Important Information You Need To Know When You Want To Build Up.
No matter what type of mezzanine floor you are choosing there are always several main considerations you need to think about before you commence your project:
- Loading requirements
- Column spacing
- Headroom
- Supporting sub-structure
Local Authority approval will be required for every installation of a mezzanine floor. To speed up this process STS Storage Systems use an independent building inspector and can handle the exercise for you. As part of this application we will require structural details of the floor slab to ensure the floor can take the point load that the mezzanine columns are applying through the floor slab.
All structural steel supplied by STS Storage Systems comes fully verified with CE Marking. A brief description of CE Marking is this shows that the manufacturer has checked that the product meets EU safety, health or environmental requirements, that the product complies with EU legislation, and that the free movement of the product is allowed within the European Movement.
A full blog on this can be found here – https://www.stsstorage.co.uk/blog/mezzanine-flooring-new-regulations/
Floor Height
When it comes to the floor height there are no restrictions, a mezzanine can be installed at almost any height. There is however a statutory requirement that any staircase installed must have a minimum of 2000mm clear headroom available.
Deck Materials
The majority of mezzanine floors are decked in 38mm tongue and groove HDPB (high density particle board). Depending on the need mezzanines can also have floors finished in chequer plate or metal grating.
Staircases
There are many regulations around the use of staircases for a mezzanine floor, the most common staircases are general access and utility. Both will meet building regulations requirements in regard to landings, risers, treads and coloured nosings.
Depending on the use of the mezzanine floor and travel distance we will need to advise on the amount and combination of the stairs required for your project.
Handrails & Edge Protection
As standard we will provide an industrial steel handrail which is suitable for most mezzanines except for public use such as retail. Our industrial steel handrail is an engineered system with a powder coated finish. Posts are set at 1500mm centres with hand, knee and kick rail as standard.
Other handrail solutions can be provided, with glass and stainless steel growing ever popular for a more modern finish in an office environment.
Where mesh screens to a mezzanine floor edge are requested then we set this inside the handrail. Currently no mesh system can provide structural calculations to suit the loads required to act as a ‘handrail’ system.
Loading Gates
The safe loading of pallets and other goods must be taken into consideration when designing a mezzanine floor and to comply with Health & Safety Regulations. Each project undertaken by STS Storage Systems will be thoroughly investigated with proposals given for the best use of the mezzanine and how goods should be lifted and moved around the environment. No pallet is too big for STS Storage Systems, we can supply bespoke pallet gates and recently supplied a gate to except 3000mm wide pallets.
Fire Protection to Mezzanine floor structures.
There are varying degrees of fire protection required when creating a mezzanine structure – it is difficult to provide exact requirements but as a standard rule a simple mezzanine floor can be installed without fire protection as long as the dimensions do NOT exceed 20 x 20 metres, take up more than 50% of the warehouse and is not for office use.
Fire protection is specified for a certain period, common in our industry is 30 or 60 minutes. This will be covered off by STS Storage Systems whilst the design is in its early stages to determine the exact requirements for your project.
A general rule of thumb is that all mezzanine floors will require smoke detection, emergency lighting and signage as standard.
