Commercial Undershelves

Position and purpose. An undershelf sits below the bench top and holds the bulky items you reach down for; an overshelf sits above it at eye level and holds the small things you reach up for. Most benches benefit from both.

If you are after the upper version, see kitchen bench overshelves or wall-mounted commercial kitchen wall shelves. The undershelf is the one that changes how much a bench can hold.

Sometimes, and it depends entirely on the bench frame. Benches built with a shelf option have fixing points designed for it; a welded bench without them is a fabrication job rather than an accessory purchase.

Measure the frame and send us photographs with your enquiry. Where a retrofit is not practical, a low modular shelving bay pushed under the bench gets you most of the way there.

Things that are heavy, used often, and hard to damage: stainless containers, mixing bowls, pans, chopping boards and trays. Anything you lift onto the bench several times a shift belongs within a half-step of it.

Keep chemicals, paper and anything that absorbs moisture somewhere else. The commercial cookware and gastronorms and containers ranges cover most of what ends up down there.

Solid holds spills and gives you a flat surface for anything that will not sit on bars, which suits containers and small items. Slatted or bar shelves drain and let air through, which suits washed items that are still damp.

Neither is wrong. The question is whether what you store is more likely to drip or more likely to fall through, and that varies by station.

It usually stiffens the frame rather than weakening it, because it ties the legs together. What it does not do is change the rating of the bench top, so the figure on the bench product page still applies.

Load the shelf evenly and keep the weight over the legs rather than piled in the middle of one span. Spreading the load is more important on a long bench than a short one.

A shelf for stock that lives there; a trolley for stock that travels. Where the items are carried to another station, a kitchen trolley parked under the bench gives you both the storage and the transport in one.

The trade-off is stability and cleaning. A fixed shelf is one less thing with wheels in a wet kitchen, while a trolley has to be pulled out and the floor cleaned under it.

It makes it easier, provided the shelf sits high enough off the floor to get a mop under. A shelf fitted low to the ground creates a strip of floor nobody can reach, which is worse than no shelf at all.

The clearance is listed on the product page. Wipe the shelf down along the grain with a neutral detergent, as you would the rest of the stainless steel equipment in the room, and check the underside as well as the top.