The useable space in commercial buildings such as retail stores, factories, offices, and warehouses can be substantially increased by adding a mezzanine floor. While they are significantly easier to construct than a building extension, they must be functional and safe for their intended use.
Mezzanine floors can be extremely dangerous if they are not strong enough to support the loads placed upon them. In the event of failure or collapse, mezzanine floors can cause serious damage to your plant, assets, and people.
Structural assessments, such as incremental plate load testing, can be conducted to ensure that plans for mezzanine floor construction are safe for use.
Introduction to Mezzanine Construction
When starting a mezzanine construction project, there are several key considerations to maximise the space and ensure that the mezzanine will be fit for purpose.
These may include:
- Intended Use – will the space be for offices, storage, or heavy machinery? Will its use change over time?
- Load Distribution – will there be pressure points, or will the loads be distributed evenly? Will the loads be stationary or moved around?
- Support – what will support the base of the mezzanine and is it suitable?
- Design – does the design meet the necessary loading requirement guidelines?
- Headroom – what headroom is required?
- Fire Protection – what level of fire protection is needed?
- Access – are there any specific access requirements?
- Form – what form will the supporting steelworks take?
Existing mezzanine floors may also be extended or altered. These projects will require similar calculations to provide reliable plans for safe and stable structures.
The Importance of Load Distribution
One of the most important considerations when planning mezzanine floor construction is load distribution and weight load capacity. For this information to be determined, various factors must be considered during the design stage.
Most mezzanine floor structures are made up of steel sections where the quantity, thickness, spacing, and size of the sections vary depending on the required weight load and how the load is distributed across the platform:
- Universally Distributed Load (UDL) – the load is spread evenly across the floor surface
- Point Load – the heavy load is concentrated in one area of the floor surface
- Dead Load – constant weight from a stationary fixture, including columns, decking, and static equipment
- Live Load – there are mobile loads, such as people, equipment, and furniture
To safely achieve the required weight load capacity and intended load distribution, the foundation beneath must be strong and stable enough to support the steel structure. This can be determined with incremental plate load testing.
Understanding Incremental Plate Loading
Incremental plate load tests are carried out to measure the strength and bearing capacity of crane bases, piling pads, stanchion bases, and many other building foundations.
During this test, a thick metal plate is pushed into the ground using a hydraulic jack. Both the increasing applied load and the subsequent settlement created are closely examined and used to produce a graph. From this graph, the necessary material characteristics will be established.
The construction of mezzanine floors is a common application of plate load testing, as the properties of the ground must be assessed to ensure that the structure above it will be stable. Plate load tests are cost and time-efficient and provide accurate results to help ensure safe and reliable mezzanine floors.
What Are the Safety Implications?
Mezzanine floors that have undergone plate load tests will ensure that the load weight and distribution are suitable for the foundation, preventing structural changes, failure, and collapse. This will significantly reduce the risk of harm to your plant, assets, and staff.
A secure, reliable, and correctly used mezzanine floor also assures you that you are complying with industry standards, as any mezzanine floor is classed as working equipment and is covered by PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998).
Although there is no official regulation that states mezzanine floors must be inspected, industry guidance strongly recommends inspecting them every 24 months to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act. This will continually ensure and confirm that they are safe for use, as well as identify any potential hazards.
How Does it Ensure Stability?
Understanding the properties of the ground under which a mezzanine structure will be constructed means that load weight and distribution boundaries can be set for organisations to follow. This could include keeping heavy machinery in one area of the mezzanine or establishing a maximum person limit.
Whether the load is universally distributed, or a point, dead, or live load, there should be no risk of structural instability if the load remains within the capacity of the foundation. This means that your employees and equipment are kept safe from injury and damage.
Incremental Plate Loading by Simtec Materials Testing
Simtec Materials Testing is a UKAS-accredited organisation offering incremental plate load testing and CBR (California Bearing Ratio) testing throughout the UK, in compliance with BS1377-9:1990 and IAN73/06 standards.
For fast, measured certainty when you need it, get in touch today.