WHAT IS A MEZZANINE FLOOR?

Your complete guide to mezzanine flooring, from the experts.

YOUR
COMPLETE
GUIDE TO
MEZZANINE FLOORING

Exactly what is a mezzanine floor? How is mezzanine flooring constructed, and what can it be used for? What are the benefits? As experts in the design and installation of high quality, cost-effective mezzanine floors, we’ve put together a complete guide that covers everything you need to know about the magic of mezzanines.

So if you’ve just bought or leased a new business premises that’s currently just a ‘shell’, or you need to create additional space or repurpose your existing premises, read on to learn how and why a mezzanine could be the perfect solution for you.

Office, Storage and Production Mezzanine

WHAT IS A MEZZANINE FLOOR AND WHAT ARE THEY USED FOR?

Named from the Italian mezzanino (and called an entresol in French), a mezzanine floor is an intermediate floor constructed within a building. Most often used as a semi-permanent structure in a warehouse environment, mezzanines can also be used as permanent structures – like those typically found in a theatre or apartment, where they’re more commonly referred to as a balcony or ‘loft’ bedroom.

Typically, a mezzanine floor doesn’t tend to extend over the entire footprint of the ground floor space of a building (although they can), and they’re often a secondary structure fitted after the original construction of a warehouse. They’re installed in order to utilise space more efficiently in buildings that have the required head-height available.
Mezzanines are generally found and constructed in buildings on industrial, business and retail parks, covering facilities and purposes such as:

Warehouses
Factories
Workshops
Offices
Storage/stock holding

MEZZANINE FLOOR CONSTRUCTION

Now the staple in multi-functional warehouses and business operations thanks to the flexibility and affordability of construction methods, mezzanine floors are the ideal solution if you need to create more space – whether that’s for modern offices, manufacturing products or housing your picking and packing stations, whatever your needs, mezzanine flooring can help.

Mezzanine flooring can be constructed in single or multiple tiers, and is designed with the highest level of health and safety in mind. Handrails, pallet gates and other systems can be built into the installation to ensure complete protection for staff. At initial construction stage they can even be specified into the build by incorporating a concrete slab that can accommodate a multi-tier structure – often found in larger facilities utilised by companies such as Amazon or ASOS.

Smart but simplistic in their construction, we’ll take a deeper look into how mezzanines are built later, but essentially they’re manufactured using these key components:

Steel beams
Columns
Purlins
Timber decking

THE MANY BENEFITS OF MEZZANINE FLOORING

As a business, your bottom line is everything, so you want to make sure that you keep your costs low and your productivity levels high. Your warehouse or industrial space is one of your most valuable assets, and the beauty of installing a mezzanine is that is allows you to maximise that space and keep on growing – and can be built without disrupting your usual business activities too.

That’s just one of the many benefits of mezzanine flooring, we’ll explore these and a few more in detail below…

MAXIMISE YOUR WAREHOUSE SPACE

What does your business need to take the next step? To reach its full potential? Is it a new piece of manufacturing equipment? More space to store products? More offices and meeting rooms? Whether you’re growing in your existing space or moving on to pastures new, mezzanine flooring gives you more value per square foot, and the room to cater for any business requirement.

COMPLETELY BESPOKE DESIGN

As independent structures that aren’t tied into the fabric of your building, mezzanines are freestanding and extremely flexible. They can be designed around your existing floor plan, in and around existing machinery or even racking layouts. Everything is considered in order to suit your specific business needs – right down to the interior design and your business branding.

REDUCE PRODUCTION DOWNTIME

A mezzanine floor can literally double your warehouse’s capacity in no time at all – whether you need more office space for your expanding sales team, or somewhere to house your new production machines. Unlike traditional construction, we can install your mezzanine around your operations, working shifts, weekends, nights – you name it – to keep your business functioning.

GROW WITH YOUR BUSINESS

Choosing the right size premises from the outset is difficult to get right and you can quickly find your business has grown at pace or you need more space to be able to win that all important contract. Mezzanine floors can double or triple your space when needed and can be designed with future expansion in mind – allowing you to invest in a smaller, cheaper premises to start with.

MEZZANINE'S MULTIPLE USES

The uses for a mezzanine floor are almost endless. They can accommodate staff, stock or machinery and are extremely adaptable. A well designed mezzanine floor can suit any purpose you require as your business evolves, catering for new office space as you take on more staff, additional storage for products or components, or to create room for extra equipment and machinery.

REDUCES COST'S & OVERHEADS

The expense associated with setting up or moving a business can be phenomenal, but by installing a mezzanine floor you can choose a smaller space or even avoid a move, saving money on purchase prices/rent, running costs and business rates. There’s even a possibility that your mezzanine flooring can be dismantled and reinstalled in new premises if your growth necessitates a re-location.

