Why warehouse / plant floors need floor markings

When employees are engaged in their work, they can become oblivious to their surroundings. With floor striping and marking, they get important visual cues and reminders to direct traffic, warn them of possible hazards, and guide their actions.

Floor line striping and markings are a way to clearly define space for a specific purpose and to reduce delays by keeping things moving throughout the facility in a safe, orderly fashion.

• Enhance workflow with color-coding like the common use of blue to designate Works-In-Progress and black for Finished Goods.
• Eliminate errors by guiding new employees and reminding everyone about standard workflow and processes.
• Maximize valuable real estate by designating space for raw materials, components, equipment, and products in various stages of completion.

When you're ready to add greater value and utility to your facility, contact the floor striping and line marking experts at Painters USA. We work on new and existing structures and surfaces from concrete to steel.

Most importantly, we deliver quality, long-lasting outcomes in as little time as possible to minimize disruption to your normal operations.

Floor marking and line striping services from Painters USA

• Commercial interior line painting.
• Industrial line painting and floor marking.
• Warehouse and distribution center floor marking and line striping.
• Manufacturing facility floor marking and line striping.
• Replacing tape for longer-lasting stripes and marks.
• Epoxy floor striping and line painting.
• Line striping and color coding for hazard warnings.
• Color-coding for complex piping systems,

Whether it's support for 5S lean manufacturing or workplace safety, just tell us your goals, objectives, and needs. We have the resources and experience to complete large, complex projects, and our national account team is ready to service and support companies with multiple locations nationwide.

Floor marking and line striping for safety

Floor markings are the most effective way to define and communicate travel paths, work areas, and safety zones.

• Safe traffic flow: Pathways for vehicle and foot traffic routes and door swing areas benefit from floor paint markings by guiding flow in optimal patterns and preventing collisions. Floor striping and clear directional painting is a tool for complying with OSHA Walking-Working Surfaces requirements and enforcing safe and orderly PIT (Powered Industrial Trucks) movement. We can also use non-slip or anti-skid materials to reduce the risk of slipping and falling, a common cause of workplace injury.

• Hazard alerts: Proper use of line striping can be used to point out fire extinguisher locations, electric panels and high voltage areas, pinch points, fall / trip hazards, overhead obstructions, and other hazards. It can be a Hazard Communication or HAZCOM tool for hazardous chemical storage areas.

• Durability: Cones or tape work fine for temporary use and planning purposes, but for warehouses, factories, and other industrial / commercial facilities with heavy wear and tear, professional floor painting and coating contractors will give you unchangeable, long-lasting results.

The following are commonly recognized, making these floor markings helpful in orienting and protecting new employees:

• Red or yellow floor markings identify physical hazards. Red indicates that the hazard is fire-related, and yellow indicates a hazard that could be tripped over, caught between, or struck against.
• Yellow and black diagonal stripe floor markings indicate the need for extra caution.
• Red and white stripes define floor areas to be kept clear for safety reasons, such as access to fire fighting equipment.
• Black and white stripes are used to mark flooring areas that need to be clear for operational purposes.

Quality and Lean Manufacturing goals

Painted floor markings in warehouses and plants are an easy, economical tactic that can be used to support lean processes and quality initiatives. By reminding workers and guiding work flow and activities, line striping can be an effective tool to help enforce and sustain nearly every 5S objective:

1. Seiri or Sort: Clearly mark floor space for essential items needed to complete tasks.
2. Seiton or Set in Order: Organize items in a logical way by marking their designated place.
3. Seiso or Shine: Help keep workplace areas clean and orderly by marking how space is used.
4. Seiketsu or Standardize: Floor markings are a communication tool to enforce rules and standards for organization.
5. Shitsuke or Sustain: Floor markings can help maintain discipline over time.

Quality certifications like Six Sigma (6S), ISO 9000, or Lean Manufacturing require all floor space to organized, well-defined, and designated in specific ways, and these certifications can be time-consuming and costly. Floor marking and line striping services from Painters USA will help you support and maximize those investments. We are happy to discuss how we can help you reach and maintain quality certifications and also prepare for inspections or audits.

When applied by a qualified painting contractor like Painters USA, line striping and other paint markings will serve your facility for many years of high volume use. And once they’re created, it’s important to maintain these markings for worker safety, regulatory compliance, and quality certification standards.

Don't neglect markings on your plant and warehouse floors—get them painted and keep them well-maintained with help from Painters USA.

Floor marking customer stories

Safety walkway installation in Dallas-Ft. Worth

Join us for a quick tour of this client’s safety walkway in Grand Prairie, Texas.

The client’s goal: Safe, distinct passage for warehouse pedestrians, achieved by creating a clearly-defined, 678 ft. walkway with bright red borders.

