Lumber Yard Racking Systems: Wheelwright Lumber

Dimensional lumber, sheet goods, trim and long material each want a different storage answer — and half of them live outdoors. Here is how Material Handling USA plans custom lumber yard racking systems around a real building material inventory. A construction supply house stores an even wider mix — see our construction supply yard racking case study for bagged goods, rebar and will-call counter stock.

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Forklift moving banded dimensional lumber stored on cantilever rack at a lumber yard

2021 – 2026

Years Wheelwright Lumber has worked with us on racking

Building materials

Lumber and building supply distribution

Indoor + covered

Storage spans conditioned, covered and open areas

Long material

The load type that changes the whole design

The project

Wheelwright Lumber is a lumber and building materials supplier. Material Handling USA has supplied pallet rack for the company across several projects, in 2021, 2022 and again in 2026.

A lumber yard is really three storage problems sharing one address. There is long material that no pallet rack system was designed to hold. There is palletized and banded product that behaves like normal warehouse inventory. And there is a large amount of both sitting outdoors or under a canopy, exposed to weather, wind and the occasional very determined forklift.

This page uses that relationship as the starting point for how we plan lumber yard racking. The client, the years and the product category supplied are the only project specifics we publish; the rest is general planning and engineering guidance for any building materials operation.

What we publish

We publish the client, the years we have worked together and the product category supplied. We never publish facility layouts, yard dimensions, storage quantities, contract values or anything else specific to a customer’s site.

Single-sided cantilever rack loaded with banded dimensional lumber along a warehouse wall — Single-sided cantilever against a wall: the classic answer for banded lumber inside a building.

Start by sorting the inventory, not the building

Building material inventories look chaotic until they are grouped by how the product has to be handled. Almost every yard sorts into five groups, and each one points at a different storage system.

Long, banded units — dimensional lumber, timbers, engineered wood, trim, moulding, steel studs, pipe and tube. These are what cantilever rack exists for.

Sheet goods — plywood, OSB, drywall, sheathing and panel products. Flat, heavy, awkward and easily damaged at the edges; they want full-support storage rather than open arms.

Palletized and banded material — fasteners, adhesives, shingles, masonry products, bagged concrete. Ordinary selective racking territory, though the pallet weights are often at the heavy end.

Small and loose stock — hardware, hangers, connectors, short lengths and cut-offs. These need shelving or bins near the counter, not a pallet position at the back of the yard.

Bulk and irregular — rebar, mesh, culvert, landscape products. Often outdoors, often the last thing anybody plans for, and often the reason an aisle is blocked.

Cantilever rack versus pallet rack in a lumber yard

The most common storage mistake in a building materials operation is trying to make one system do everything. Long material laid across pallet rack beams loads them in ways they were not designed for and makes retrieval awkward and unsafe; palletized goods stacked on cantilever arms waste the arm capacity and lose the pallet support that keeps the load stable.

The useful way to decide is by asking what supports the load and where the operator has to reach.

	Cantilever rack	Pallet rack
Best for	Long, unpalletized units: lumber, trim, pipe, tube, moulding, steel	Palletized and banded goods with a stable footprint
Front obstruction	None — arms are open at the front, so a unit can be slid in from the side or the face	Front columns at every bay define the opening
Load support	Arms at intervals; deck the arms where product would sag or slip	Beams plus decking or pallet supports
Sheet goods	Works well with decked arms or a sheet-goods configuration	Works when sheets are palletized and handled as a unit
Outdoor use	Common, with galvanized components and a designed foundation	Possible, but less common; still needs corrosion protection and engineered anchorage
Reconfiguration	Arms adjust on the column; capacity depends on arm length and level	Beams adjust in teardrop slots; capacity depends on beam level configuration

Double-sided freestanding cantilever rack holding lumber on one side and pipe on the other — Double-sided cantilever placed in an open bay stores from both faces and doubles capacity per footprint.

In practice a yard usually runs cantilever rack for long material, selective pallet racking with wire decking for palletized goods, and structural rack in the rows that take real forklift traffic.

Close-up of the bolted diagonal and horizontal bracing joining two cantilever rack columns — Bracing and the base are what make a cantilever rack stable — not the arms.

Sizing cantilever: the numbers that matter

Cantilever rack looks simple and is easy to specify badly. Five inputs do most of the work.

Load length and weight per arm. Capacity is quoted per arm, and the arm rating depends on how far out the load sits. A long arm is not the same as a strong arm.

Arm length versus load depth. Arms should support the load, not extend past it into the aisle. Product that overhangs the arm tip is unstable; arms that overhang the product are a hazard to anyone walking by.

Level spacing. Set from the actual bundle height plus handling clearance. Too generous and you lose whole levels of capacity; too tight and every put-away becomes a fight.

Single-sided or double-sided. Single-sided racks stand against a wall; double-sided freestanding racks work in open floor and store from both faces. The base depth and bracing differ, and so does the foundation.

Arm tilt and stops. Upward-inclined arms and arm-end stops keep round or slick material from rolling forward. For pipe, tube and poles they are not accessories.

Deck the arms when the product asks for it

Bare arms suit banded units that span several arms comfortably. Loose stock, short lengths, sheet goods and anything that could sag or slip between arms wants decking on the arms — timber, steel or wire — specified to the load it will actually carry.

Outdoor cantilever rack columns and arms installed under open sky for long material storage — Outdoor racking is designed for wind and anchored to an engineered foundation, not just to the yard surface.

