Vertical Bar and Pipe Racks for Shops and Warehouses
How to store bar stock, pipe, tube and trim upright: rack types, real capacities, how tall your stock can be, and when horizontal bar rack or cantilever rack is the better choice.
4,000 lb
Vestil EVR unit rating
3,000 lb
Vestil VBR-9 rating
5 bays
PRSR on rack uprights
10 ft
DSHZ-4 horizontal arms
Shop Vertical Bar and Pipe Racks
Vestil lists the VBR-9 and EVR units at about 2 working days and the PRSR-96-5B at about 40 working days. Need full-length bundles stored by forklift instead? See our cantilever rack shop.
When Storing Long Stock Upright Makes Sense
Most shops store long material lying down. A cantilever rack is the standard answer for full-length bar, pipe, tube and lumber: no front columns, arms rated in the thousands of pounds, and a forklift can set a whole bundle on a level. But a lot of long material in a machine shop, fab shop or maintenance department is not a full bundle. It is twenty sizes of bar stock, three or four pieces of each, plus drops that are too good to scrap. Lying flat, every one of those sizes needs its own arm level and its own aisle footprint equal to the length of the piece.
A vertical bar rack turns that around. Pieces stand on end in narrow bays, leaning back against the frame, so twenty sizes fit in the floor space of a workbench. Every bay is visible at once, a person can pull one piece without moving the others, and the rack can sit against a wall next to the saw. The trade-off is length and weight: vertical storage only works for stock you can safely tip in and out by hand under your ceiling.
Four Ways to Store Bar and Pipe Vertically
1. Leaning-frame vertical bar racks
The classic shop rack is a welded or bolted frame with a sloped back, a floor pan and cross members that divide it into bays. Stock stands in the pan and leans back against the frame. The Vestil VBR-9 is a good example: three bays 10-1/8 in wide, a back set at 78 degrees from the floor, and three pan shelves on the front that hold short pieces horizontally. It is 84 in tall and rated 3,000 lb evenly distributed. A safety chain runs across each bay so pieces cannot fall forward.
Vestil’s drawing says the unit must be lagged down before use, and the product is designed to stand against a wall. The galvanized SR-V shown at the top of this page is a lighter three-bay version for floor mounting; concrete anchors are bought separately.
Photo: Vestil (manufacturer product image). VBR-9 vertical bar rack.
2. Expandable bay racks for longer runs
When the stock list grows, a single frame runs out of bays. Expandable racks start with a starter unit and add extension units that share a side frame. Vestil’s EVR series comes in 59 in and 106 in heights. Each unit has a usable width of 48-5/8 in, three adjustable dividers on 5 in hole spacing, and a 4,000 lb capacity per Vestil’s drawings. Units join in line along a wall or back to back down the middle of a shop.
Adjustable dividers are the real advantage here. Wide bays take bundles of conduit or pipe, narrow bays keep a few pieces of small bar from tipping sideways, and the layout can change when the inventory does.
Photo: Vestil (manufacturer product image). EVR-106-S expandable starter unit.
3. Vertical bays mounted on pallet rack
If you already run a row of pallet rack, the face of an upright frame is free vertical storage. The Vestil PRSR-96-5B bolts across a pair of rack uprights and creates five bays, adjustable up to 17-9/16 in wide, with chains to hold the stock in. Long pieces stand on the floor in front of the bottom level and lean into the bays, so the rack beam and loads above are untouched.
Check two things first: the stock must not block the bottom pallet position or the aisle, and the uprights need to be undamaged and anchored. This is a smart use of an end frame or a wall-side row, not a place for heavy bundles.
Photo: Vestil (manufacturer product image). PRSR-96-5B mounted to pallet rack uprights.
4. Mobile bar and pipe racks
Racks on wheels carry stock between the receiving dock, the saw and the job. Little Giant’s adjustable bar and pipe storage rack rolls on 16 in pneumatic wheels, and the adjustable bar rack truck holds stock horizontally on a caster base. For a rolling rack with true cantilever arms, see our guide to portable cantilever carts.
