Industrial pallet racks may still be your best solution. Having custom storage made can be very costly, and take a lot of time. Industrial pallet racks like the ones used in Home Depot, are easily available, can be purchased used at greatly reduced cost, and are probably available locally, reducing shipping and installation costs. I have been researching alternative storage solutions for the past year and found that pallet racks were my best solution considering the space I was working with. An alternative to MDO decking is mess decks. Our Conservation Department has firmly put their foot down on using MDO, plywood, or any other wooden product as decking. As a matter of fact, we are searching for alternatives for wood, not just in storage furniture, but also in the manufacturing of crates. The mesh decks can hold considerable amounts of weight and allow air flow through the storage furniture. Placing furniture on the mesh decks is awkward. The legs tend to fall through the holes in the mesh. One solution we have considered is cutting 6 inch squares of plexiglas to place the legs of furniture on. The plexiglas can be secured to the mesh decks with U-bolts or nylon zip ties. The solution we are planning to use is plastic palates to store all objects on the pallet racks. The pallets we are considering using are thick enough to secure straps with eye bolts to secure the objects to the pallets and can hold up to 1,000 pounds. I hope this helps and feel free to contact me directly at (281) 330-7260.
Richard Hinson
Senior Preparator
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
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