Archive Room Layout Guide

A mobile shelving system is the last thing that goes into a room and the first thing the room has to suit. These are the five surveys our engineers run before any drawing leaves the office — the same five that decide whether your archive passes inspection on day one.

The five-step survey

What we measure before we draw a single bay.

Survey the roomNet dimensions after columns, radiators, door swings and the 1.2 m corridor the fire plan already claims.

Size the systemBay count from your inventory, then module lengths that fit the run walls without dead corners.

Plan the aislesOne main aisle plus one open access aisle per bank — widths fixed by your accessibility rules.

Zone by frequencyActive files nearest the door on electric runs; long retention deep in the room on manual runs.

Verify the floorCompactors concentrate load onto the rail line. We issue kg/m² figures for your structural engineer.

Aisles & clearances

The numbers inspectors check first.

These clearances come from our installed base across government, hospital and university archives. Meet them on the drawing and the walkthrough is a formality.

≥1200 mmMain aisle — the route from the door to every bank; also your fire-egress argument.
750–900 mmOpen access aisle between carriages while in use; 900 mm where trolleys circulate.
≤60 mTravel distance from any shelf position to the room exit, per typical fire code.
50 mmMinimum carriage-to-carriage closure so files cannot snag between bays.
100 mmSkirt clearance under the first shelf for cleaning and floor movement.

Open access aisle between two mobile compactor banks, width checked against clearance rules

Layouts in the field

Four rooms, four different answers.

Same product family, completely different floor plans. The layout follows the room — never the other way round.

Hand-wheel mobile compactor bank along one wall of a records hall — A hand-wheel wall run holds the deep collection; the open floor stays free for worktables.

High-bay compact storage aisle with LED guidance lighting — High-bay runs squeeze a decade of growth out of a narrow plant room.

Single central mobile bank serving a records office — One central bank leaves both side walls free for worktables and scanners.

Locked numbered mobile bays on rails for long-retention files — Locked, numbered bays at the back of the room guard long-retention case files.

Redraw list

Four layout mistakes we fix before fabrication.

Aisles sized on paper, not for the trolley

750 mm looks generous on a drawing and feels tight the first time a loaded trolley turns. We draw the widths around the equipment your staff actually push.

Fix900 mm wherever trolleys circulate.

Door swings claimed as storage

The arc a fire door sweeps is dead floor the day the inspection walks through. It comes off the net area before the first bay is counted, not after.

FixDoor zones excluded from racking area.

Zoning by org chart instead of retrievals

Per-department zones put Friday’s busy files at the back of the room because of who owns them. Frequency zones put week-one files at the door, whoever owns them.

FixZone by retrieval frequency.

Floor load assumed, never calculated

A closed mobile run parks eight to ten tonnes on one rail strip. Passing that off as ordinary office loading risks both the slab and the sign-off.

FixRail-point loads issued with the drawing.

Next step

Send us the floor plan.

A dimensioned sketch or CAD file is enough. You get back a bay-by-bay layout with aisle verification and the floor-load figures your engineer asked for.

See how planning works →

Room dimensions with column and door positions
What you store today — and what arrives each year
Who retrieves, how often, from which departments
Any fixed furniture or equipment that must stay