Best Practices for Floor Marking in a Warehouse
In order for your space to be safe for your employees and clients, you need to have systems for traffic flow, storage spaces, and warnings for hazardous areas. Keeping your warehouse’s floor clean, dry, and safe for traffic is essential for a functioning business. If you fail to keep your floor organized, employees and customers can easily get hurt, landing you with medical costs and potential lawsuits that few businesses can afford.
Developing a floor marking system can help you to ensure that your floor remains easy to navigate, safe for your team, and as organized as possible. Though this task may seem easy, it requires a significant amount of planning and forethought.
Floor signals can accomplish all of your safety goals and more. With options for pathway markets, pallet storage outlines, labelling, and directional commands, you can fully customize your warehouse floor.
No matter what industry you are in, it is important that you develop an effective floor marking system for your warehouse. With our help, you can create floor markers that benefit your team, suppliers, customers, and your profits.
Flooring Types
One of the largest considerations when developing a floor marking system is the type of flooring that you have in your warehouse. The material on your floor will dictate what kind of flooring markers will adhere to your floor and provide reliable directions. If you do not consider your flooring and use the wrong type of marker, you may end up with curling edges, missing markers, and confusion all around.
Fortunately, most warehouse spaces use sealed concrete for their flooring. This material is ideal for our flooring marker products, as we developed our selection with you in mind. However, any sealed flooring should be able to accommodate flooring adhesions. If you have unsealed floors, contact us to discuss your potential options outside of our catalog and website offerings.
Real-life Information
When you develop a floor marking system, it is important to base your markers on how your warehouse truly operates. It can be easy to conceptualize the flow of traffic, the placement of pallets, and other key floor marker factors and decide how you think the markers should look. However, in reality, the ideal system may not be possible. Though you may believe traffic could flow a certain way or want to store things most efficiently, the reality may be different.
Develop your floor marker system based on real-life information. Observe your workers, customers, and suppliers and the ways that they move through the warehouse. Get coworker input on the placement of labels and signs. Using these tactics, you can be sure that your floor markers are as efficient and accurate as possible and that your investment in floor markers has an actual effect.
Traffic
All warehouses are different. While some have lots of foot traffic, others use mostly machinery. Considering the traffic of your warehouse is integral to choosing the right labels. When you understand the traffic levels, you can choose markers that withstand that traffic flow while simultaneously portraying the information that you need them to.
Safety
Safety is a top priority for most businesses and warehouses and the main purpose of our durable floor markers. As you develop your floor marker system and choose products, keep safety at the forefront of your mind. Though floor signs can be extremely helpful in emergency situations, too much information on the floor can have the opposite effect. Try to portray the necessary information as clearly and succinctly as possible to avoid unnecessary confusion or potential danger.
Safety should especially be a consideration when exploring raised floor sign options. Though raised or thick products are beneficial in some scenarios, in others, they can pose a tripping hazard. When you prioritize safety, you can create a floor marking system that is effective and benefits your employees, customers, and business.
Floor Signals
Floor signals are highly effective for a variety of purposes and are key for most warehouse spaces. Available in +, T, L, O, arrow, and footprint shapes, you can use these signs for a variety of purposes.
Our + floor signals are commonly used to mark where the center of pallets should go. However, they can also be used to mark the intersection between four pallet corners. T signals easily separate the corners of two pallet areas, ensuring that objects get stored behind a certain threshold. Most warehouse managers use L signals to denote where the corners of pallets or objects should go. Finally, O markers offer a way to create a dotted boundary between one space and another without painting a line on the floor.
Arrow and footprint signals are extremely effective at creating traffic flow for customers and employees in your warehouse. We recommend using them sparingly, or only in areas where safety is a concern, to minimize overwhelming signage and ensure that people pay attention to the stickers that are present.
Our floor signals come in a variety of bright colors, allowing you to choose what best suits your needs. If you need bright colors to catch the eye, white, yellow, and red are great options. Black, blue, and green can be used when you need to mark something but do not need it to stand out or do not want it to be particularly noticeable to non-employees.
Though our floor signals are simple, they have been shown to be effective at marking warehouse floors. They are made from tough PVC and have an extremely strong adhesive to ensure that they remain where you want them. These signals have been designed to withstand warehouse traffic, meaning that standard machinery traffic should not be an issue.
As long as your floors are flat and sealed, these markers provide a great option for your floor marking system.
Frames4floors: Floor Identification Systems
Sometimes, basic directional and spatial markers are not enough for your floor marking system. In these situations, you may need to adhere paper signs to the floor, which can be a challenge without the right equipment. Our floor identification frames provide durable coverage and protection for your paper floor signs, allowing your signs to last as long as you want them to.
