Best Practices Magazine - issue nº1 - English

Our experts I Clack-racks
Clad-rack warehouses
When racks also support the building
This type of constructions are integrated buildings formed by the racks themselves, whose structure is
coupled to both the roof and wall cladding. Clad-rack warehouses have achieved great importance in
the last 30 years, mainly because of the need for space optimisation, and resulting in the construction of
buildings that are taller than 45 m.
In order to better understand the advantages
offered by building a clad-rack
warehouse, we should first consider some
features of the traditionally built warehouses:
• The building of a traditional warehouse
is formed by a supporting structure, with
its pillars, trusses, roof girders, side walls
and roofing, on which external forces
such as the wind, snow or earthquakes
act against, depending on its geographic
location.
All the forces are transmitted to the
ground through the pillars, which require
the construction of load-redistribution
footings.
It is also essential to build a slab or floor
with sufficient load capacity to be able to
support the weight of the goods and handling
equipment.
• The warehouse, or one of its parts, is
composed of racks that occupy the total
height of the building’s interior.
• There are usually heavy pallets stored on
the racks, so calculations must be done to
withstand all the stored goods.
• The racks are metal structures that have
a large number of pillars (frames/uprights)
that distribute the weight evenly on the
floor of the warehouse.
• The forces that the racking units transmit
to the ground are much higher than
those that the pillars of the building transmit,
although individually. Each upright
transmits a much lighter load and which,
above all, is distributed.
• If the external forces that support the
building were transmitted to the ground
via the racks, it would add a relatively small
percentage to each upright in comparison
with the loads derived from the goods.
Advantages of a clad-rack
warehouse
• Full use of the surface area: the warehouse
is designed at the same time as the
racks and only occupies the space required,
without intermediate pillars that influence
their distribution.
• Optimisation of height: as with the
surface area, the height will be only that
which is required. At the same time, the
upper trusses or girders require less height
and incline being directly supported on
the racking.
• Maximum height of the construction:
you can build to any height, it only
depends on local regulations or the scope
of the handling means which are used, being
able to exceed 45 m high (which would
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