Pallet Rack Installation for Superior Tile & Marble

How Material Handling USA designed and installed a three-level selective pallet rack system — with wire decking on every level and rack safety netting — at Superior Tile & Marble’s tile and stone warehouse in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Front elevation of the three-level green and orange selective pallet rack installed for Superior Tile and Marble in Salt Lake City with wire decking on every level

3 levels

Beam levels, all wire-decked

12′ tall

Racks along three walls

96″ × 48″

Standard bay footprint

Salt Lake City

134 S 700 W, Utah

A Tile Contractor’s Warehouse, Organized Around the Job

The CustomerThe ChallengeThe SolutionThe Installed SystemLayout & EngineeringResultsWhy Selective RackHow We WorkFAQs
Wide view of the Superior Tile and Marble warehouse in Salt Lake City with the installed pallet rack, an open forklift aisle and a pallet jack near the roll-up door
The installed pallet rack in the Superior Tile & Marble warehouse, with the center aisle kept clear for the forklift and roll-up door

Tile and stone is heavy, fragile and project-specific. A single commercial job can call for pallets of large-format porcelain, cases of setting mortar, buckets of grout and boxes of trim — all staged and ready to leave for the site on a tight construction schedule. Mixed in with that job stock is standing inventory: adhesives, backer board, waterproofing membrane, tools and residential project material.

Superior Tile & Marble needed a Salt Lake City warehouse that could hold heavy palletized material, keep job-specific inventory separated and reachable, and use the building’s height instead of its floor. Material Handling USA designed and installed a three-level selective pallet rack system with wire decking on every level and rack safety netting, wrapped around the perimeter of the bay.

This is the full story of that project — what was there before, what we specified and why, and what a tile or stone contractor gets out of racking a warehouse the right way.

Own a tile, stone or specialty-trade warehouse?

Send us your bay dimensions and what you stock, and we will come back with an engineered rack layout, a real lead time and a fixed quote.

Request a Pallet Rack Quote Design Your Rack Layout Call (800) 326-4403

The Customer: Superior Tile & Marble

Superior Tile and Marble, tile and stone contractor logo

Superior Tile & Marble is a commercial and residential tile and stone contractor with a Utah office in Salt Lake City (134 S 700 W). The company installs ceramic tile, porcelain, natural stone, marble and granite on projects from residential remodels to large-scale commercial builds across the Wasatch Front, and is the Utah sister operation of California-based Superior Tile & Stone.

Their Salt Lake City warehouse is where the tile, stone, setting materials, grout, adhesives and specialty installation tools live between deliveries and job sites — which makes how that space is organized a direct input to how efficiently the crews run.

The Challenge: Floor Stacking Doesn’t Scale

Before the rack went in, the warehouse relied on floor stacking. For a tile and stone contractor that creates four specific problems:

  • Wasted floor space — stacks spread out across the slab and still hold a fraction of what vertical storage would.
  • Slow, error-prone staging — finding the right SKU means walking the floor and digging through stacks under a delivery deadline.
  • Damage to fragile material — stacked, leaned and re-handled porcelain and stone chip, crack and scuff.
  • No clean separation — residential, commercial and job-specific material blend together on the floor with nothing keeping them apart.

In an industry where a missing box of trim or a cracked slab can hold up a whole crew on site, disorganized storage is not a cosmetic problem — it costs billable install time and material dollars.

The Solution: Three-Level Selective Pallet Rack

Corner angle view of the selective pallet rack showing cross-braced green uprights, orange teardrop beams and wire mesh decking
Cross-braced green uprights, orange teardrop beams and wire mesh decking on the installed selective rack

Material Handling USA designed and installed a selective pallet rack system built from standard teardrop-style green uprights and orange step beams, with welded wire mesh decking on every level. The rack is configured in a U / L-shaped run along the perimeter walls of the warehouse bay.

Each section uses 96″-wide bays on 48″-deep frames with three beam levels, standing 12′ tall. Row spacers tie back-to-back frames together for correct flue spacing and stability. The layout deliberately keeps the center of the bay open — a clear lane for the forklift, for staging outbound loads on the floor, and for through-traffic to the roll-up door.

Materials flow in through the door, up onto the rack for organized storage, and back off the rack and out the door when a job site needs them. Nothing has to be dug out or restacked.

Selective rack = every pallet reachable

The single most important decision for this warehouse was selectivity. Selective pallet rack gives direct access to 100% of pallet positions, so a crew can pull exactly the tile, mortar and trim a job needs without touching anything else — the right trade-off for mixed, fast-moving job-lot inventory.

