A place for everything, everything in its place

Improve productivity with efficient, secure tool storage.

By Kay Falk

By the end of a workday, how much time has your crew spent walking to storage boxes and digging in them looking for tools and lost, depleted or misplaced supplies?

If you had a way to recover all those wasted minutes and movements, you could finish jobs faster and at less cost. That would translate into more profit in your pocket.

To increase efficiency related to jobsite tool storage, there are several steps you can take:

1. Add portability
Sam Samsel, director of product marketing and development for Jobox storage containers suggests adding casters where possible. “Invest in 6" wide-based ones. They may cost more, but they make moving smaller chests, slope-lid and piano-box job boxes easier, especially on the uneven ground at most worksites. Casters allow workers to take tools and equipment with them and save time spent running back to a central storage site during the workday.”

2. Let forklifts help
If large storage boxes, cabinets and field offices need to be moved around the jobsite, add a safety brace kit. “These are heavy-duty channels that bolt to the bottom of the job box, whatever style it is,” Samsel says. “They provide a slot for lift truck forks to slide further under and secure the box, so when traveling over uneven ground, the storage unit won’t tip off. Cabinets, because they’re tall and have a higher center of gravity, can tip easily when moved across ruts or rocky terrain.”

3. Pick storage containers that fit your needs
The type and size of tools to be stored are important factors when selecting the style and size of a storage container, but you also need to consider how organized and disciplined your crew must be to get the job done.

For instance, chest-style job boxes are nice for storing larger tools and gaining easy access to them. They also can become “black holes” as small items fall to the bottom.

If chest-type job boxes are what your crew needs, look for ones with removable, not built-in, trays. “Built-in trays restrict a chest’s capacity and convenience,” Samsel explains. “For slope-lid and piano-box styles, look for tilt and stow shelves that fold up out of the way, yet provide a place for caulk, epoxy, anchors and the like.”

Cabinets and field offices provide even greater organized storage. Their interior shelves and drawers provide a good way to audit, label and store important equipment.

When choosing a cabinet, Samsel advises you to look for a model with a minimum of three deep door shelves. “You wouldn’t buy a refrigerator without storage shelves in the doors. Don’t do it when buying tool storage cabinets and field offices, either,” he says.

Field offices, which are becoming very popular, should have weather stripping around the perimeter of all openings.

To help ensure rust-resistance, some tool storage box vendors like Greenlee have invested in powder-paint coating systems. This type of paint is similar to what’s on cars and heavy equipment, and is more durable than conventional baked enamel. Greenlee’s system, a company spokesman says, cost more than $450,000, but the quality finish it produces is worth the investment.

Other features to consider for field offices include a unit with at least two built-in rear wall shelves, storage areas on the side walls and a print table that’s hinged.

“This allows the print table to be lifted and gives a secure area underneath,” Samsel says. “This is a good place for radios, batteries, manuals, chargers and paperwork you don’t want everyone to have access to. With a padlock, this gives you a locked storage space even when the field office is open.”

4. Consider power
Electrical knockouts provided by the manufacturer are a real plus, says Samsel. “If they’re built in, you don’t get sharp edges from contractors drilling holes later,” he says. “The knockouts allow crews to use radios, charge portable power tools and add lights for early morning and late evening work.”

5. Remember security

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, professional thieves and substance abusers needing to support their habit cost the construction industry $1 billion per year. That astounding figure includes losses of heavy equipment and tools that disappear from jobsites every year. If all tool losses not reported by contractors — maybe they don’t like the hassle or don’t want their insurance premiums to increase — were added in, that figure could be even higher.

What’s a contractor to do?

Police officers advise contractors to establish good working relationships with other contractors on the site as well as the workers at commercial and industrial facilities near the jobsite. You can ask these “neighbors” to keep an eye on the construction site, stressing that their security is also at stake. Extend this watchful network to bus drivers, delivery personnel and local authorities. The more eyes and ears paying attention to the site on nights and weekends, the less chance you have of being ripped off.

In addition to alert neighbors, fences, good lighting and alarms can help deter people who want to sneak into a jobsite at night, steal resaleable power tools and make some quick cash.

At night, store tools in a visible, well-lit area and limit access to the fenced area to a few people with logged-in keys. Reducing the number of available keys and limiting access points to one or two will also help control who and what enters and leaves the secure area. This will go a long way in deterring thieves.

6. Secure tools in locked boxes
Locking tools inside a secure tool storage container or job box protects the tools from the elements and gets them out of view.

For storage of nonessential items like cleaning supplies and rags or smaller hand tools, manufacturers now offer steel storage boxes with doors, shelves and a mesh back. The idea is that if thieves see that there’s nothing valuable inside the container, they’ll leave it alone. 

7. Look at the lock
A critical part of the job box is its locking mechanism. Those with simple hasp and padlock are no problem for a thief with a bolt cutter or drill.

Look for a job box with a recessed padlock that surrounds the lock with steel. Two lock protectors, one on each corner, offer even more protection, which makes it very difficult to pry the job box lid open.

Solid-steel locks are most durable unless you’re working in coastal areas where salt air can corrode them. In that case, brass or aluminum solid-body locks with brass or stainless steel pins offer good corrosion resistance with only a small decrease in security.

The number of pins in the padlock cylinder can also affect security. Padlocks with more pins are harder to pick. Stainless steel pins give better drill resistance than the brass pins used in most padlocks.

8. Hinge design important
Hinges should be strong and secure, and the larger the better because they are more secure and durable.

The hinge pins should be welded to hinge knuckles, preferable at both ends. Some manufacturers offer special staked hinges at every knuckle to prevent thieves from driving the pins out and gaining entrance to the job box.

Published in the March/April, 2003 issue of Contractor Tools and Supplies magazine.

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