Our Guide into Mezzanine Flooring

Incorporating a mezzanine floor into your office can be an ideal solution for a number of reasons. A key advantage is the  additional space it can provide, helping to maximise your existing office without having to move. Mezzanine floors are a great way to add another impressive dimension to your workspace.

However, designing and building a mezzanine floor is a big step for any business, and a lot of business owners do not know where to start when it comes to it! With that being said, we have developed a fantastic free guide to help you understand the rules and regulations around mezzanines.

As much as a lot of companies like to do, you cannot just look at a space and instantly see how your mezzanine floor is going to fit together, or how many support beams you are going to need. There are specialist companies out there, such as aci, that have years of experience in designing and building mezzanines, but even we need to be able to sit down with you, find out what you are looking for from the mezzanine and survey the space.

Allowing a company to design your mezzanine floor means you will understand exactly how your mezzanine floor is going to be built, the amount of space it is going to take up as well as a whole host of other factors.

Depending on what you are going to use your mezzanine floor for will have a big impact on the amount of time it takes to build your mezzanine. If you are simply looking for a storage mezzanine, then the build process can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks. If you are, however, looking for a mezzanine floor that will house more staff for your business, you are looking at a longer build time as a lot of other works, including partitioning may need to take place.

Visit our mezzanine flooring page for more.

When it comes to mezzanine floors, fire regulations vary and it’s important that you understand what applies to you. If you’re design takes up less than half of the existing floor space, is under 400m² and is to be used solely for storage it’s unlikely that it will need a fire rating.
However, if the mezzanine will accommodate workstations, a fire rating of 60 minutes will be required. If the area will be intended for public use, it is likely that a 90 minute fire rating will be required.

Structurally, it is also important that the mezzanine complies with standard fire safety regulations. The materials used to construct the floor have to be fire retardant and there must be a clear escape route. The mezzanine should also be easily accessible for the emergency services.
For more detailed information, you can find the official Government fire safety regulations here.

As well as the fire rating aspect of building a mezzanine floor for your business, it is also important that you understand the additional building regulations that are associated with mezzanine floors.

There are 3 main elements you will need to ensure you are aware of, including:

Structure – You need to ensure that the structure of your mezzanine is strong enough to support both the mezzanine itself, and the weight of what it will be supporting. This can be anything from stock to people.

Accessibility – This simply means you need to make sure there is enough access to the mezzanine floor, usually completed with staircases. This is more important if your mezzanine floor is housing people and workstations as you need to make sure people can get out easily in case of fire.

Protection Against Falling – This follows on from the point about structure. You need to ensure that the mezzanine is supported by enough support beams .etc that it is fully protected against falling down. This is the most important building regulation you need to be aware of.

Simply because mezzanine floors are, usually, fully demountable, this does not mean that you do not have to inform your landlord that you are considering building a mezzanine floor within your space. Even simple storage mezzanines are a big step for any business and will require permission from your landlord before you start taking the steps to design and build your mezzanine.

In some cases, mainly when you are building a mezzanine floor for the purpose of expanding your workforce or warehouse space, you may even be required to seek planning permission. Whilst this is certainly a rare occurrence if the mezzanine floor is large enough and in a regulated area, you may be required to seek permission from your local council before building a mezzanine floor.

It is essential that you are fully clued-up on who you need to notify before you start building your mezzanine floor to avoid potential fines and even eviction.

Depending on what you are using your new mezzanine floor for, you have a number of different options for staircases. For example, if you are building a mezzanine floor to expand your current number of employees, and to allow you to host a number of clients in your premises, you would want to consider a high-quality architectural staircase.

However, if you are building a mezzanine floor purely for storage applications, then you will find in most instances that a simple steel staircase will be more practical and appropriate.

It is also very important to think about whether a lift is needed to aid accessibility. For example, if your mezzanine floor is going to be used to house employees and clients, there is a chance that you will need to make the mezzanine accessible for disabled people. Lifts are great for this. Of course, if there is additional space on the ground floor, or under the mezzanine, then you will normally find that a lift is not required.

Overall, mezzanine floors can have fantastic benefits all round for your workforce! Check out our blog post on this topic here.
At Advanced Commercial Interiors, we are experts in the design and installation of both storage and architectural mezzanine floors in Nottingham, Derby, Birmingham and Leicester. For more information, call us on 0115 939 7572.