Vertical Bar Rack Specifications Compared
Figures come from the manufacturers’ approval drawings and our live product listings. Capacities are for evenly distributed loads; where a listing gives no capacity we say so instead of guessing.
| Model | Type | W x D x H | Bays | Capacity | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vestil VBR-9 | Leaning frame + 3 pan shelves | 39-3/8 x 24-1/8 x 84 in | 3 at 10-1/8 in | 3,000 lb | $309.30 |
| Vestil SR-V | Galvanized floor-mount frame | 36-15/16 x 24-25/32 x 70-23/32 in | 3 at 10-3/16 in | See listing | $245.61 |
| Vestil EVR-59-S | Expandable starter | 53-23/32 x 21-3/4 x 59-19/32 in | 3 adjustable dividers | 4,000 lb | $457.04 |
| Vestil EVR-106-S | Expandable starter | 53 x 23 x 106-17/32 in | 3 adjustable dividers | 4,000 lb | $620.13 |
| Vestil EVR-106-EXT | Expandable add-on | 51 x 23 x 106-17/32 in | 3 adjustable dividers | 4,000 lb | $541.66 |
| Vestil PRSR-96-5B | Mounts to pallet rack uprights | 101 in long, 14-1/4 in deep | 5, up to 17-9/16 in | See listing | $260.28 |
| Little Giant LG-BR-2436-60 | Vertical frame | 36 x 24 x 60 in | Multi-bay | 1,200 lb | $405.43 |
| Little Giant LG-BR-2460-60 | Vertical frame | 60 x 24 x 60 in | Multi-bay | 4,500 lb | $551.15 |
| Little Giant LG-BR2-2448-60 | Wide-bay frame | 48 x 24 x 60 in | Wide bays | 5,000 lb | $363.43 |
| Little Giant LG-BR-2436-84 | Tall vertical frame | 36 x 24 x 84 in | Multi-bay | See listing | $625.72 |
Prices are current online prices and can change; freight is quoted separately. Vestil approval drawings note that dimensions carry a small tolerance, so confirm critical sizes with us before you lay out a tight wall.
Sizing a Vertical Rack: Length, Bays and Weight
Stock length is the first limit. To take a piece out of a vertical rack you lift it clear of the pan and tip it forward, so the clear height above the floor has to be more than the piece length plus that lift, under the lowest light, sprinkler head, door track or crane hook in the area. That is why vertical racks are a natural fit for drops and stock cut to 8 to 12 ft, and a poor fit for 20 ft mill lengths. Stand a few of your longest pieces up where the rack will go before you order.
| Decision | Rule of thumb |
|---|---|
| Rack height | Roughly half to two-thirds of the stock length, so pieces lean on the frame above their middle |
| Number of bays | One bay per size or alloy you pull often, plus a bay for drops |
| Bay width | Narrow bays for small bar so pieces cannot fall sideways; wide bays for pipe and conduit bundles |
| Weight per bay | Spread heavy steel across bays; the rating is for an evenly distributed load, not one bay |
| Where to put it | Against a wall or back to back, with an aisle in front at least as long as your longest piece |
Do the weight math before you trust a rating. Standard reference weights put 2 in round steel bar near 10.7 lb per ft, so ten 10 ft pieces in one bay are already about 1,070 lb. Aluminum, plastic pipe and trim fill the bays long before they reach the weight limit. For heavy steel in full bundles, our guide to cantilever load capacity by arm length explains how horizontal arm ratings work instead.
Horizontal Bar Racks: The Middle Option
A horizontal bar rack holds stock lying down on many short arms, stacked close together. It is a compact cousin of cantilever rack, built for hand loading. The Vestil DSHZ-4 has arms on both faces of an A-frame, nine levels spaced 6 in apart on an 83-7/8 in frame, with arm tips sloped upward so round stock does not roll off. Vestil says its levels store material up to 10 ft long, and two units side by side carry longer pieces.
