The Bel-Con Blog

Building Resilient Supply Chains With More Warehouse and Distribution Centre Space

**A custom built warehouse or distribution centre can help you build resiliency into your supply chain.**

Recent global events have highlighted the weaknesses in supply chains for many businesses. For decades, operating on lean supply chains was seen as an advantage. Now, the coronavirus pandemic, along with the potential of looming trade barriers between different nations, have shown that employing multiple channels of supply may be a better approach despite higher costs.

Along with shortages resulting from manufacturing plants shutting down due to COVID-19, there has also been a surge in online shopping as local retailers complied with social distancing closures. All of this has driven demand for warehouse and distribution centre space as companies seek more local solutions such as re-shoring or near-shoring to increase the efficiency and resiliency of their supply chains.

Solving Your Warehouse Needs

The options to meet this surge in demand involve:

renting available warehouse space in existing storage facilities,
renovating or retrofitting vacant or under-used facilities,
or constructing entirely new buildings.

With a rented facility you may be sharing a building that is divided up among other businesses. This could make access to parking and loading docks more of a challenge. It may also limit your ability to expand should your warehousing needs grow.

When it comes to a renovation or retrofit, you may find yourself in a situation where the best use of the existing space means you have to settle for a solution that only partially fits your needs. You may also discover other issues to deal with during the retrofit such as hazardous materials or structural concerns. Such things can force delays and have the potential to drive up the cost of your project.

Build-To-Suit Warehousing and Distribution Centre Capability

Of the three options, constructing your own building has the biggest up front cost in terms of time and investment required. But it may be the most attractive long-term solution as you can custom build your warehouse or distribution space to meet the specifications unique to the products you deal in.

Loading docks on the exterior of a warehouse.

Building a new warehouse or distribution centre also affords you the advantage of being able to plan all aspects of your space including the truck yard to determine traffic flow, access to loading docks, and the ability to drop trailers to assist with peak volumes. In addition you can determine parking and accessibility for visitors and employees.

When you build a warehouse, you can choose the building shape and footprint. This gives you the opportunity to design for the optimal flow of goods from receipt to outbound shipping. You can also choose your building height, something crucial to maximizing the use of your footprint when it comes to storage capacity. If overhead cranes, over-sized doors or loading dock capacity are required, you can plan ahead and ensure the best placement for these systems.

Why Bel-Con is Your Best Choice to Build or Retrofit Your Warehouse in Eastern Ontario

Additionally, your choice of builder can have a tremendous impact on the successful completion of your warehouse project. With over 45 years of experience in the construction industry, Bel-Con have completed numerous new builds, renovations and retrofits for manufacturers, shipping companies and other commercial ventures in Bay of Quinte and Eastern Ontario.

Best of all, our status as a Butler Builder® gives us an advantage over many other builders. Butler Manufacturing's pre-engineered building solutions have been in use throughout North America for over 100 years. Their building systems have been carefully designed and rigorously tested for durability and efficiency.

Interior of a warehouse space built using Butler's Widespan Building System.

As a Butler Builder® we can maximize your building’s performance with a complete Butler® system solution, including:

Innovative structural, wall and roof systems that are precision-engineered for seamless integration.
Tested assemblies to ensure you a more accurate estimate of long-term energy consumption to lower total cost of ownership.
Daylighting options which help create natural lighting for your facility and reduce costs.
An exclusive partnership with Konecranes to help you choose a crane system that integrates with Butler's building system.

Whether you're looking to build long-term storage space or quick turn packing and shipping facilities that support high-volume supply chain operations, Bel-Con Design Builders is here to help you. Contact us today to discuss your warehouse or distribution centre project needs.

For more information download our Warehouse and Distribution Centre flyer from Butler Manufacturing.

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The Bel-Con Blog

Get to Know Metal Roof Systems

roof structure in process of being replaced with half of the outer roof material in place

If, after you've inspected your commercial or industrial facility's roof and assessed it's condition, you've made the decision replace it, you now must choose the type or roof system to use. Our previous blog post noted that there are two basic types of metal roof systems; through-fastened (a.k.a. screw-down) and standing-seam.

Metal Roofing Systems (2 types)

Through-fastened roofs are more commonly known as screw-down; because they are just that - screwed down to the structure that supports the roof panels. When properly detailed and installed this type of roof can provide a good quality system with an anticipated life cycle of 20-25 years. The weather tight life span will often be longer than 25+ years however, because this type of roof is usually prefinished with a paint system, it is typically the fading of the paint that will drive a future replacement. Additionally at some point in the life cycle of the roof, it may be necessary to replace the fasteners as a result of the degradation of the neoprene washers due to weathering as they become brittle or worn.

Standing-seam roof systems as opposed to being held in place by fasteners through the panel; have a clip system that fastens to the structure. The purpose of the clip is twofold; first it eliminates the bulk of the fasteners through the panels and secondly it allows for more unrestricted movement to occur for the system. As per previous blogs this unrestricted movement is the key to a successful roof installation.

Through-fastened roofs are primarily used with some form of architectural appearance in mind while standing-seam roofs are most often used as a roof primarily for function and durability. However, there are times where through-fastened roofs are utilitarian and standing-seam roofs are utilized for architectural purposes.

Factors Affecting Roof Installation

There are a number of details that are necessary to ensure a successful installation for either of these metal roof systems:

Proper slope
Adequate drainage
Proper transitions for roof-to-roof and roof-to-wall
Attention to panel laps
Proper fasteners
Proper sub-structure and as with all roof systems
Proper attention and detailing of all roof penetrations and last but not least,
The single most important detail is ensuring that the roof is allowed to move

The details above are numerous and the specific details are much easier to explain with samples and details as opposed to written word. We encourage you to contact us to arrange a free no obligation demonstration where we will explain both types of metal roof systems, their proper use and detailing.

In our next blog post we will look at the various roof systems that are called “standing-seam” and we will also expand our look into the details of these systems to show that when comparing apples to apples, not all apples are the same!