Warehouse line painting is not just a visual enhancement, it’s a crucial element for maintaining a safe and efficient workplace. These lines, when properly marked, can control traffic flow, prevent accidents, identify hazardous areas, and promote smoother operations, all of which are key to a productive and secure warehouse environment.
This helps protect employees and promote an overall safer workplace. On top of that, warehouse line painting often corresponds with regulation compliance.
Below, we’ll review eight crucial items to consider for warehouse floor line painting.
1. Needed for Legal Compliance
Warehouses must comply with specific safety regulations concerning their setup and overall industry. For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has several regulations and standards for floor markings pertaining to marking aisles, workstations, workflow areas, and containers holding hazardous equipment.
Failure to comply with these regulations can result in fines, penalties, and a less safe work environment overall.
2. Markings for Accident Prevention
There are several reasons why warehouses are required to have floor-line painting, most of which revolve around safety and accident prevention.
Employees can move about the warehouse safely by clearly outlining pedestrian walkways, vehicle lanes, and areas with hazardous materials. This is especially important in busy environments with forklifts and other machinery.
The key here is to have clear and consistent markings, which can be referred to in the OSHA regulations and standards material.
3. Proper Space Utilization = Increased Productivity
All of this helps in planning for a more efficient workplace that is safer. By marking lines for different workstations, areas, materials, and traffic, you are essentially mapping the efficiency of your warehouse for a more streamlined operation.
This helps your facility become easier to navigate, making employees feel safer and more efficient while raising the overall productivity of your warehouse with smoother inventory management and/or operational flow.
4. Choosing the Right Paint
There are several options regarding warehouse line painting. You might be tempted to use durable tape, which is easy to apply and replace.
However, this is only a temporary fix in most situations. It doesn’t last as long as paint, and certain tapes are unsuitable for heavy machinery and foot traffic.
Instead, we recommend high-wear epoxy paint, which is long-lasting even in the most demanding warehouse conditions.
Note that different color recommendations for warehouse line paint depend on the situation. For example, yellow should be used for aisles, traffic lanes, and other areas that require extra caution. Red makes sense to identify hazardous materials and zones, fire hazards, fire protection equipment, and other dangers.
For more information, here’s a list of safety color codes according to OSHA.
5. Designing for Traffic Flow
You’ll want to start by mapping the entire warehouse and then identify dedicated paths for pedestrians, forklifts, vehicles, and storage. Having these clearly defined lanes can prevent accidents.
The pedestrian paths shouldn’t cross forklifts and vehicle lanes too often, and when they do, there should be proper signage—like a crosswalk on a busy street.
In addition, proper lines and signage for different areas are crucial. This includes loading docks with heavy traffic and congestion, places with low clearings or objects, and any potential hazards to consider.
6. Adding Safety Symbols & Messages
Warehouse line painting is only one piece of the puzzle. Adding safety symbols and messages to compliment the floor lines is also crucial.
This can include floor signs, written works on the floor, brief directions, or more. Easy-to-read safety messages can complement floor lines by describing hazards or enhancing visibility.
This can be as simple as using symbols to mark a path as suitable for pedestrians or marking emergency exits.
7. Adding Overhead Signs
Speaking of the previous point, actual signage posted off the floor is helpful for visibility and reinforces the zones marked by the floor lines.
After all, if you are driving a forklift, there’s a good chance you won’t be paying attention to all the floor lines around you. This is where signs describing hazards, pedestrian walkways, and traffic signals come into play.
8. Prepare the Surface Before Painting
This sounds intuitive, but it’s often overlooked. If you paint on a dirty floor, the paint might not stick properly, leading to premature peeling or fading.
You’ll want to clean the surface completely before painting to ensure a uniform, smooth surface without cracks or damage. This can be extensive if the flooring is compromised and the need for full concrete restoration is present.
Make sure the area is completely dry before starting to paint the lines.
Hiring Professionals For Warehouse Line Painting
There are plenty of considerations when painting safety lines in a warehouse. Because of that, it makes sense to hire professionals to do the job correctly.
If your company’s warehouse or industrial space is located in the Boston, MA or greater New England area – then McLean Company is the best warehouse line painting contractor for hire.
McLean Company has provided commercial painting and flooring services to well-respected businesses in the New England area for decades. For context, here are some of our previous projects and satisfied customer testimonials.
Call our expert team at (978) 774-4330 or get a free quote by filling out our online form.
Let McLean Company save you the headache of contractor coordination while providing professional planning and execution with minimal disruption to your daily operations.