CASE HISTORY: selling structural panels for shelving

I ET'S face facts- Americans like to move. A lot. L And every migration creates more need for shelving and an opportunity to sell material for it.

An estimated 200 million sq. ft. of residential shelving is built in new homes or added to existing houses each year. But whether it's the pantry, the closets or the garage, Americans agree: There's never enough shelving to solve the storage space shortage.

APA trademarked structural wood panels are becoming one of the most popular and practical shelving materials. You can recommend them without hesitation because their tremendous inherent strength allows them to resist sagging and warping when supporting heavy loads. They're easy to work with, and they can be afford- ably and conveniently adapted to various shelving applications, as a Tacoma, Wa., dealer explains.

EASILY assembled and disassembled, this shelving system uses l/2 in. APA Rated Sheathing supported by seven frames of 2x4s. The same Droduct in 3/4 in. supported by 1x2 ledgers is used in pantry shelves. Dealers can encourage sales of structural oanels to do-it-yourselfers by telling how other customers have used it to successfully solve storage problems.

To illustrate his point, he tells this story: Before moving into their "dream home," Rick and Bev would have to move twice and live in a temporary residence. Like most mobile young couples, they had packed many of their possessions in boxes. They wanted convenient access to these "once a year" items, but didn't want to unpack after each move.

With the store's help the problem was solved. The solution? A portable three-tier shelving system Rick designed and built himself with three sheets of plywood, a few pieces of lumber and some nails.

Story at a Glance

How a dealer helped a customer and then used the incident to sell more structural paneling for shelves . ways to build sales with personal approach.

To construct the original shelving unit, Rick made seven frames of 2x4s placed 32 inches apart. Horizontal beams nailed between the vertical members held the framing together. He then cut three 4x8 sheets of l/2inch APA Rated Sheathing into 2x8 sections and laid them on the three levels of the rack, with a two-foot clearance between shelves. When completed, the unit was 16 feet long, 6 feet high and 2 feet deep. Counting the room between the first shelf and the floor as well as the space above the top shelf, some 256 cu. ft. of actual storage area was created.

The guys in the lumber department love to tell people who are shopping for shelving about this project. In fact, they're thinking about drawing a rough plan for building it.

For customers who want to put something together that is simple and inexpensive, yet sturdy enough to hold a lot of stuff, easy to tear down, and quick to reassemble somewhere else, they estimate the total cost of the shelving at less than $50. They also quote Rick who claims, "And the beauty of this unit is that I've been able to modify it. In my permanent home, I didn't have room for shelving 16 feet long, so I rebuilt the frames 24 inches on center, instead of 32 inches, reduced the plywood accordingly, and shortened the system by 4 feet. It's made the moves much easier."

The bottom line for the store is that by telling how Rick built a unique shelving system and was able to reuse the material several times, sales people are creating a d-i-y market for structual panels.