Anchoring.
No, not as in captains, ships, large and heavy U-shaped pieces of metal, and a bunch of sailors yelling 'arrrrr' and 'ahoy!', but anchoring as in actually securing your new or used lockers to the floor or the walls.
If there are any questions as to if anchoring your lockers is truly needed, may I submit the following video as evidence:
The geniuses who set up this room of small cell phone lockers/box lockers really didn't use too much gray matter when they set up several of these columns. Unfortunately it wasn't until the lady using the very lowest of the lockers pushed a tad bit too hard on the upper part of the locker, that caused the entire locker room to be put into shambles--to say the least!
...um. Yah. Not too good, right? This is precisely why you need to anchor your lockers to a wall, or in this case, solidly to the floor.
Obviously when it comes to 'locker how to'; SchoolLockers.com recommends that you first hire a professional to do it, especially in the case seen above where it is obvious that there are many lockers that need a professional installation.
If you are Hell-bent determined to do it on your own, well, here is one of the many "How To" instructional brochures we have on our website. (We have only taken a snip of one of the pages that covers anchoring and locker bases due to space on this blog entry)
This tutorial above covers the types of bases you can use for your lockers--so please keep this link, or copy this, or save it to your locker how to folder for future use. Now if you look closely at the video, you'll notice that there are absolutely NO BASES being used on those lockers. This creates such an unsafe environment that only a fool would deem appropriate to be set up in this manner for use by anyone--ever.
Anchoring a set of lockers is CRITICAL. (Again, please refer to the above photo sequence! lol) Face it, you don't want to be sued for damages physical or material so here are a few things to remember when anchoring your lockers:
- Always make sure the locker is level before anchoring. If it is not, you can adjust your bases or shim the lockers to make the lockers are plumb and level. Be sure to use a level. If you are anchoring to the floor (unlike what happened in the video above) BE SURE you use a floor/foot anchor for the lockers to avoid situations like the one above.
- Never assume that anchoring a row of lockers back-to-back (essentially to each other) will be sufficient anchoring. These still must be anchored to the floor if no wall is available, and must use a floor anchor foot, or some other floor anchoring device, seen in the photo below.
To sum it up in a simple two sentences on anchoring locker how to; keep in mind this rule of thumb: Remember that single row lockers must be both floor and wall anchored. SchoolLockers.com also stresses that double row lockers (as seen in the video above) must be floor anchored and when possible, wall or ceiling anchored to provide that much more of a safety bonus.
If you have any questions when it comes to anchoring your lockers, don't hesitate to give us a call and ask. Because even if you didn't buy your lockers from us, we are hoping to show you and prove to you how helpful we are to our current clients, and let us demonstrate our vast knowledge when it comes to anything locker related. :)
For all of our 'locker how to' PDFs; CLICK HERE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THEM