For heavier and taller runs, Equipto heavy-duty bar rack ends come in single-faced and double-faced versions with 18 in arms, for example a 12 ft single-faced end or an 8 ft double-faced end. Horizontal racks suit stock too long to stand up but too light or too varied to justify full cantilever arms.
Photo: Vestil (manufacturer product image). DSHZ-4 double-sided horizontal bar rack.
If you are weighing bar rack against cantilever, see how one Salt Lake City manufacturer made that call in our cantilever rack vs bar rack case study.
Vertical Rack, Horizontal Bar Rack or Cantilever Rack?
| Option | Best for | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Vertical bar rack | Many sizes in small quantities, drops, trim and extrusions picked by hand | Stock length limited by clear height; hand loading only |
| Horizontal bar rack | Up to about 10 ft per unit, mixed bar sizes, round stock that needs to lie flat | Light loads per arm; long aisle in front |
| Cantilever rack | Full-length bundles of bar, pipe, tube and lumber, loaded by forklift | Bigger footprint and investment; overkill for a few pieces per size |
| Portable cart | Moving the day’s cut lengths between saw, cell and truck | Staging, not bulk storage |
Most metalworking shops end up with two of these: a cantilever row for mill lengths and a vertical or horizontal bar rack by the saw for drops and short stock. Our metal and steel cantilever racking page covers the storage side for service centers and fabricators, and cantilever pipe rack and tubing storage goes deeper on pipe stops and inclined arms. Sheets are a different problem; see our sheet goods cantilever guide.
Cantilever Rack SystemsArms, uprights and capacities for full-length storage rows.
Cantilever Rack ComponentsUprights, arms, braces and accessories explained.
Mobile Bar Rack TruckLittle Giant bar rack truck for moving stock to the saw.Photo: Interlake Mecalux (authorized use); Little Giant (manufacturer product image).
Installing and Using a Vertical Rack Safely
A vertical rack full of steel is top-heavy, and a long piece pulled out carelessly is a lever. These are the rules we give shops, drawn from the manufacturers’ drawings and general practice.
OSHA’s general rule for material storage, 29 CFR 1910.176, says stored material must be stable and secure against sliding or collapse, and aisles must stay clear. For a vertical rack that means anchored frames, chains in use, nothing leaning outside the bays and an aisle long enough to tip a piece out. Racks mounted on pallet rack add one more rule: never let the stock block the beam levels, labels or the uprights’ anchors.
Planning Your Bar and Pipe Storage
| Tell us | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Longest and typical piece lengths | Vertical, horizontal or cantilever, and rack height |
| Number of sizes and alloys | Bay count and whether you need expandable units |
| Heaviest piece and heaviest bay | Capacity and how to spread the load |
| Clear height and wall space | Whether pieces can be tipped out safely where the rack goes |
| Existing pallet rack rows | Whether rack-mounted vertical bays can use free upright faces |
You can buy vertical and horizontal bar racks online, sketch a full-length storage row in our free 3D cantilever rack configurator, or send us the list above and we will match the rack to your stock. Every cantilever arm, upright and brace we sell is in the cantilever rack shop.
Get a free quote
Tell us what you are storing, the room size and your timeline. A project specialist will follow up with layout options and pricing. Prefer to talk? Call (800) 326-4403.
Vertical Bar and Pipe Racks: FAQs
What is a vertical bar rack?
How much weight can a vertical bar rack hold?
How tall can stock be in a vertical rack?
Do vertical bar racks need to be anchored?
Can I add vertical storage to my pallet rack?
Vertical or horizontal bar rack: which is better?
When should I use cantilever rack instead?
Need Help Choosing Bar Storage?
Tell us your stock lengths, sizes and weights. We will match vertical, horizontal or cantilever rack to what you store. Call 800-326-4403.