raining gloomy weather for warehouses and cargo ships

16 Mar How to Prevent Warehouse Flooding When it Rains

Posted at 11:06h in Common Commercial Door Questions by Frontier Pacific

There’s only so much you can do when you have a flood warning to prepare for the worst. If your warehouse is located within a known flood zone, you’ll undoubtedly have failsafe initiatives already in place. But for some warehouse locations, the most obvious threat of flooding is the warehouse doors. If there’s heavy rain, that door might pose some risks to expensive equipment or products. In this case, take the following steps and call for a professional warehouse door repair.

Install Non-Return Drainage Pipes

You might consider adding more drainage pipes to allow rising rainwater to safely drain away. While this might not prevent all of the floodwaters from entering, it can help slow down rising waters enough to allow you to take further measures. Drainage pipes that lead directly to the main sewer will keep most of the water out unless they become clogged with debris carried along by the rain.

High-Rise Storage Racks

When there’s a flood, whatever you store in your warehouse is at risk of being damaged by water. With that in mind, it’s best to keep the lower racks empty to lessen the risk of water damage to your stock and equipment. It’s not always rain that causes flooding. Sometimes pipes can be an issue, too. So, it’s not a bad idea to keep the lower levels clear if there’s a risk of water damage. Anything that’s stored on the lower racks should be reserved for flooding emergencies.

Forklifts and Warehouse Equipment

The first thing you’ll want to do is move your warehouse machines and tools to higher ground as soon as possible. If there are raised platforms where you can place machines, just make sure that they’re able to support their weight. Machines and equipment are costly to repair or replace, so be sure to carefully store them inside your warehouse. Of course, this also includes electrical equipment that poses a hazardous risk of injury.

Store Filing Cabinets and Documents

Generally, warehouses often have office space on the second floor in order to free up warehouse space. Special supports should be set up to store all the files, cabinets, and important documents out of reach of heavy rains. This keeps them high and dry from floodwaters that could easily destroy paperwork. There should also be an easy way to transport other equipment that is at risk to an upstairs flood-free safe zone. This is also the best place to store computers and data-tracking equipment.

Sandbags or Built-In Flood Barriers

Sandbags are the most common safeguard that’s used against warehouse flooding. But this works best if they are backed with a plastic tarp that acts as a moisture barrier. There are new kinds of warehouse door flood barriers that are large enough to keep out rising floodwaters. They are installed on the outer walls and have quick install sections that help cover a door in a matter of minutes. But that doesn’t always work. It depends on the design of your warehouse.

Key Takeaway

If your warehouse is prone to flooding in the rainy season, you probably need a commercial door repair, or warehouse dock door repair. Frontier Pacific commercial door repair can help provide you with the most reasonable estimate to fix or upgrade your roll-up doors. Call us at (510) 935-0086 and we’ll be happy to assist you!

Tags:

commercial door, commercial gate