The clear window is made of a thin plastic membrane, making the signs easy to read. The edges are made of thick PVC, offering maximum durability. We offer several options for border colors so that your signs are easy to notice and can be categorized as you see fit.
All of our frames4floors options come with industrial strength and permanent adhesive on the back to ensure that the frames remain on your floor despite normal warehouse traffic. Though these options involve thick plastic, the overall profile is minimal and well-designed, allowing them to last for a long time, even in high-traffic forklift areas.
To apply, simply remove the protective backing and press the adhesion (sticky part) to the floor.
Frames come in a standard size that accommodates an 8.5 x 11” piece of paper. Color options include black, blue, green, red, yellow, and black/yellow chevron for personalization or color coding. Click here to buy or more information can be found on page 43 of our catalog (click to download PDF).
Floor Graphic Markers Without Text
Pictures can be worth a thousand words, especially in emergency or high-traffic situations. This is why we offer graphic floor markers that omit words but still make a significant impact. These markers can help to direct traffic, clarify policies, remind employees of safety measures, or prevent accidents. Without text, these signs accommodate any language barriers that may exist for your employees or clients.
Our graphic floor markers are circular and large, with a 17-inch /430mm diameter. They are easy to stick to any dry, clean, and sealed surface, including both walls and floors. Though we have a variety of commonly-used signs and signals, we can manufacture personalized signs when you work with our sales office directly. More information can be found here or on pages 44 and 45 of our catalog (click to download PDF).
Floor Graphic Markers - Half Circles
Using anti-slip floor markers in doorways and transition areas can be extremely helpful for both relaying information and preventing accidents. Our half circle floor markers offer a convenient way to highlight certain areas, point out hazards, and enforce rules.
The adhesion on our half circle markers is considered permanent and is optimal for high-traffic areas. Installation is fast and easy, simply remove the protective backing and adhere it to a sealed, clean, flat surface. Our half circle markers are durable but thin to avoid standing in the way of pallets and carts and to allow doors to move easily over them. They are anti-slip and fit standard pedestrian doorways. Many warehouses use these options to highlight garbage and recycling areas, allowing them to keep the facility clean and safe.
We have several pre-made options, both with and without text. However, personalized options are available when you work directly with our sales office. More information can be found on pages 46 and 47 of our catalog (click to download PDF).
Floor Identification Markers
Labeling aisles, pallet positions, and other sections of your warehouse can be challenging. Warehouses undergo a lot of traffic from employees and machinery. Our high-visibility floor identification markers give you the freedom to create a labeling system that works for you right on the floor. With a combination of numbers and letters, you can label your warehouse efficiently and effectively.
Available in letters A-Z and numbers 0-10, these stickers offer lots of combination options for your labeling project. Each sticker is 190mm in diameter and is backed with a permanent adhesive backing to ensure that your markers stay where you want them to be. The yellow background with the black font offers high visibility for you and your employees.
This system is simple but extremely effective. Learn more on page 48 of our catalog (click to download PDF).
Floor Marking Tape
When you need to create clear borders in your warehouse, our durable self-adhesive tape is the right choice. Our customers use this tape to mark stairways and walkways, color code areas, denote workstations or storage areas, and more. This tape is durable and made to withstand the high traffic of warehouses, including machinery.
Our tape comes in a variety of colors for your convenience. This allows you to mark and color code different areas as you see fit. Our color options are white, yellow, red, and green, as well as chevron styles in black/yellow, red/white, and green/white. Generally, black/yellow is used for hazard areas, red/white is used for fire protection equipment areas, and green/white is used for medical and safety equipment areas. However, you are free to use the tape however you choose.
We offer a lane marking applicator to help make the tape application easy. Rather than bending over and adjusting the tape, this applicator allows you to remain standing while ensuring a straight line. It can accommodate tape up to 100mm wide and makes your task of floor taping much faster.
Rolls come in 50mm and 75mm widths in all colors. The applicator can accommodate tape up to 100mm wide. Information is available on pages 48 and 49 of our catalog (click to download PDF).
Be Sure to Clean
Though all of our floor adhesions have high-durability power, be sure to clean and sanitize the floor surface before applying. This allows the adhesion to bond with the floor and ensures that your signs last. When the floor is dirty or unsealed, the markers may not remain in place with high traffic and use.
Contact Us
Our team is here to help you with your floor sign and floor marking needs. We have become experts in organizing and labelling warehouse spaces. Whether you need a custom sign or advice on implementing your systems, we are here for you.
To learn more, visit online at store.warehouseiq.com, email us at ted@warehouseiq.com, or call 888-310-0008 x2.
Product Catalog or Online Store
To browse all our warehouse products in our online store or download our catalog (click to download PDF).