The Installed System, Component by Component

Everything on this page is drawn from the real installation and the engineered layout drawing for the project — not a catalog spec sheet.

Component What was installed
Rack type Selective (single-deep) pallet rack, teardrop style
Uprights Cross-braced green teardrop frames, 48″ deep, standing 12′ tall
Beams Orange teardrop step beams, three beam levels per section
Bay width 96″ wide bays (three or four pallet positions per level depending on pallet size)
Decking Welded wire mesh deck on every beam level
Layout U / L-shaped run along the perimeter walls (approx. 41′ and 30′ wall runs)
Access opening 11′-10″ sliding-door opening shown on the engineered drawing
Fall protection Rack safety netting on exposed rack faces (per the layout drawing legend)
Row spacers Used where frames sit back-to-back for correct flue spacing and stability
Load rating Engineered to the customer’s pallet weights (selective rack commonly 2,000–6,000 lb per beam pair; the exact rating is set per application)

A note on load ratings

We do not publish a single weight capacity for pallet rack, because the safe rating depends on the beam, the upright, the beam spacing and how the load sits. Selective rack commonly carries 2,000–6,000 lb per beam pair, but every system we install is engineered to the customer’s actual pallet weights and comes with its rated capacities posted.

Layout & Engineering

Before anything was ordered, our team produced an engineered layout drawing for Superior Tile & Marble to review and approve. It shows the perimeter rack runs wrapping the bay, the 96″×48″ bay module, the 11′-10″ sliding-door opening, the rack safety netting on the exposed faces, and an elevation confirming the three-level, 12′ rack height. Designing the layout around the building columns and the roll-up door location up front is what keeps the forklift aisle clear and the install predictable.

Engineered layout drawing of the Superior Tile and Marble pallet rack showing the perimeter rack runs, 96 inch by 48 inch bays, an 11 foot 10 inch sliding door and a 12 foot elevation with safety netting
Engineered pallet rack layout and elevation drawing for the Superior Tile & Marble warehouse, showing bay sizes, the sliding-door opening and safety netting

The Result: A Warehouse That Works Like the Business Does

Superior Tile and Marble pallet rack in use, loaded with rolls of material and wrapped pallets staged for job site delivery
The Superior Tile & Marble pallet rack in use, loaded with rolled material and wrapped pallets staged for delivery

With the system in, the warehouse finally matches the way a tile contractor actually operates. Palletized tile, stone, mortar and grout sit on labeled, directly accessible positions. Job staging that used to mean hunting across the floor now means pulling a few known locations. The center lane stays clear for the forklift and outbound loads.

Fragile inventory is off the floor and protected on wire-decked beams, the rack safety netting keeps loads from falling into the aisle, and a dedicated “Residential” section keeps that material separated from commercial job stock. The vertical cube that used to be empty air above the floor is now roughly three levels of usable storage.

⚡

Faster Job-Site Staging

With every SKU on a labeled, directly accessible position, a full delivery — tile pallets, mortar, grout, trim and tools — is pulled in a fraction of the time floor-stacked material took.

🛡️

Fewer Chipped & Cracked Tiles

Fragile porcelain and natural stone come off the floor and onto wire-decked beams, so cases are not stacked, leaned or walked on. Less handling damage on expensive material.

📊

Roughly 3× the Floor Capacity

Three wire-decked beam levels at 12′ put the vertical cube to work, storing far more inventory in the same footprint than floor stacking ever could.

📍

Materials Organized by Category

Dedicated sections keep residential and commercial stock, standing inventory and job-specific staging separate — the installed system even carries a “Residential” section sign.

🔄

Reconfigurable Without Tools

Teardrop beam connections let beam heights move as pallet profiles change — larger-format tile, taller stone crates or new product lines — without buying new frames.

🧭

Protected, Contained Storage

Rack safety netting on the exposed faces keeps loads from falling into aisles and adjacent areas, and the sliding-door opening keeps access to the storage run controlled.

Want the same result in your warehouse?

We handle the whole project — assessment, engineered drawing, delivery and installation. Get a free facility assessment and a fixed pallet rack quote.

