How To Install A Free Standing Mezzanine – Q & A with the Experts
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How To Install A Free Standing Mezzanine – Q & A with the Experts
“One of the key things you need to do is to determine what you plan to use the mezzanine for. Do you plan to use it for office space are you going to be putting equipment on there or are you using it for storing more product? Those are some of the things you need to consider to make sure you are designing the free standing mezzanine properly to meet what the requirements are,” said Lance Jorgenson of Jorgenson Material Handling.
Here are several crucial things to understand, and research, when thinking about using a free standing mezzanine in your building.
1. The very first thing which will need to be decided upon will be the overall purpose of the mezzanine. How large will it be? What will be up there; offices, machinery or storage? Questions like that will determine the weight capacity the free standing mezzanine will have to support.
“Some jobs we’ve done have actually needed to support some equipment and not just offices,” said Jorgenson. “But most past projects where we have installed a mezzanine usually are because companies are looking to maximize the space overhead with offices, since they don’t want the pallet racking (storage) to go up to the ceilings, yet they want to take advantage of that space which would otherwise be wasted.”
Before you begin, decide what your goals are. What is it you are looking to accomplish with a free standing mezzanine? How will it help your warehouse capacity and how much will that need to hold in order to be safe? Make sure these questions are really clear on this issue before proceeding.
2. Floor Slab Capacity: What does any construction company do when they build a home or any other building?
They perform extensive ground samples and studies. Once those are done, engineers will spend hours coming up with the best foundation possible for the structure will be.Installing a free standing mezzanine is no different. So the first thing a material handling company will look at it your warehouse or distribution center is your floor slab and that its weight capacity is so they can ensure safety with your new mezzanine.
“Well most people they look at the concrete floor and they say it looks solid, but they are not construction engineers so we have to go back through the building plan to find out the slab capacity just because it is something they don’t have to worry about most times,” said Jorgenson.
But floor slabs can differ in thickness. Usually they are about 6 inches and the thickness can be found in the original architectural drawings. Now it is critical not to automatically assume a lab floor thickness—always find out, even if it requires an in-depth solid and slab analysis performed by a professional.
“It’s very important to know what the concrete slab capacity is, so a company like Jorgenson Material Handling can design the columns, so we can know if we need to put footings in because that mezzanine is going to put a lot of weight on the slab and we need to try and design around that to ensure you’re covered and once the mezzanine is up, the city inspector or someone won’t come in and say you need to put footings in under here or something of that effect,” said Jorgenson.
So rather than cut corners, just be safe and spend the extra money on the mezzanine stairway that the manufacturer is selling—it will meet code, be installed securely and odds are it will hold up better and keep your employees safe from harm.
5. Meet code! “That is part of what JMH services provide is we can go through that process, find out what your need are and go back to the factory and look at what the code is and begin all the plans and the pulling and all that type of stuff so that we can make sure we are meeting the code requirements so our client doesn’t get themselves into a mess,” said Jorgenson. Thus, ensuring you are safe up there in your mezzanine.
6. What are you putting on that free standing mezzanine? Will it be just people, parts storage or will you have equipment up there and be operating it? These questions are crucial to answer and because these answers will determine the weight/stress that the mezzanine will need to support.
“The biggest answer we need is to know what you’re trying to do and then we will design around that to make sure we are meeting what you need to accomplish,” said Jorgenson. “If I know what your goals are and what we need to work around, then we’ll design the mezzanine around those issues. All the footings, columns and city coding will be met based upon that.” Remember if it was originally meant for just extra office space or light storage, then later if you plan on putting equipment or other heavy stuff up there, odds are you may be setting a course for disaster with all that extra weight.
“If you’re putting in heavy duty pieces of equipment onto the mezzanine, we’re going to have to design that mezzanine completely different and more bulky to ensure it is more heavy duty than just a basic mezzanine,” said Jorgenson. Be sure to have a clear objective as to what you will be doing on the mezzanine before it is bid out, and installed.
7. Is a mezzanine better under designed or over designed? Our feeling is be like the Boy Scout Motto of “be prepared.” Overdesign can add future levels of safety.
“I would say that with the safety factors and everything in there, that they are overdesigned so we make sure that we meet requirements that we need to provide you with,” assures Jorgenson.
8. Can I custom design my mezzanine or does it come in a ‘one size fits all’ deal?
“One size doesn’t fit all. We always go in and design it based upon their applications,” said Jorgenson.
“The ones we do are almost always custom designed in a modular application to meet what the client’s needs really are.” To ensure you get the best possible layout, have the installer come and walk your floor, see your machinery and if it isn’t set up yet; have them look over the drawings with you. That way they know without a shadow of doubt the obstacles they will be working around when installing that free standing mezzanine.
“I think one of the things we need to always do is go into the client’s business and take a look,” said Jorgenson. “We also like to especially know what pieces of equipment, or production lines, do we have to work around. If there is going to be a production line under the mezzanine, we need to know how much space is going to be around it so that people can move within that space and not bump into columns.” Of course there are other questions a material handling company will look out for based upon their experience.
“Other considerations are is there going to be any forklift traffic, and so that is why you basically need someone to come in and walk the facility to find out what the company is trying to do and make sure they get everything laid out and design everything properly with what your facility requirements are,” Jorgenson concludes.
By following those eight easy steps, you have just improved your odds of having a free standing mezzanine which is tailor fit to your warehouse or distribution center. It will hold up when it needs to, support the weight/stress it was designed for and give you and your employees peace of mind they are working in a safe environment. By contacting a reputable material handling firm like Jorgenson Material Handling, you should be prepared to answer these questions, so be prepared as well!
