Warehouse Lines and Signs

//Warehouse Lines and Signs

Floor-Marking

Warehouse floors need lines and signs for two reasons: Safety and Efficiency.

Stripes has significant experience floor-marking across the GTA. Just consider these industries and organizations:

Transportation

Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)

 Utilities

Toronto Hydro

 Food Production

Ital Pasta and Yaya Foods
Logistics

Direct Distribution and Emblem Logistics

 Publishing

Metroland Media

 Clothing

Wolverine Shoes
Plastics

Salbro Bottle

 Ceramics

Anatolia Tiles

Floor-Marking for Safety – It’s the Law!

Occupational Health and Safety Regulations require workplaces to clearly mark:

  • Pedestrian Pathways, and
  • Passageways leading to an open door or gate

Some other markings are not required by-law, but they improve workplace safety and efficiency.

  • Hazardous areas
  • Different work areas
  • Locations for products or equipment
  • Traffic route signs

Your Floor-Marking Plan

Your floor-marking plan needs:

  • Accurate cost and budget estimates
  • Dependable materials
  • Proper preparation techniques
  • Durable outcomes

We follow three key steps.

Step 1: Determining your traffic levels

How much traffic flows in your area?

Foot traffic is “light traffic.” Forklifts, pivoting wheels and dragging pallets are “heavy traffic.”

This chart helps define your traffic level.

TRAFFIC LEVELS

Light Medium Heavy Extreme
  • No-traffic areas
  • Infrequent foot traffic
  • No carts / pallet jacks
  • No trucks
  • No forklifts
  • Minimal or no water contact
  • No chemical contact 
  • Regular foot traffic
  • Some cart or pallet jack traffic
  • Infrequent forklift or light duty truck traffic
  • Potential for water and/or chemical contact
  • Occasional floor cleaning or scrubbing
  • Heavy forklift traffic
  • Constant foot traffic
  • Heavy cart or pallet jack traffic
  • Regular floor cleaning or scrubbing
  • Class 2+ truck traffic
  • Water and/or chemical contact
  • Constant forklift traffic
  • Forklift wheel pivoting
  • Dragging pallets or other items
  • Class 4+ truck traffic
  • Aggressive floor cleaning scrubbers
  • Other major floor hazards

Step 2: Selecting your materials

The top choices are paint or tape.

Paint is a good choice for light to medium traffic areas. Paint is also usually the cheapest option.

Advantages of Traffic Paint Disadvantages of Traffic Paint
  • Cheaper than other options
  • Easy application
  • Quick drying time
  • Low fumes
  • Medium durability
  • Flat finish paint easily holds dirt and difficult to clean
  • Dirty paint becomes loose, although durability can be increased by proper floor technique

 

Application of a sealer over the paint makes it collect less dirt and easier to clean.

Heavy and Extreme Traffic Levels

Epoxy solutions are best for heavy and extreme traffic areas. Epoxy solutions are more expensive than traffic paint, but worth the investment.

Advantages of Epoxy Floors Disadvantages of Epoxy Floors
  • Epoxy floors have a long lifespan. Concrete is the only superior material.
  • Epoxy comes in gloss and semi-gloss finishes, so it is less susceptible to dirt and easier to clean, keeping the markings bright and highly visible for a long time
  • Cure time can take up to 72 hours to fully cure and reach its full strength
  • Epoxy has a strong, potentially harmful odour
  • Fully solid epoxies cannot be sprayed. They require significant manual taping.

 

Traffic Marking Tape

Here’s another option: traffic marking tape.

It costs more than traffic paint but less than epoxy. It’s not complicated to install, and usually your own staff can apply it.

In our experience, tape is suitable only in areas with light traffic level.

Please note: As a rapid cure product, Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) is good for projects where downtime must be kept to a minimum. However, MMA is not as popular as Epoxy or Acrylic because of use restrictions. MMA is not used in areas where products may be contaminated, although sealed or non-absorbing goods are safe.

Step 3: Preparing your floor

This step is crucial. Start by preparing your concrete – it will give your floor markings longer life!

In this stage, we prepare the floor by eliminating oil and dirt, removing thin top layer exposing a clean bare unsealed surface.

Some of our main techniques are:

  • Using solvents to clean floors
  • Applying sealer over cured concrete – filling pores, binding dust particles and forming a water-resistant film on the surface
  • Mechanical abrasion, including:
    • Shot Blasting – firing small beads to strip the smooth finish surface to expose a roughened concrete surface that is ideal for adhering paint, or
    • Diamond Shaving – “shaving” away 1mm to 5mm of the surface creating a channel. The paint is applied to the channel creating a recessed line level with the original floor surface.

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