Top Mezzanine Safety Tips for Warehouse Owners
A mezzanine is always a great idea for warehouses or other facilities. It may seem very simple but trust us, it’s not. Also, most of the storage or warehouse owners are seeking for the mezzanine floor in their spaces. It increases the work area or facility’s storage of a warehouse.
In this article, we will discuss mezzanine safety measures that a warehouse owner must follow. By the end, you will be able to offer the highest safety for workers in your storage.
An Overview Of Mezzanine Floor
It is a middle floor placed between the ground floor and ceiling to offer extra space in the office, assembling area, warehouses, or storage. Moreover, the basic mezzanine floor design is 25% of the building’s flooring or might be less than 25%. This kind of floor is well designed or planned and is positioned to offer a clearly defined aim.
The main focus of it is providing extra warehouse space. They can be used for the expansion of office, manufacturing, retail, or distribution space. Furthermore, it can help you to easily use the unused area above the floor or below the ceiling. The best part is that you need to invest very little and get affordable space.
Elements in Mezzanine Flooring
Primary beams
The basic support of the mezzanine is a primary beam, and it spans across the columns.
Joists/Purlins
It is the spans in between the primary beams and the decking’s fixing points.
Columns
Generally, columns are made to support the primary beams. On the other side, the load-bearing distributes evenly over the columns that uphold the mezzanine.
Decking
The commonly fitted option is a particle board of 38mm. But, the other varieties consist of durbar plate, grating, composite decking, and concrete.
Different Types Of Mezzanine Floor
Durbar Plate
Hot-rolled steel is the main element for making a durbar plate. It is a durable and rigid structure with high performance or long-lasting life. Moreover, its heat resistance is up to 500°C. Furthermore, this is suitable for logistics premises, walkways, stairs, safety platforms, and warehouses.
Composite Decking
For structural performance, composite decking is an ideal choice. It is built with particleboard and high-grade galvanized steel. Additionally, it absorbs very heavy loads. This is ideally fitted for manufacturing, commercial, and automation spaces.
Forge Welded Grating
It is a combination of bearing bars and cross rods. The forge-welded grating is heavy-duty and solid flooring and best suited for industries.
Additionally, a forge-welded grating is compatible with gangways, warehouse flooring, and working platforms.
38mm Particle Board
38mm particleboard is a high-density material and a versatile flooring choice. It is often used in retail stores, offices, storage, and warehouses. Also, 38mm particle board type of mezzanine flooring easily handles medium point loads to the high point. Moreover, you will find this a very cost-effective choice.
Mezzanine Safety Tips For Warehouses
Now, let’s have a look over the mezzanine safety tips for warehouse owners. It will provide safety to your workers. How? Check out below.
1. Make sure of the mezzanine holding limit.
Remember, the most strong middle floor has a holding limit. So, know the limits of your all intermediate floor. This all will help you in the safest mezzanine usage.
Take an overview of the weight limit, the mezzanine’s stated loads, including worker capacity, and much more. Moreover, with this, you can make sure that the limit of holding isn’t exceeded. Later this will make sure that all the items are accessible and easily visible on the locations to you and your team.
2. Fall protection needed
When you understand your middle floor design, it is high time to check it out. There might be open areas or exposed sides, making moving products stand easily. However, this leads to easy falls, accidents on site, injuries, or maybe worse.
Ensure you have installed the right type of guardrails on your mezzanine’s every open side. Furthermore, it will protect your employees, equipment, or inventory from falling down. It doesn’t matter where the mezzanine is located and what you are storing in it.
- The top rail must be approximately 1100 mm highest.
- The second intermediate rails need to be approximately 500 mm apart.
- The kick plate has to be 100 mm high. It will help in preventing small products from falling on the floor.
3. Note down the local fire and hazard codes.
Fire safety is very important for any office or warehouse. Whether it’s by a local government, OSHA codes, or federal requirements, you need to make sure the area is safe. Also, worker safety and fire safety are very important to apply to the mezzanines of your warehouse.
Right from the process steps, like designing your intermediate floor layout to the usage and actual installation, review the safety codes to ensure everything is going accordingly.
Well, the fire safety codes do exist for a particular reason. If you follow these codes,it will keep your workers safe from any mishap or the injuries that stem from misusing equipment.
Further, you need to install accurate safety gates on every facility mezzanines. The mezzanine safety gates are the most efficient way to improve mezzanine safety. It keeps your team safe from falls and injuries and avoids costly fines.
Moreover, choose a safety gate created by a reliable firm. It should meet all industry safety rules (IBC, OSHA, ANSI), be made from durable and quality materials, be easy to install, be user-friendly, and, most prominently, keep the team safe.
Final Words
You should cover the floor in any workplace, warehouse, storage, or other. So, you take care of this by following the above listed precautions.
If you have any doubt regarding the entire safety process, please comment down.
Thank you for reading!