Lightweight Mezzanine Floors

A Buyers Guide
© Llonsson Ltd - 12th March 2020


MEZZANINE FLOORS A BUYERS GUIDE © LLONSSON LTD 2020 1

 Introduction
Considering a mezzanine floor project?

My name is Harry Mortensson of Llonsson Ltd.

I have been designing and managing the installation of mezzanine floors for industrial
and commercial projects in all kinds of environments since the 1980’s and have come
across most situations and problems that arise.

More than 30 years knowledge and experience specifically in this field exceeds that of
many construction professionals including Architects, Surveyors and Structural Engineers,
who may only come across industrial and commercial mezzanine floors occasionally in
their careers.

I would like to share this knowledge and experience with you so that you are able to
consider your project with a clear understanding of what is involved from the outset,
enabling you to avoid potential pitfalls.

Mezzanine floor purchasing decisions are often a one off transaction without the benefit
of knowledge and experience, where the main method of product differentiation is price.

This approach can result in the buyer being disappointed with the product and service
that they receive. We are regularly approached by purchasers wishing to remedy such a
situation, sometimes during and sometimes after the event.

More enlightened buyers assess proposals on the basis of value, considering not only a
bare bones lowest price, but all the factors that impact upon the proposed project such as
regulation, design, competence, risk, service, delivery, quality, management, warranty
and finally cost in the light of these factors.

As with all construction work, three adages well worth bearing in mind are:

• The five P’s (Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance).

• Caveat Emptor (Buyer beware).
• You get what you pay for.

I hope that you will find this guide a useful tool to help you focus on which factors are
important to you for your specific needs.

MEZZANINE FLOORS A BUYERS GUIDE © LLONSSON LTD 2020 2

 Contents

Section Title Page

1. Introduction 2

2. What is a mezzanine floor? 4

How can my organisation benefit by installing a mezzanine floor?
3. 4

What are the differences between traditional and

4. lightweight mezzanine floors? 5

What standards & regulations apply to mezzanine

5. floors? 6

6. What load will a mezzanine floor support? 8

7. Will a mezzanine floor collapse if it is overloaded? 9

8. What do suppliers mean by ‘most economic grid’ ? 10

How large a clear span between columns can be

9. achieved? 10

10. Are foundations required for a mezzanine floor? 11

11. How big will the mezzanine floor base plates be? 11

How can the potential trip hazard of base plates be

12. avoided? 12

Can a mezzanine floor be installed in an upper

13. storey? 12

14. How easy is a mezzanine floor to install? 13

What equipment is required to install a mezzanine

15. floor? 13

What hazards are presented by the installation

16. process? 14

What are ‘The Construction Design & Management Regulations

17. 2015’ (CDM)? 15

How much does a mezzanine floor cost per square

18. metre? 16

19. Are second hand mezzanines worth considering? 16

Is there such a thing as a mezzanine floor

20. designer? 18

21. Mezzanine floor buyers quotation checklist. 19

22 To progress your project further. 21

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 Traditional or Mezzanine Floors ?
A mezzanine floor is an intermediate storey, introduced into a building that has sufficient
headroom, to enable additional floor area to be obtained where building volume is under
utilised.

Installing a mezzanine floor to provide additional floor space is one very cost effective
means of providing that space.

How Can My Organisation

Benefit by Installing a
Mezzanine Floor ?

The additional cost of purchasing or renting expansion space can be avoided as can the
tangible and intangible costs and disruption of moving.
If your organisation has existing unused headroom within your property which you
already are heating, lighting and paying business rates upon, additional floor area for
offices, storage or process can be gained for a fixed capital cost.

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 Traditional or Mezzanine Floors ?

Mezzanine floors can be generally separated into two categories, traditional and lightweight.

Traditional Mezzanine Floors

Traditional mezzanine floors usually comprise a heavy steel or concrete frame that
may be part of the original construction of a building, supported on concrete
foundations and supporting a solid floor of reinforced concrete, concrete planks or
beams and blocks.

Benefits of this type of construction are the sound and fire insulation properties of a
substantial concrete floor.
Disadvantages of this type of construction are inflexibility, the cost and duration of
creating foundations, the dirty nature of construction with wet trades, time required to
install, the expense and difficulty of removal, particularly at the end of a lease.

Lightweight mezzanine floors

Lightweight mezzanine floors typically comprise a lightweight steel structure with a
choice of decking materials such as plywood, 38mm particle board or steel plate.

