Racking Inspection in London, Ontario

Regulation 851, Industrial Establishments, covers material storage at Sections 45 through 48. Material removed from a storage area, pile or rack must be removed in a way that does not endanger workers, and equipment or material that could tip or fall must be secured against it.

In food facilities this reaches further than it first appears -- racking weakened by corrosion at the base can fail the "secured against falling" test without anyone having overloaded it.

Section 7 of Regulation 851 requires a Pre-Start Health and Safety Review for new racking installation, reassembly, relocation, structural repair, or a change in beam height or configuration. It is prepared by a professional engineer and must be completed before the racking is put into service.

Replacing an upright corroded at the base is a structural repair, and triggers it.

The city operates five municipally-owned industrial business parks. Innovation Park sits north of Highway 401 around Veteran's Memorial Parkway, and Trafalgar Industrial Park extends east toward Crumlin Side Road. Further industrial land runs along the 401 corridor and around the airport.

London's position at the junction of Highways 401 and 402 makes it a natural distribution point between the GTA, Detroit and southwestern Ontario.

This is London's defining characteristic. Maple Leaf Foods, Dr. Oetker and The Original Cakerie all operate here, and food-processing facilities inspect differently from dry distribution. Washdown environments, refrigerated space and sanitation chemicals accelerate corrosion at baseplates and anchor points -- precisely where rack failure begins. Racking in cold storage also sees thermal cycling that dry warehouses don't. Inspections in these facilities should weight base condition and anchor integrity heavily, and the interval is often shortened.

Refrigerated and freezer space adds a further complication. Condensation and thermal cycling affect steel differently from ambient storage, and access constraints make routine visual checks harder to perform properly -- which places more weight on the annual expert inspection.

Yes. Protective coating slows corrosion; it does not prevent it, and it does nothing about impact damage, overloading or anchor failure. Coating also hides early corrosion, which can make visual inspection harder rather than easier. Coating condition is itself worth recording at each inspection, since a breach in the coating is where corrosion will start.

Annually by a competent person, monthly in-house by trained staff, per CSA A344. Washdown and refrigerated facilities frequently shorten the expert interval.

Visible corrosion at a baseplate, any structural repair, or a change of use between dry and washdown areas all warrant inspection before reloading. Corrosion does not wait for the annual cycle.

Pallet position count sets the base cost. Facilities combining dry storage with refrigerated or washdown areas are sometimes quoted by zone, because the inspection criteria differ between them. Refrigerated and freezer areas take longer per position than ambient storage, because access is constrained and base condition needs closer examination. Try your own configuration below.

In washdown and refrigerated environments, records should track base and anchor condition over time rather than as a single snapshot. Corrosion is progressive, and the useful signal is the rate of change between inspections -- which only exists if each inspection is dated and kept.