WHAT IS A
MEZZANINE
FLOOR
USED FOR?

We’ve already briefly mentioned what mezzanine floors are used for at the start of this guide, but let’s take a look in more detail…

Here are the most typical uses for mezzanines, along with key considerations and the different installation elements that make them such practical, flexible and effective alternatives to traditional construction methods. Bear in mind, that if you’re leasing your business premises, you’re unlikely to be allowed to make any permanent alterations to the fabric of the building – in which case, mezzanine flooring is the perfect solution.

OFFICE MEZZANINES

Businesses change and grow but a mezzanine floor can help you adapt, allowing you to extend your existing office space, or fit-out your new office premises to suit. Office mezzanines offer you the opportunity to evolve in a cost-efficient way, saving a considerable amount of time, money and stress in comparison to an internal breeze block build.

Office mezzanines can be standalone structures, adjoined to existing facilities or reconfigured as your requirements change, all with minimal disruption to your business operations. They can be designed to suit your every need, from staff breakout areas and open plan office spaces, to meeting rooms and individual director’s offices… an office mezzanine floor can accommodate it all.

Office mezzanines can be fitted with a range of amenities and facilities, such as:

Breakout areas
Meeting and conference spaces
WC and locker facilities
Canteens

With the right design and expertise, office mezzanines can be built to withstand heavy working conditions, allowing to potentially combine your office space with manufacturing and distribution facilities where demand on the floor is high.

When seeking quotes for your office mezzanine, always check the full breakdown of what the installation includes. With a clear brief, a mezzanine floor specialist will transform your ideas into the most efficient and effective design possible, and a full office fit out should cover everything up to and including interior décor for a fully functioning workspace that’s ready to go from day one.

Visit our office mezzanine page for more information or to book a free survey and quote.

STORAGE MEZZANINES

The true benefits of mezzanine flooring were first discovered by the racking and storage industry, who used it to build platforms in their warehouses to fit extra shelving and expand their storage space. To this day, businesses across the world continue to utilise mezzanine floors to meet their storage and stock holding purposes.

As they’re relatively cheap to install – and as a free standing structure, aren’t subject to business rates – mezzanine floors really do pay off if you require extra storage space. They can also be installed quickly and with minimal disruption to your day-to-day activities.

Storage mezzanines can easily be fitted with:

Goods lifts
Pallet gates
Conveyor systems
Chutes

Storage mezzanines are ideal for slow moving stock or if you need to store palletised items that are bulky or do not store well in pallet racking. They can also be designed to feature partitioning – whatever helps you to increase productivity and efficiency, a mezzanine floor can be flexed to fit.

Often with storage mezzanines, you can design them with an eye to future expansion too, so as your business grows, so does your available workspace. If you ultimately outgrow your current premises, your mezzanine flooring can be taken apart, taken away and re-installed in your new warehouse or production facility, giving you extra value from your investment.

For more information or to arrange a free survey, see our dedicated storage mezzanines page.

INDUSTRIAL & PRODUCTION MEZZANINES

If you need to expand your production space or you’re moving into a new facility that needs fitting out to suit your business needs, mezzanine flooring gives you an equally robust and flexible solution. Mezzanines give you the option to double or even triple your production floor space by taking advantage of available head height.

Using a mezzanine floor to increase your production area has the subsequent benefit of allowing you to manufacture or pack more goods, more quickly – increasing your profits without the cost or disruption of moving to a larger, more expensive premises.

Production or manufacturing mezzanines can be used for:

Manufacturing lines
Picking and packing lines
Workshops
Printing facilities

Production mezzanine floors can be designed to accommodate for heavy machinery, production equipment and pallets. Where needed, they can also be installed complete with vital ancillaries such as air conditioning ventilation, electrics, compressed air systems and sprinklers.

Your production mezzanine can be personalised and fitted to suit your specific business needs, with your production flow and health and safety requirements all catered for. From temperature controlled environments, to conveyor and chute systems, goods lifts and partitions, your mezzanine flooring is the perfect base for your entire fit-out.

For more information or to arrange a site survey, visit our dedicated industrial and production mezzanine page

Industrial and Production Mezzanine Flooring

OTHER MEZZANINE USES

The wonderful versatility of mezzanine flooring has led to its emergence in a range of different commercial sectors over the years, with businesses using it to cater for more customers or store more product – or often both – while once again harnessing the indisputable benefit of getting more usable space within your building’s square foot for your purchase or rental cost.

Because mezzanine floors can be constructed with escalators, lifts and safety features, they can be installed in line with all relevant health and safety legislation and building regulations in order to allow customer access in retail stores, restaurants and entertainment venues. They can also be designed to house other staff or customer facilities, such as WCs, locker rooms and canteens.