Benefits are that they are fast and economical to install, extend, dismantle or
relocate.They can usually be surface mounted directly onto a concrete slab without the
time and expense of foundation work. They rely on prefabricated dry elements which
are swiftly assembled on site and are far more economical than concrete construction,
Lightweight mezzanine floors are particularly well suited to leased property that may
need to be returned to its original condition at the end of a lease as they usually have
minimal impact upon the fabric of the existing structure.

In all but the heaviest duty applications a well designed lightweight mezzanine will
have no significant disadvantages compared to traditional construction, and, like for
like, will be more economic, which is why they are such a popular means of adapting
speculative ‘shed’ type commercial properties.
Where necessary, fire protection is most economically achieved by fitting a suspended
ceiling, providing a void for concealed service distribution and sound insulation, if
desired.

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 What Standards and
Regulations Apply to
Mezzanine Floors?

Building Regulations

Mezzanine floors must be designed to meet statutory minimum standards (United

Kingdom)to ensure that:

In normal use, there is no risk of collapse.

In the event of fire, adequate means of escape are provided from the structure for
users. In the event of fire, the structure will remain safe for a specified period to
enable the fire brigade to safely fight the fire.

These minimum standards are contained within the Building Regulations, Approved
Documents A,B,K&M, obtainable online at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/
approved-documents.

In order to ensure that these standards are met, designs including drawings and
structural calculations must be prepared and submitted to Building Control for
approval.

Building Control can take the form of a Local Authority Officer or a representative of a
firm of Approved Inspectors.

A Building Regulations application to Local Authority Building Control (LABC) must be

submitted accompanied by an application fee, and upon completion an inspection fee will
be payable for the services of the Inspector.
A Building Regulations application to an Approved Inspector (AI) must be submitted
accompanied by a one off payment to cover administrative costs and the services of the
Inspector. The AI will notify the Local Authority of the application.

The Building Regulations are not hard and fast in all areas but can be open to
interpretation, and it is therefore important that applicants are represented by
experienced and knowledgeable professionals who know the boundaries of what is
permissible and are able to negotiate effectively with the inspector to achieve an optimal
scheme.
BRE Digest 437
Additional guidelines are published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to
ensure that mezzanines are adequately specified to satisfy users functional needs and
the best mezzanine floor suppliers will satisfy these guidelines as a matter of course as
well as meeting the statutory minimum requirements of the Building Regulations.

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 BS EN 1090 & UKCA Quality Assurance of Structural Steel Production
Mandatory CE Marking of construction products came in to effect on 1st July 2014, will
still be applicable during the transition period, and is to be superseded by UK Conformity
Assessed (UKCA) Marking.
Following structural failures due to substandard materials and workmanship BS EN 1090
was introduced to ensure that only raw materials of an appropriate structural grade are
used, that welding quality management procedures are in place and a test plan is in
place.
BS EN1090 CE Marking is applicable to the production of all structural steelwork used in
buildings, and mezzanine floor producers fabrication facilities must be approved to at
least execution class 2 for most warehouse and office applications.
Higher execution classes may be required for more demanding applications and are
determined by building type, building height, floor plan per storey and occupancy. Advice
should always be sought when specifying execution class.

Local Authority Planning Approval

Mezzanine floors can occasionally be affected by planning legislation, where additional

floor space creates the need for additional parking facilities such as the creation of
additional retail or office space.
Exceptionally, on properties built since 1980’s, planning conditions can exist that restrict
the creation of additional office space by introducing mezzanine floors into warehouse
type buildings, without consent being sought.

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 What Load will a Mezzanine
Floor Support?

A mezzanine floor can be designed to take whatever load is required.

The load bearing capacity of a mezzanine floor is usually expressed as a uniformly

distributed load (UDL) and is quoted in kilo Newtons (kN) per square metre (or lbs per sq.
foot). If the specified UDL were to be applied to each and every square metre of the
mezzanine then it would cause the structure to deflect no more than the design
deflection.

In addition to the UDL, point loads of various natures may be applied to the floor. They
may be temporary (the wheel of a hand pallet truck), semi permanent (the foot of a
stillage) or permanent (the foot of a rack).

Each type of flooring material will be able to support different point loads, and should
be specified to suit the anticipated use of the structure.

The mezzanine floor should be designed so that structural reinforcement is located

where any high permanent point loads are encountered.

In the UK the Building Regulations set minimum standards of uniformly distributed

load bearing capacity that must be met.

For example if a mezzanine floor is to be used for office use, it must be designed to
accommodate a minimum uniformly distributed live load capacity of 3.5kN per square
metre.

A mezzanine floor intended for storage purposes must be designed to accommodate a

minimum uniformly distributed live load capacity of 4.8kN per square metre, even if it is
only storing loft insulation.

