Lines on your warehouse floor tell forklift operators where they can and cannot drive. They show workers where they can stack products, and they may even help direct visitors to the right locations within the warehouse. There are two main ways to place lines on your warehouse floor: with stickers and with paint. While stickers do have their advantages — namely, you do not need any equipment to install them — in most cases, you will be better off having your lines painted on. Here's why.

The paint won't get caught up in equipment.

The stickers used to mark warehouse floors are made to be tough and durable, but they are still stickers. Sometimes, the edge may peel up if a piece of equipment drives over the sticker in just the right way. Once a sticker line starts peeling, it will often keep peeling. And a peeling sticker can be dangerous since it can get caught up in wheels or on someone's shoe. Painted lines are a lot safer. They don't stick to wheels or present a tripping hazard.

Paint is faster to apply.

Yes, you will have to rent the line striping equipment or pay a company to come paint the stripes. However, the process is a lot faster than applying stickers. There's no long backing to peel off, and you won't spend hours trying to get a sticker completely straight. You or the line-striping contractor will just push the striper straight across the floor, laying down paint as you go. The average warehouse can be striped in a couple of hours, and then you just need to let it dry until the end of the day or so.

You can re-apply paint to various segments as needed.

If a sticker becomes worn in a certain spot, you generally have to peel up and replace that whole section of sticker. (You don't really want a bunch of overlapped sticker pieces since, as described above, they'll be more likely to peel up.) With painted lines, if a piece of your line gets worn, you can just paint over that specific area. It takes a few minutes, at most, and you can just use a roller on such a small area. This makes it easier to keep all of your lines bright and in good repair.

To learn more about warehouse line striping and the advantages of having your lines painted on, talk to a warehouse striping company.