Request a Pallet Rack Quote Design Your Rack Layout Call (800) 326-4403

Why Selective Pallet Rack for Tile & Stone Storage

There are several pallet rack styles, and they trade selectivity against density in different ways. For a contractor who stocks many different SKUs and stages job-specific loads daily, selectivity wins. Here is how the common systems compare for this kind of warehouse:

Rack system Density vs. selectivity Best for Fit for a tile contractor
Selective pallet rack Direct access to every pallet position; ~100% selectivity Job-specific staging where crews pull exact materials daily Chosen for Superior Tile & Marble — every SKU reachable without moving other loads
Drive-in / drive-through High density, low selectivity (LIFO / FIFO) Large quantities of a few identical SKUs Wrong fit — a tile contractor stocks many different SKUs, not pallets of one item
Push-back rack Higher density, 2–6 deep, limited selectivity Batches of like product where some selectivity is traded for density Overkill for mixed job-lot inventory that changes constantly
Cantilever rack Open front, no vertical posts Long, awkward loads — pipe, lumber, slab bundles A possible add for long stone slabs, but not for palletized tile and setting materials

The result is that selective rack — the system installed here — is the standard choice for building-material, tile and stone contractors who need every SKU reachable, every day. For long stone slabs or bundled material, cantilever rack can be added alongside it, but the core system stays selective.

How the Project Ran, Start to Finish

1

On-site assessment

We measured the warehouse bay, checked the slab, and located the building columns and the roll-up door so the rack could be designed around real constraints, not a generic template.

2

Engineered layout drawing

A CAD layout with the perimeter rack runs, 96″×48″ bays, the sliding-door opening and a 12′ elevation was produced for the customer to review and approve before ordering.

3

Delivery & staging

Uprights, beams, wire decking, row spacers and the safety netting were delivered and staged at the Salt Lake City facility ready for a single install visit.

4

Professional installation

Our crew set and leveled the frames, installed beams and wire decking on all three levels, tied back-to-back rows with row spacers, anchored the system, hung the netting and cleared all packaging.

What we need to quote your project

The fastest path to a real number: your bay dimensions and ceiling height, the pallet sizes and weights you store, whether there are columns or a roll-up door to design around, and what you need to keep separated. From there we produce an engineered layout, a lead time and a fixed price.

Pallet Rack for Tile & Stone Contractors: FAQs

What kind of pallet rack is best for a tile and stone contractor?
Selective (single-deep) pallet rack is almost always the right answer. A tile and stone contractor stocks many different SKUs — different tile formats, stone, mortar, grout, membranes, trim and tools — and needs to pull exact quantities for each job on a tight schedule. Selective rack gives direct access to every pallet position, so crews never have to move one load to reach another. That is exactly what was specified for Superior Tile & Marble.
How tall and how big is the Superior Tile & Marble system?
The rack stands 12′ tall with three wire-decked beam levels, built from 48″-deep teardrop uprights and 96″-wide bays. It runs around the perimeter of the warehouse bay in a U / L shape — roughly 41′ along one wall and 30′ along the adjacent run per the engineered drawing — with an 11′-10″ sliding-door opening for access.
Is that a security cage around the rack?
No. The engineered layout drawing shows rack safety netting on the exposed faces of the rack, plus a sliding-door opening. Safety netting is a falling-object barrier: it keeps palletized product and loose cases from falling off the back or ends of the rack into aisles and adjacent spaces. It also helps keep the storage run enclosed and access controlled. If you need a fully lockable enclosure instead, we also build wire security cages and partitions.
Why put wire decking on every level?
Wire mesh decking gives each beam level a positive shelf surface. It stops pallets from falling through the beams, catches dropped cases and small items, lets you store loose boxes alongside full pallets, and — because it is open mesh — it allows fire-sprinkler water to pass through for code compliance. On fragile tile and stone inventory, that solid, safe shelf surface matters. See our pallet rack wire decking options.
How much weight can this pallet rack hold?
Capacity depends on the specific beam and upright configuration and is engineered to the actual pallet weights. Selective pallet rack commonly carries somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 lb per beam pair, but the exact rated capacity is set for each project — we do not publish a single number that would not apply to your loads. Every system we install comes with its engineered load capacities.
Can the rack be reconfigured or expanded later?
Yes. Teardrop-style beams clip into the upright punch pattern and can be moved up or down without special tools as pallet profiles change. Sections can be added, removed or rearranged, and extra bays can be tied on down a wall as inventory grows.
Do you design and install pallet rack in Salt Lake City and across Utah?
Yes. Material Handling USA provides pallet rack design, engineered drawings, delivery and professional installation throughout the Salt Lake City metro and the entire state of Utah — including nearby projects like Ragnar Events and Tellworks Communications. Call (800) 326-4403 or request a free pallet rack quote.

Need Pallet Rack for Your Salt Lake City Warehouse?

Material Handling USA provides free facility assessments, engineered rack designs, delivery and professional installation for pallet rack systems in Salt Lake City and across Utah. Tell us what you store and we will design it right.

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