Mezzanine Floors – a cost effective alternative to moving for a growing business?

Now that the global economy is beginning to respond again and there is more optimism in the UK economy the major challenge for those businesses who start to grow rapidly again is the effective use of space, for many it is the key challenge, can the business sustain the growth or will it need to invest significant investment in moving to larger premises.

Whilst the moving option may seem attractive there is much to consider, not only the financial implication, potential down time during the move but also some of the more mundane jobs that also go along with a move such as changing all stationery, communicating with customers and suppliers alike, the impact and inherent danger of moving all of the IT infrastructure.

For many the ideal solution is to invest in having a Mezzanine floor, it can be designed around the current operational structure and offers businesses a really cost effective solution for those looking to increase or even double the available floor space. Mezzanine floors are individually designed to suit the requirements of each business & can be custom designed to fit into any size and shape. Better still mezzanine floors can be constructed to have several levels.

The key elements are to understand and calculate the load bearing capacity that the mezzanine floor will be operating under, this will vary greatly dependent upon whether the mezzanine will be used for storage or it is to be used for office space.

A professional supplier of mezzanine flooring systems will be able to guide you as to the type and strength needed on a case by case basis. The best systems are individually planned designed and built around a business’s individual and very specific requirements and designed to conform to all the latest building regulations, after all safety in the workplace is paramount.

Retail Environment.                                                                                    

However it is not just in industrial units that mezzanine floors are used as many retail units these days are built merely as a simple shell scheme in out of town locations and the retailers then have to then work with the cubic volume to work with. In such circumstances well designed mezzanine floors can really help create a real wow factor instore and possibly double the overall retail space at the same time at a fraction of the cost of building an extension or moving to larger premises.

Office Environment.

In an age where there are lots of businesses operating out of old or historic buildings in regeneration and conservation areas space can often be a real headache, older buildings such as old mills often have significant height to the floors within the building and the clever use of mezzanine floors can provide valuable additional office space without the need to move administration away from the operational base and thereby keeping staff at the heart of the business, again the cost of a mezzanine floor would effectively be a fraction of the cost of a building extensions or taking on additional premises to support the growth.

Production and Distribution Environment.

At a time when many leading businesses in the distribution and fulfilment sector are looking to streamline operations and introduce automation into the picking, packing and distribution function mezzanine floors have proven invaluable in delivering cost effective and space saving solutions that really help improve efficiency.

Using mezzanine floors in automated systems enables businesses to separate areas allowing certain activities to be undertaken in non-pedestrian zones.

Mezzanine Flooring Installation – what is involved?

Mezzanine floors are a great way of utilising your unused roof space. The size of a mezzanine floor can be small as 20m² or can cover tens of thousands of square metres, and they can be built up to five stories high dependent upon a client’s specific requirements. The minimum headroom needed to put in a mezzanine is approx. 4.2m dependent upon the desired usage and a ground floor concrete slab.

So whether you are looking to increase retail space, add additional administration office space, distribution and storage space the addition of a mezzanine floor will not only offer a highly cost effective solution but the costs saved and the extra efficiency of the existing space will probably pay for the cost of the mezzanine floor in a few months.

To see some examples of how these solutions can be effectively operated look at the case studies to see how some of Europe’s major businesses have used mezzanine floors within their operations and what was involved in the design, planning and installation. In these cases the designers and builders were a UK company called Warehouse Storage Solutions Limited and see the case studies including; Davies Turner Group, PZ Cussons PLC and EDM Group .