Outdoor and covered storage

Half a lumber yard is usually outside, and outdoor racking is a genuinely different engineering problem from an indoor row.

Wind is a design load. An outdoor rack, loaded or empty, has to be designed for the wind demands of its site under the adopted building code. Anchorage, foundations and bracing follow from that calculation, and it is not something to be assumed from an indoor design.

The foundation is part of the rack. Outdoor installations frequently need engineered footings or a designed slab rather than a general yard surface. Asphalt is not an anchoring surface. Frost depth, drainage and how the base plate sheds water all matter.

Corrosion protection is specified, not assumed. Galvanized components are the normal choice for exposed racks; painted rack outdoors has a much shorter honest service life, particularly at base plates and in areas that see road salt.

Cover changes the product, not just the rack. Lumber that will be sold as dry, straight material needs protection from sun and moisture cycling, so the value of a canopy is usually in reduced product degradation rather than in rack longevity.

Yard traffic, aisles and pick sequence

Lumber yards are handled by big equipment carrying long loads, and the aisle plan has to allow for the turning circle of a loaded machine, not an empty one.

Aisle width follows the loadA forklift carrying a 20-foot unit needs room to turn the load, not just the truck. Measure the longest product you actually stock and plan the aisle around handling it.

Put volume at the frontThe products that make up most of the daily loading should sit closest to the loading area and at the most workable heights. Specialty and slow stock can take the far end.

Separate customer and equipment routesContractor pick-ups and forklifts sharing a lane is the most common near-miss in a yard. Define routes and marked pedestrian areas at the design stage.

Plan for delivery vehiclesWhere trucks unload, how side-loaders approach, and where banded units are staged all shape row orientation as much as the storage arithmetic does.

Keep sheet goods near the sawIf the yard cuts to size, sheet and panel storage should sit within a short move of the saw or cutting area rather than across the site.

Mark capacity where operators can see itArm capacity, level capacity and system configuration should be posted at the rack, in a format readable from a seat, and updated whenever anything is changed.

Blue and orange cantilever rack rows installed along a wall for banded building supply materials — Consistent arm levels and protected column bases make a yard row that survives daily loading.

Protection, anchorage and inspection

Long, heavy loads and large equipment make a building materials yard unforgiving of damaged storage. Three habits keep it safe.

Protect the impact points. Column guards, bollards and end-of-row protection at aisle ends, gates, corners and loading positions cost a fraction of a bent column and an emptied row.

Anchor and level properly. Cantilever and pallet rack are both anchored to the specified anchor type, size and embedment, plumbed and shimmed. Outdoor racks add wind demands, and above defined heights engineered drawings and permitting apply. Rack design follows ANSI MH16.1 from the Rack Manufacturers Institute at MHI; cantilever systems have their own design provisions within that family of standards. An experienced installation crew matters more here than on an ordinary warehouse row.

Inspect and act. Walk the rows on a schedule, look specifically at arms, arm connections, base plates, bracing and anchors, and treat any impact as a reason to unload the bay and have it evaluated through a documented rack inspection and repair route. OSHA’s materials-handling rule, 29 CFR 1910.176(b), requires stored material to be stable and secure against collapse — with banded units at height, that is not a paperwork obligation.

Lumber yard racking FAQs

What racking should a lumber yard use?

Cantilever rack for long, unpalletized material such as dimensional lumber, timbers, trim, pipe and steel; selective pallet rack with decking for palletized and banded goods; and shelving or bins for hardware and short stock. Most yards need all three, and forcing one system to do every job is the usual source of damage and wasted space.

Can lumber be stored on ordinary pallet rack?

Palletized or banded units with a stable footprint can be, on beams with appropriate decking or pallet supports. Loose long material should not be laid across pallet beams: it loads them in ways they were not designed for, obstructs the bay opening and makes retrieval unsafe. That is what cantilever arms exist for.

How is cantilever rack capacity determined?

Capacity is rated per arm and depends on arm length and the load’s position along the arm, with column and base capacity set by the sum of the levels above. Design from the real load length, weight and bundle height, and remember that the arm must support the load rather than the load overhanging the arm tip.

Can cantilever rack be installed outdoors?

Yes, and it is common in building material yards, but it is designed differently. Wind demands from the adopted building code apply, foundations or an engineered slab are usually required rather than a general yard surface, and galvanized components are the normal specification for corrosion protection.

How should sheet goods such as plywood and drywall be stored?

With full support under the sheet rather than on widely spaced arms: decked cantilever levels, a dedicated sheet-goods configuration, or palletized storage handled as a unit. Edge damage and sag are the failure modes, and both come from unsupported spans.

How wide should lumber yard aisles be?

Wide enough for the longest product you stock to be turned and placed by a loaded machine, which is usually considerably more than the truck’s own turning requirement. Plan around your actual equipment and longest units, and keep customer traffic on separate marked routes.

How often should lumber yard racking be inspected?

Schedule a routine walk-through, plus an immediate inspection any time something is struck. Look specifically at arms and arm connections, column bases, bracing, anchors and, outdoors, corrosion at base plates. Unload and evaluate any damaged bay before it goes back into service.

Planning storage for a lumber or building materials yard?

We design, supply and install cantilever rack and pallet rack for building material suppliers across Utah and the Intermountain West, including Ogden.

Request a Quote Call (800) 326-4403

Storage Designed Around Long, Heavy, Awkward Product

Material Handling USA designs, supplies and installs cantilever rack and pallet rack for lumber yards and building material suppliers across Utah and the Intermountain West.