Standards For Warehouse Painting in New Jersey

Warehouses are busy and hazardous environments with unique challenges to managing productivity, efficiency, and safety issues. It’s a good plan to use paint technology and strategic color combinations to make a warehouse safer, thereby enhancing protection for employees, equipment, and products.

Safety improvements result from initiatives like painting warehouse ceilings, warehouse floor painting and warehouse safety floor markings, and pedestrian walkway lines and aisles.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides guidelines on how organizations can help improve the health and safety in warehouse and distribution centers. OSHA regulations require commercial facilities to mark all permanent aisles and passageways, or else pay the price of a violation and a fine.

Guidelines for Warehouse Painting & Safety

OSHA standards for painting warehouses

It may seem kind of insignificant, but those painted yellow lines you see on warehouse, store, and factory floors are anything but unimportant. OSHA has basic color and width guidelines for floor markings, also called safety lines.

Safety lines are essential for the protection of employees who work in those buildings. OSHA can issue steep fines when areas where employees walk or the work areas are not marked to identify safe pathways or highlight dangerous areas.

Floor Markings

OSHA’s floor marking guidelines help facilities determine how and where they need to use floor markings to improve safety. These standards cover requirements for cleaning shop floors, standards for aisles and passageways, and much more.

Floor markings can be used throughout the warehouse. When making a floor marking plan, employers should make sure they’ve used enough floor markings to be effective and avoid using too many markings that just look confusing.

Aisles

Most facilities will benefit from using floor markings as an aisle marking tool. They can also be used to help keep vehicles traveling in approved ways.

Storage Areas

Floor markings can improve the way things are organized. Sectioning off storage areas will help avoid putting things in the wrong places throughout the day.

Hazards. Identifying safety hazards using floor markings is another good option. Alerting people to a hazard’s existence is a way to ensure safety in a warehouse. Floor markings can be placed around stairwells, openings in the floor, ledges, or anywhere else that could present a serious risk to those in the area.

Aisles and Passageways

Warehouse floor striping allows companies to mark and identify aisles and passageways that are to be kept clear for safe operational workings and in the event of an emergency. When using aisles and passageways to move materials mechanically, workers must allow sufficient clearance for aisles at loading docks, through doorways, wherever turns must be made, and in other areas of the workplace.

Employers must ensure that permanent aisles and passageways are marked appropriately. The aisle markings must show the actual aisle space. There is no specific guidance on aisle and passageway widths; however, OSHA does recommend they be wide enough to be seen by everyone in that specific area. Aisles can be created by painting safety lines to clear up confusion and help your facility run smoothly.

Traffic Flow Areas

If your warehouse uses large pieces of equipment, having safety lines painted on the floor will help direct traffic flow and help your employees operate equipment more safely. Creating designated areas for forklifts, pallet jacks, and rolling racks can keep collisions from happening.

Employee-Only Areas

If you work with hazardous materials, creating employee-only areas can help to ensure the safety of your customers. Customers will be well-informed of the areas they should steer clear of.

Keep Pedestrians and Vehicles Separated

Creating floor markings to show pedestrians where they should be walking and vehicle operators where they should be driving will go a long way toward minimizing the overall risk of an accident.

Electrical Compliance

A dangerous area of most warehouses is near electrical equipment. To keep people safe, OSHA requires that facilities alert people to the potential danger of this equipment. Placing floor markings around all electrical equipment can help ensure everyone is aware of the hazard. It is also recommended that floor marking signs are used so people can see the specific hazard that is present.

Floor Marking Color Guide

Following the same standards throughout your warehouse can help avoid confusion and encourage safe practices. OSHA suggests warehouse managers adopt color strategies universally recognized in modern workplaces. Below are some common floor marking colors:

Yellow is recommended for marking off aisles and pathways within a facility. Yellow is also used in areas where people need to use extra caution; e.g., for marking physical hazards such as striking against, stumbling, falling, and tripping,

White is commonly used to identify storage locations and general info like parking, reminders, and directions.

Red is used for marking equipment such as fire extinguishers. It is also used to signify imminent danger of serious injury.

Orange signifies a warning of potential danger; it can also be used for organizing things within a warehouse that need an inspection.

Green is normally used to mark off safety equipment. First aid kits, eyewash stations, and health information will have green floor marking tape in those areas.

The colors blue, green, and black are often used to identify raw materials.

A red and white-striped floor marking is used to let people know that the area must be kept clear for emergency access. This could be placed around fire hydrants and near emergency vehicle zones.

Orange-Red floor markings are used to mark biological hazards in the area. Magenta lettering on a yellow background signifies radiation and X-ray areas.

Floor Marking Shapes

There are many floor marking shapes that can be used to improve organization and safety within a warehouse.  The following are some common shapes and how they are used:

Octagonal Stop Signs – Stop signs on the floor ensure those driving indoor vehicles come to a complete stop, just as with vehicles on the roads outdoors.

Arrows – Floor marking arrows direct people to get where they need to go. They are useful in pointing people to an evacuation area.

Exit Signs – Exit signs can be placed on the floor using lettering to direct people toward the nearest exit.

Footsteps – The shape of footsteps leads employees and visitors in the direction you want them to go while in the warehouse.

Warning Signs – The word “warning” or a shape signifying a specific hazard helps to improve safety for all in the warehouse.

Now that you know all OSHA safety colors and what they mean, you’re ready to call CertaPro Painters to start planning your warehouse project.

When you are ready to start your warehouse painting project, Call CertaPro Painters of Mountainside at 908-514-5801 or schedule an estimate online today.