When you are doing a routine inspection in your facility for damage to your pallet racks, you are likely going to find some issues on occasion. That’s just the nature of a busy material handling facility, where people and forklifts are hard at work. Forklifts accidentally run into upright supports, people drop items onto racking from high places, and a lot of the damage goes unnoticed and undocumented until you do an inspection. The important thing is that you cannot ignore damage once it’s been found; it needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Allowing damaged warehouse equipment to continue to be in use will put your team at risk and heightens the chance you could experience a racking collapse. Attending to the repairs as quickly as possible will help ensure safety in the warehouse and efficient processing of orders.

But when you find those issues, should you hire a rack repair professional? Or should you attempt the repairs yourself? After all, no one knows your warehouse better than you do. On the other hand, can you really repair the racks so they are structurally sound? You need to weigh the pros and cons before you make this decision.

Should You Do Rack Repair Yourself or Hire a Professional?

The Pros of Doing It Yourself

• It could save your warehouse money. By doing the work yourself, you won’t have to pay a professional. You can pull people from your own team and put them to work on the repairs without paying more money to an outside company. That means you keep more money in the warehouse and are directed toward your bottom line.
• It could be faster. Waiting for a professional rack repair team to come to your facility could take some time, and while you are waiting for them, it could result in a slowdown in production within your warehouse. Doing it yourself means you can get to work on the problem right away.

The Cons of Doing It Yourself

• Unless you have years of experience and the right training, you might not be able to get the repairs done correctly. Rack repair can’t be learned by watching online tutorials; there is a lot of engineering that goes into the repair process to ensure that the structure is sound and poses no danger of collapse.
• If you end up using your own internal team to do the repairs, you are probably pulling them away from other tasks. You hired those team members to do those tasks, not to focus on rack repair, and distracting them from their jobs could actually be having a negative impact on your bottom line.
• Improperly repaired racks can pose as much–or even more–danger to your materials and workers than a damaged rack. You could actually end up making the rack structurally weaker than it was before, unwittingly putting your facility at even more risk.
• Most rack repair services are very affordable. Companies will attempt to complete the repairs without needing to replace pieces (when it’s safe to do so) so you avoid the cost of replacement. That can save you up to a third of the cost, but only a professional will be able to determine whether repair or replacement is the best choice for your facility.
• Even expensive rack repair is cheaper in the long run. A pallet rack collapse can cost thousands of dollars in damage, not to mention the production time you’ll lose as your team attempts to clean up the mess. If a member of your team is hurt by damaged racking, then you will face the expense of worker’s compensation claims and potentially even a lawsuit.

Hiring a Professional Is Almost Always the Right Choice

Unless you have an experienced rack repair specialist on your team, it’s almost always the smarter choice to hire a professional to do the necessary rack repairs in your warehouse. The initial lure of saving time and money taking the DIY approach starts to look less appealing when you consider the long-term costs that you could accrue. Hiring a professional gives you the peace of mind of knowing the repairs have been done correctly and there is little or no danger of the problem becoming worse in the future. Professional rack repair team can often provide inspection services, too, meaning you can get both jobs done at once by a team that you can trust. Connecting with a great resource like this can make your warehouse a safer place to work.

If you’ve discovered rack damage in your facility, give the RMH Systems team a call. We can give you an estimate on the work you need to be done so you have a clear picture of the cost–and how affordable rack repair can be. Call us at 800-851-4995 today or contact us through our website and let’s talk about the repair or replacement services you need.