Mead Lumber building with drive-thru entrance and parked cars on a sunny day beside an open desktop screen.

Mead Lumber Builds Efficiency with New Cantilever and Stack Racking Systems

Since 1947, Mead Lumber's Cheyenne location has seen a lot of change. And a lot of growth. Multiple products and services were added over those seven decades to keep pace with the growing population and ever-changing construction industry. Yet, the very "house" that serves those builders has remained pretty much unchanged. Until 2022, that is.

The Experience

It was time

"We realized our Cheyenne location just wasn't working anymore," said Jeff Taake, VP of Manufacturing and Commercial Sales for Mead Lumber. "We squeezed as much out of it as we possibly could, but it no longer effectively served our customers - or our employees." So, Mead bought a much larger footprint around their Cheyenne store and tore the existing buildings down for a completely fresh start. And they called Rick Stout at CT Darnell Construction.

"We've worked on a number of projects for Mead over the years," said Rick, "but this one was significant. It was a completely ground-up design-build project with multiple racking solutions."

Warehouse interior with metal shelving, wooden planks, and forklifts under a steel roof structure.

Warehouse shelving stocked with lumber, building materials, and tools under metal mezzanine level

Spacious warehouse interior with metal shelving units storing wood panels and materials under bright ceiling lights.

Let it flow

According to Mead site manager, Mark Bradshaw, "Rick and the CT Darnell team know this industry so well. They asked all the right questions and quickly developed a site plan that maximized our new space for product storage and traffic flow."

CT Darnell created logical 'areas' based on like products, services, and bundles that made sense. "Our goal was to limit movement and wasteful steps," said Rick, "to make sure they could pick, bundle, load, and move a truck quickly and safely through the order shipping process."

Winning the storage wars

Mead integrated multiple Sunbelt racking and storage solutions into three brand-new warehouse buildings:

New 150' x 150' door millwork building features fully integrated pallet racks and stack racks for maximized vertical storage of millwork.
New 92' x 115' double-aisle cantilever rack-supported drive-thru building ensures easy load and unload for multiple lumber SKUs.
New 82' x 150' building for bulk storage, sheet goods, and A-frame rack for molding, which also includes a yard office.
Two new automated Power Bin® systems for highly efficient product stacking.

The Result

The new lumberyard also features two automated Power Bin® systems for highly efficient product stacking. These game-changers quadruple storage volume, and they're faster, safer, and easier on the product and personnel.

"The result of this project was a homerun," expressed Bradshaw. "For the business, it was obvious: more SKUs - safely covered and well maintained - are able to be picked and loaded in a fraction of the time, allowing for a better customer experience and more sales than ever before.

But," he continued, "the biggest impact of all was on the Cheyenne employees. They absolutely love this new yard. As a 100% employee-owned company, this team takes great pride in their jobs! They appreciated being able to provide insights and input along the way to the CT Darnell team. It made them feel fully invested in the result, and they've been totally energized ever since!"

As a full-service design-build partner, CT Darnell Construction has a 40-year history supporting the LBM industry. We are the only company that specializes in LBM, with an unparalleled reputation in the category and we are licensed in all 50 states.

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