• First, we cleaned the walkway with a heavy duty degreaser.
• Next, we laid out the walkway using a template for a 4 foot wide and 678 long walkway.
• We then applied a hard surface primer
• Finally, we applied Epoxy Mastic Safety RED for the 4-inch line borders

Pedestrian walkways and lines in automotive glass plant

We were contacted and asked to assist with the lean manufacturing transformation of an Illinois automotive glass manufacturer.

The client’s goal: Substantial improvement and restoration of their nearly nonexistent walkways and flooring designations.

The steps of this radical transformation included the following:

• First, we used our state-of-the-art diamond grinder to remove existing epoxy and open up the pores of the concrete. This allowed the high-build epoxy to adhere in the most durable, permanent fashion possible.
• Next, we patched all holes, cracks, and spalls under the new walkway.
• We then primed the walkway with a penetrating epoxy primer.
• We painted a coat of 100% Solids Polyaspartic Epoxy in lucky green, topped with two coats of Fast Dry on all stripes and cross hatch lines in yellow and white.
• We applied a clear urethane coat layer over the entire walkway.
• We finished with a broadcast of anti-slip aggregate for extra traction and safety.

These new walkways and line striping designations are tough, practical, and low-maintenance - perfect for a busy facility. And there’s no denying that the bright colors chosen for this floor add clarity, character, plus a bit of Wow! factor to the space.

Durable aisleways and pedestrian walkways at Illinois plant

We’re all about safety, efficiency, and high-quality coatings, so when a project involves all three of those things, well, we get excited. Such was the case when an industrial plant in Illinois/

The client’s goal: To help organize their work space by installing durable aisleways and pedestrian walkways for clear direction through busy intersections and to keep traffic flowing safely and efficiently.

The line painting project in a nutshell:

• It all starts with prep! In this case, we used a diamond grinder to prepare the surface for maximum adhesion. Opening the pores of the concrete allows the floor system to grip.
• All the lines were carefully taped and marked out to create crisp, clean edges.
• We selected a high-solids Macropoxy 646 Fast Cure Epoxy for this application. It’s a high-build, fast-drying, polyamide epoxy designed specifically to protect steel and concrete in hard-working industrial environments.
• We finished with a Rexthane Urethane topcoat for long-lasting durability.

With decades of experience doing this kind of work, the project was completed on time, on budget, and with minimal interruption to the client’s operations.

FAQs

How can painted floor markings and lines keep warehouses safe?

Line striping and other paint markings promote safety because they are visual cues that are always present to guide and direct employees as they do their work and move around the facility. Functional paint enhances visibility, identifies safe pathways and routes to avoid collisions, and marks potential hazards like high voltage areas or tripping hazards. There is even non-slip / anti-skid epoxy floor paint that reduces the risk of slipping and falling.

Does OSHA require floor markings on plant / warehouse floors?

OSHA Standard 1910.22 for Walking-Working Surfaces requires permanent aisles and passageways to be appropriately and consistently marked. Aisle and passageway markings need to be at least 2’’ wide so they are clearly visible and up to 6’’ wide based on the environment. Line striping is a practical, economical way to create these markings

Can floor markings help me avoid OSHA safety violations?

In some situations, yes. For example, the right use of paint can support HAZCOM (Hazard Communications) requirements, draw attention to electrical equipment and high-voltage areas, provide clear directional guidance for safe and orderly movement of Powered Industrial Trucks (PITs) and identify storage and work areas for hazardous materials.

Can floor markings help me with ISO 9000, Six Sigma, and other quality and lean certifications?

Yes, these kinds of functional painting practices are economical, effective tools to reach and maintain the requirements of many certification programs, as they communicate and define space for standardization, consistency, work flow, worker productivity, and also safety.

Does OSHA mandate specific colors for warehouse or plant floors?

While colors are not mandated, there are some recommendations that are commonly used and recognized. For example, red or yellow floor markings identify potential physical hazards. Yellow and black diagonal stripes define areas that indicate extra caution; red and white stripes define areas to be kept clear for safety reasons (such as access to fire fighting equipment) and black and white stripes are used to mark areas that need to be clear for operational purposes. Color coding is often used for multiple piping lines to make their contents easily recognized.

What does the line striping process entail?

For Painters USA, our process is four basic steps. We begin by marking the area for new or refreshed striping. Then we prepare the surface with thorough cleaning and smoothing away any rough spots. We carefully apply the striping and finish with a clear epoxy coating for endurance and a longer life.

What are other benefits of painted floor markings?

Besides safety and compliance purposes, pain can be used to improve efficiency and quality by eliminating errors, enhancing workflow, and improving management of processes, inventory, and other resources. Line striping also helps property owners and facility managers maximize every square foot of costly real estate.