E-commerce fulfillment. Decks sized to peak-season people, not average shift.
Pick mezzanines, pack-out platforms, conveyor support, and pallet-drop replenishment routes — built for fulfillment operations whose floor activity quadruples between November and January and whose deck size has to hold up under that load, not the calm-season average.
Three things differ from generic warehousing.
E-commerce fulfillment looks like distribution from the outside but designs differently in three specific ways: (1) the deck carries people in addition to product, so the egress math is stricter; (2) the workflow runs through conveyor, pallet drops, and pack-out stations that integrate with the deck framing; (3) volume is seasonal, so the deck has to hold up at peak — not at average occupancy.
Common scopes
- Pick mezzanines — multi-tier bar-grate decks for SKU-density picking; 50 – 200+ pickers at peak per deck.
- Pack-out platforms — work platforms with conveyor inputs from the pick deck to ship-out doors.
- Conveyor support — elevated structure for sortation and takeaway belts.
- Multi-tier — two- or three-deck for high-cube fulfillment buildings.
- Mezzanine access stairs — typically 2 stairs minimum due to occupant load.
The egress threshold catches most projects
OBC §3.4.2 sets the threshold for two means of egress at relatively modest occupant loads. A 60-picker deck almost always crosses it. Occupant load is calculated at site measure on fulfillment projects — and both the calculation and the resulting egress count go on the stamped drawing — so the second access path (a pallet drop with a separate stair, an additional egress stair, or a floor-edge ladder where allowed) doesn't get bolted on after the deck is already drawn.
Peak-season deck sizing
"Average" occupancy is a misleading sizing input for fulfillment. We look at the peak shift count — Black Friday week, holiday-cycle late November through mid-January — and design to that load case plus a margin. A deck that meets average load but flexes in November is a project that gets re-engineered in February.
Typical project parameters
- Live load100 – 125 psf + occupant load
- Deckbar-grate (almost always)
- Conveyor integrationelevated takeaway + pack-out conveyor
- Egress2+ stairs typical (occupant-load driven)
- Pallet dropintegrated for replenishment
- Lead time5 – 8 weeks from sign-off