In essence, mezzanines can be used for a range of business types, such as:

Supermarkets
Retail stores
Cinemas and theatres
Bars and restaurants

It’s worth bearing in mind that a mezzanine flooring installation doesn’t need to be defined by or limited to one sole use. One of the many reasons they’re such a popular solution is because of the multitude of options that come with their construction. They can be reinforced, partitioned to provide areas for different activities and designed with future adaptations in mind.

A reputable mezzanine floor specialist will be able to design and install a mezzanine floor along with all your requirements, including plumbing, electrics, data cabling, HVAC systems and any other specifications necessary. Always check your quote carefully, and don’t be afraid to ask any questions – a mezzanine is an investment and should be an easy process with the right provider.

Find out how the Nexus survey, design and installation process works here.

WHAT IS A MEZZANINE FLOOR MADE FROM?

MEZZANINE FLOOR CONSTRUCTION

Whatever functionality you need and however your existing premises are laid out, mezzanine floors can be constructed to suit. Column grids can be designed around new or existing production lines, while within office spaces, columns can be sunk into partition walls. Their flexibility gives you so many options that despite the core construction methods, every mezzanine is completely unique.

MAIN STEELS/PRIMARY BEAMS

These steels, manufactured from universal I beam and column sections, span mezzanine columns and provide the primary support for the secondary purlins. Holes are drilled in the beam for the connection of cleats and to connect the beam to the column. The thickness of the main beam is determined by the required load on the mezzanine and the required span between columns.

PURLINS (SECONDARY STEELS)

Providing fixing points for the floor decking, purlin spans and centres vary along with their section size. Typical centres are 600mm or 700mm, but they can sometimes be reduced dependant on the use of the mezzanine floor. The thickness of the purlin depends on the use and weight requirements of the mezzanine floor, as well as the bay sizes as determined by the column layout.

MEZZANINE DECKING

Generally mezzanine floors are fitted with tongue and grove 38mm particle boards which are a floor-grade chipboard. The boards are fixed to mezzanine purlins in a staggered pattern through the use of wood to steel tek screws. Sometimes the decking is over-boarded with materials such as chequer plate or hardboard plywood, to provide further protection depending on the floor’s use.

MEZZANINE BRACING

As mezzanine floors are free standing structures and typically not fixed to the fabric of the building, they need to be braced to ensure stability. This is achieved by cross braces from column to column, or depending on the size of the floor, a stub brace which is fastened half way up the column and bolted to the floor – bracing can often be discreetly incorporated into partitioning.

WHAT ELSE CAN BE INSTALLED WITH A MEZZANINE?

MEZZANINE ANCILLARIES

To ensure your mezzanine is totally safe and functional, there will be a few other things to consider during the design process. Here are a few of the main ancillaries we typically install on mezzanine flooring projects. Our mezzanine accessories blog has plenty of additional information if you’d like to learn more.

MEZZANINE STAIRCASES

While obviously an access essential, the number and location of your staircases are ultimately governed by current building regulations. Warehouse mezzanines are usually fitted with industrial-style staircases, but more aesthetically enhanced staircases can be installed in more corporate or retail environments.

HANDRAILS & BALUSTRADES

Fitted to provide permanent protection to exposed edges of the mezzanine floor, handrail systems vary depending on use e.g. kick-plates can be installed to prevent objects being kicked off the edge onto the floor below, or infill panels can make them safer for small children in retail and public places – learn more here.

MEZZANINE FIRE PROTECTION

As a general rule, if the mezzanine floor exceeds 20 metres, occupies 50% of the footprint of a building or has operatives permanently working below or above, the mezzanine will need fire protection. There are various methods depending on the risk and overall design – find out more about fire protection here.

PALLET GATES

These are a mezzanine essential if you’re loading and unloading palletised materials, and are especially common in industrial or warehouse environments. Modern day pallet gates ensure there’s a permanent edge between the operative and the edge of the floor to meet required health and safety standards.

ELECTRICS

The structure of a mezzanine floor lends itself particularly well to the installation of mechanical and electrical installations, with lighting, fire detection systems and in fact, all of your power, data, plumbing and ventilation all being safely installed within the structure while ensuring ease of access for repairs and maintenance.

If you’ve decided that a mezzanine floor is what you need to take your business to the next level, then the next step is to find a reputable mezzanine flooring specialist that can deliver a complete, turnkey service to get you up and running as soon as possible, with minimum hassle or disruption.

As with any procurement process, you need to do you due diligence, so make sure you check out your potential providers’ previous work and that they can meet all of your requirements. The overall process for your mezzanine survey, design and installation should look something like this, and all surveys and quotes should be free of charge.

We hope your question of “What is a mezzanine floor” has been covered in our guide and that you now have a good idea of what mezzanine flooring can do for your business – but if you have any questions at all, please contact our mezzanine experts who will be happy to help.