Today’s tough economic conditions are forcing businesses to reassess their costs.

To remain competitive they need to do more with less.

Industrial warehouses, distribution centres and manufacturing plants all have to evolve so that they can retain a competitive advantage. One of the areas that most business immediately turns to for cost reduction is the reassessment of their storage requirements. But how exactly can you make a significant impact on your storage facility that will produce meaningful results while still saving money? How can you achieve more with less? Well, the answer is to build upwards and make better use of the available storage space you have. Introducing a mezzanine floor into your storage facility will not only save money and add value but will also add additional valuable storage capacity.

Mezzanine floors are a great way of creating additional storage space on a budget: however, it’s all too easy for the installation costs to spiral out of control if sufficient consideration isn’t given to the design and layout. Hopefully the following tips will help you plan your mezzanine installation effectively.

Consider what you want to use the mezzanine for, and optimise this for loading requirements.

It’s far too easy to over-specify a mezzanine project and build in strength and greater stability when the proposed load requirements make this unnecessary. All that will happen is that you will end up paying for strength and stability that you won’t need.

Optimise the column grid.

If you use the most economical mezzanine column grid, which is normally a 3 metre by 3 metre column, you will be able to save money on structural steelwork, and balance the carrying capacity with the most unobtrusive column layout: however this must be balanced with loading requirements.

Avoid a design round heavy point loads if possible on the mezzanine floor.

The calculations for loading requirements are generally based on a uniform distribution, however, that doesn’t mean you have to apply the heaviest load right across the floor. If heavy loads need to go on the floor, specific sections can be uprated to keep costs down.

Avoid going too high.

The higher you go, the more it will cost. There is an optimal point at which costs will exceed usefulness. By ensuring that the height of the finished mezzanine floor is no higher than 3 metres, you will be able to avoid having a mid-staircase landing and keep costs down.

Consider the access requirements.

If you assess your operational requirements and specify only the minimum access requirements to comply with local building control regulations, you will be able to avoid costly over-specification.