There are many materials from which shelving can be made. Plastic and perspex shelving are used for displaying small items, like you'd see in a jewellery shop window. Wooden shelving is popular because wood is decorative and can be easily cut to size and drilled. But metal shelving reigns supreme in industrial applications because of its superior strength and ease of manufacture. It is also being seen more and more in offices, public buildings and the home for these reasons.

It is advisable to go to one of the larger suppliers of metal shelving. Being large, they will also be well established, and so have all the elements in place to support your purchase. These types of companies will have comprehensive websites which show you the complete range of metal shelving they have, with prices and sizes too. The website will help you find the shelving that suits you, and you can also discuss the product with colleagues in different locations easily on the phone if there's a website to look at. The products that the firm offers should be listed in a catalogue in addition to being on their website. Sometimes you'll need a paper version to take on a walk-about in a large industrial space or even in a domestic garage. Catalogues in book form make this so much easier. These kind of firms will also have customer service advisors who you can talk to in person or by phone. This is important, because they will have a wealth of experience about the different types of metal shelving available. So the customer can talk things through thoroughly and the customer service advisor can put together exactly the right kind of package. Such firms, being large, will have a lot of purchasing power. They buy their metal shelving in bulk which means that they can get very competitive prices which they can pass on to their customers. For the same reason, they can offer bulk discounts for large orders.

Quality is very important. If you're going to be investing in metal shelving it should be strong and durable of course, but you'll want all of the quality boxes to be ticked too. If it has pre-drilled holes, these must be of consistent size, so that you can use the same size of bolts throughout. Also the holes must be free of sharp protruding slices of metal which could prevent the bolt going through and could cut people handling the shelving. This also applies to the rest of the shelving elements too. The quality of finish is important, and safety considerations are paramount. Again, large companies will only use suppliers which meet the very highest quality standards. Another important quality aspect of metal shelving is its load bearing capability. A large, well-established shelving firm will have its metal shelving independently tested to confirm that it does what it says it will do. This way, the customer has a level of confidence about the product, which is especially important in industry where a warehousing company may be buying thousands of pounds of metal shelving in one go.