How Damaged Floors Impact Your Forklifts and Bottom Line

While run­ning and main­tain­ing your facil­i­ty, it can be easy to over­look the impor­tance of main­tain­ing your floor­ing. How­ev­er, this over­sight can lead to sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial and oper­a­tional consequences.

Impact on Equipment

Dam­aged con­crete floors, like cracks, spalls, and uneven joints, sig­nif­i­cant­ly affect fork­lift per­for­mance and longevi­ty. The con­stant vibra­tion and jar­ring caused by these imper­fec­tions accel­er­ate wear on crit­i­cal components.

Approx­i­mate­ly 20% of all fork­lift main­te­nance is attrib­uted to poor con­crete or expan­sion joints. Fork­lift tire replace­ment is a major expense direct­ly linked to floor con­di­tion and reg­u­lar­ly replac­ing tires can add up quick­ly, rep­re­sent­ing a sub­stan­tial ongo­ing expense. The per­sis­tent shak­ing can also dam­age expen­sive elec­tron­ic com­po­nents and bat­ter­ies. Fork­lift bat­ter­ies are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble, as the vibra­tion can cause the paste to sep­a­rate from the plates, lead­ing to pre­ma­ture failure.

Oper­a­tional Consequences

Poor floor­ing con­di­tions extend beyond equip­ment damage:

• Reduced pro­duc­tiv­i­ty: Oper­a­tors expe­ri­ence increased fatigue due to con­stant jolt­ing, poten­tial­ly lead­ing to decreased effi­cien­cy and increased acci­dent risk.

• Increased down­time: More fre­quent equip­ment main­te­nance results in oper­a­tional dis­rup­tions and may neces­si­tate addi­tion­al machin­ery to com­pen­sate for out-of-ser­vice forklifts.

• Safe­ty haz­ards: Dam­aged floors cre­ate poten­tial for acci­dents and work­er’s com­pen­sa­tion claims.

What are the Solutions?

Invest­ing in floor repair and main­te­nance offers long-term benefits:

• Reduced fork­lift main­te­nance costs

• Extend­ed equip­ment lifespan

• Improved oper­a­tional efficiency

• Enhanced work­place safety

• Reduced trip hazards

Imple­ment­ing a reg­u­lar floor inspec­tion and main­te­nance sched­ule allows for ear­ly iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and res­o­lu­tion of issues, prov­ing more cost-effec­tive than reac­tive repairs.

How Kaloutas Can Help

Prop­er floor main­te­nance is not mere­ly an aes­thet­ic con­cern but a strate­gic deci­sion with sig­nif­i­cant impact on oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy and cost man­age­ment. Address­ing floor issues proac­tive­ly reduces equip­ment main­te­nance costs and cre­ates a safer, more pro­duc­tive work envi­ron­ment. Pri­or­i­tiz­ing floor main­te­nance is cru­cial for main­tain­ing oper­a­tional reli­a­bil­i­ty and meet­ing demand consistently. 

Call us today to sched­ule a com­pli­men­ta­ry facil­i­ty walk­through to help you plan your floor­ing repair and save you mon­ey in the long run.