I'm not familiar with the commercial "range movers"; would be interested to talk to anybody who's used them. We moved them ourselves.

If ranges are turning corners or changing floors they must be disassembled to be moved.

We had to move a bunch of 8-, 9-, and 10-section ranges just a few feet. Rather than taking them apart, we used the "Egyptian Pyramid Monolith" moving method: we put some heavy-duty metal pipes under them (one pipe under each 2nd section) and rolled them. Worked! Use lots of people (one every other section, on each side of the range) when you tip the range to get the bars under, and when you push/roll the range.

If you're constructing new shelving, we found that it is more efficient to put the "wings" (shelf ends) on the uprights first, then slap the bottoms onto the wings. Takes a good hard thwump to get them on, so buy some rubber mallets or tie some socks around hammer heads for this. It may seem more efficient to use your fist, but I have lots of bruises to prove that's not a good idea. I'm a slow learner.

When building ranges, have the shelves hung at the normal 7 shelves/sf section rate, evenly spaced. Let the shifters move the shelves out of that configuration as needed.

If you know what your growth space per shelf will be at the time the shelving is being erected, and you plan to have the same growth space throughout the collection, the bookends can be put on the shelves at the roughly correct place. You will need to check their placement shortly before you do your shift, of course, but if the shelving erectors have to place wire or free-standing bookends anyway, might as well have them put in the approximately right place. Fine-tuning the placement of several thousand bookends is easier.

Don't load up a range with books until you have the transverse tie strut attached to the top. Since you fill one side before the other, the range may tip over if it's not tied into another nearby range, or to the wall.

Ask shelving erector crews to wear gloves. Saves on the cuts and nicks.

Some folks loved the battery-powered drills with screw-driver head bits, others didn't find them so wonderful; they liked the old-fashioned screw drivers.

Be sure your floors can meet the load-bearing requirements you have. If you're using compact-shelving, you probaby aren't installing that, so the professional installers can worry about it.

Floor anchors: we haven't deal with those. Most of our floors in the older part of the building are "post tensioned slab"; these are floors which have very tightly-strung wires buried in them just under the tile. I think these wires add to the support of the floor somehow. If you drill into the floor (for anchoring the ranges or for any reason) and you snap one of those wires, you are in deep trouble. We had to x-ray the floors before the contractor could do a bit of drilling in a few very special places. We didn't go the floor-anchor route for the ranges.

There also are carpet anchors: we haven't used those, either, so we can't be much help.

Be aware of and follow as closely as you can the ADA aisle-width requirements.

When we were moving lots of shelves, somebody thought of turning a study table upsidedown, putting a furniture dolly under it, and loading shelves between the upright table legs.

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Last substantive update: 970506