallets that stay on the pallet from receipt to dispatch are a different problem from cartons that get opened. Second, ask any supplier the same questions you would ask us: what is the rated load per level or per beam, how is it fixed to the floor or wall, and what height is it designed for.

3. Twenty to fifty pallet positions, and growing

This is where a pallet racking job starts. A small unit with a forklift, a stacker or a hand pallet truck, and a few dozen pallets to hold off the floor, is a proper job with a proper survey, and it is the start of our range, not an exception to it. Whichever load class it turns out to need, the survey is no-obligation: we measure, audit and give you a written quotation, and you are free to compare it with other suppliers.

On cost, the published picture is indicative ranges per bay from recent Singapore installations: V3000 selective S$380 to S$650, V5000 S$650 to S$1,000, V8000 S$900 to S$1,400. They are not a price list. The same selective bay can move by 50 to 80 per cent with height, beam length, seismic class, finish and floor-fix detail, so we quote after a survey. If you want to see how a load class is chosen, pallet racking load capacity explains it.

Why there is a floor under the small end

Pallet racking is not just steel. A correct job has a survey, a layout, a design that matches the load, anchoring to the floor, load notices on the runs, and inspection over its life. Each of those costs something regardless of how many bays there are, and at the very small end those fixed parts start to dominate.

Inspection is the clearest example. We inspect under SS EN 15635 principles, graded green, amber and red, at typically S$3.50 to S$6.00 per upright frame with a S$1,200 minimum per site visit. The usual cycle is annual, plus after any impact. On a large warehouse the minimum barely registers. On a tiny installation it is a line you should know about before you buy, not after the first year. The rack inspection article covers what a visit actually looks at.

That is the reason behind the line. Below a certain size the survey, design and inspection cost more, in proportion, than the racking is worth, and a simpler product is the better buy.

Many small stores are both

The clean either-or is often the wrong shape. A common and sound arrangement for a small store is pallets on the floor with beam levels above them loaded by hand. You get a few real pallet positions at ground level and hand-picking space above without needing a machine that lifts. If you have no forklift and do not plan one, racking without a forklift explains what a hand pallet truck or walk-behind stacker does and does not allow, and why the truck decides more of the design than the racking does.

Five things to measure before you ask for a price

Do these before you message anyone. They take an afternoon and change the quality of the answer.

1. The heaviest unit you store, weighed. A weighed figure, not an estimate from the supplier's carton label.
2. How much you hold now and in two years. In pallets if you store pallets, in shelf bays if you store cartons. A store that doubles is a different job from one that stays the same.
3. Clear height to the lowest obstruction. Measure under the lowest sprinkler head, light or duct over the storage area, not to the roof. Clear height and how many levels you actually get explains why.
4. The handling equipment. Hand, hand pallet truck, stacker or forklift, and its lift height if it lifts.
5. The floor and the lease. If the unit is upstairs, the floor loading limit and the goods lift size. If it is leased, whether the landlord allows drilling and what the reinstatement clause says. Racking in a leased warehouse goes through all three, and racking a flatted factory unit covers the upstairs case.

Four mistakes small buyers make

• Putting palletised stock on shelving. If the goods never leave the pallet, the shelf gets loaded by forklift and was never designed for it. Shelving bought for palletised goods because the quote was cheaper per bay is one of the mistakes we are called in to fix.
• Reading the shelf rating as a pallet rating. 200 kg per level for hand-placed stock is a different measurement from a pallet beam rating. They do not compare directly.
• Buying without the rating in writing. Whoever supplies it, get the rated load per level in kg and the conditions attached. If the answer is vague, that is the answer.
• Ignoring the lease. Whichever you buy, ask how it is fixed. Ask the landlord before anything is drilled, and read what you will have to put back at the end.

What happens when you message us

Tell us what you store, how many pallets or shelf bays, the heaviest unit, how it is handled and the floor area and height. If you are under our smallest job size, we will say so and tell you so plainly, along with a few local supplier names, rather than booking a visit that would not serve you. If you are in the 20 to 50 pallet position range or above, we will arrange a survey and come back with a written quotation for the layout. Everything is fabricated in our Singapore workshop and installed by our own crew. For the full scope of what we do, see the services page, and for the systems and published bay ranges see the racking systems page. Moving into your first unit? Planning your first warehouse sets out the order the decisions come in.

The short version

• Start from who puts the goods away, not from floor area: by hand means shelving, by machine means racking.
• Our smallest racking installs are 20 to 50 pallet positions. Below that, boltless shelving is often the better answer.
• Boltless shelving is hand-loadable to 200 kg per level; a Medium-Duty range is rated at 800 kg per level.
• Where the budget is under about S$5,000, a site survey is usually not justified and a local shelving supplier is the better call.
• Published indicative racking prices are V3000 S$380 to S$650, V5000 S$650 to S$1,000 and V8000 S$900 to S$1,400 per bay, quoted after a survey.
• Inspection has a S$1,200 minimum per site visit, so know it before you buy a very small installation.
• Get the rated load per level in writing from any supplier, and weigh your heaviest item first.

Not sure which side of the line you are on? WhatsApp us on 9107 2601 with what you store, how much and how it is handled, and we will tell you straight whether it is a racking job, a shelving job, or one for a local supplier.

Related reading: boltless shelving vs pallet racking · how many pallet positions you actually get · racking without a forklift