Of course greater UDL’s can be accommodated by designing to suit the client’s

requirements.

If loads are likely to be high, it is a false economy to under specify load capacity,
particularly if trucks or trolleys are to be used, as overloading will cause the structure to
deflect excessively and may make it impossible to move heavy trolleys.
In addition to design for live loading, dead loading of the structure itself and any applied
services and building finishes need to be considered, particular attention being paid if
they are out of the ordinary.

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 Will a Mezzanine Floor
Collapse if it is
Overloaded?

The load bearing capacity of a mezzanine floor is usually expressed as a uniformly

distributed load (UDL) and is quoted in kilo Newtons (kN) per square metre (or lbs per
sq. foot). If the specified UDL were to be applied to each and every square metre of the
mezzanine then it would cause the structure to deflect no more than the design
deflection.

In addition to the UDL, point loads of various natures may be applied to the floor. They
may be temporary (the wheel of a hand pallet truck), semi permanent (the foot of a
stillage) or permanent (the foot of a rack).

Each type of flooring material will be able to support different point loads, and
should be specified to suit the anticipated use of the structure.

The mezzanine floor should be designed so that structural reinforcement is located

where any high permanent point loads are encountered.

In the UK the Building Regulations set minimum standards of uniformly distributed

load bearing capacity that must be met.

For example if a mezzanine floor is to be used for office use, it must be designed to
accommodate a minimum uniformly distributed live load capacity of 3.5kN per square
metre.

A mezzanine floor intended for storage purposes must be designed to accommodate a

minimum uniformly distributed live load capacity of 4.8kN per square metre, even if it is
only storing loft insulation.

Of course greater UDL’s can be accommodated by designing to suit the clients

requirements.

If loads are likely to be high, it is a false economy to under specify load capacity,
particularly if trucks or trolleys are to be used, as overloading will cause the structure to
deflect excessively and may make it impossible to move heavy trolleys.
In addition to design for live loading, dead loading of the structure itself and any applied
services and building finishes need to be considered, particular attention being paid if
they are out of the ordinary.

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 What do Suppliers mean by
‘Most Economic Grid’?

By designing to a ‘most economic column grid’, popular section sizes are used
and sized to obtain maximum benefit from their structural characteristics.

The design is therefore focused on providing a structure that meets minimum statutory
requirements at the lowest possible cost at the expense of any other elements of a
client’s design brief. A design using a most economic grid will therefore display maximum
movement and deflection and will have columns positioned most economically without
any consideration of their impact on the use of space below the structure.
Such a solution can sometimes be exactly what is required, however more often than not
column positioning is significant to the client’s efficient use of space below the mezzanine
and requires consideration.
A mezzanine floor designed with a most economic grid may restrict a manufacturing
operation, or result in wasted space below the structure the long term cost of which can
far outweigh an initial investment in optimal design.

If offices are to be created below the structure it will often be advantageous to

design a column grid whereby all the columns can be lost within, and fire protected
by, the office partitions.
As a most economic design will have the most deflection and movement, this can be
an issue if offices are to be built on the structure.

How Large a Clear Span

Between Columns Can be
Achieved?

As large as the client needs, however as clear spans increase so does cost since the
weight of the main steel sections increases, and of the necessary supporting columns.

Slab considerations come into play as larger spans imply high axial column loads,
and potential groundwork requirements.

Practical considerations include the transportation of long beams to site, 15m being
the maximum achievable on an articulated trailer without using specialised transport.

A mezzanine can, if the surrounding building fabric is suited, be built into the
existing structure avoiding the introduction of any new columns.

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 Are Foundations Required
for a Mezzanine Floor?

Most typical mezzanine floors are slab supported – that is they are supported on
columns that have base plates through which the loads from the floor are dispersed via
the concrete slab and hardcore to the subsoil below.

Exceptionally, if the loads being applied to the floor are very high and/or the spans
between columns are large, then the high loads being applied to the slab may be too
great for standard design, and enlarged baseplates, spreader beams or mass
foundations may be required.

How Big Will the Mezzanine

Floor Baseplates be?

Dimensions of base plates are site dependent, in that they will vary depending upon the
thickness of the concrete floor slab, the steel reinforcement within the concrete, the
thickness of the hardcore and the type of subsoil below.

This is why suppliers will quote a price typically based upon a 300mm x 300mm square
base plate, as slab and subsoil information is seldom available at quotation stage.

If larger plates are required in order to adequately distribute load over a poor quality slab,
or subsoil with a low load bearing capacity, then these are usually chargeable as an
extra cost.

Building Control may accept slab and subsoil details from the construction of the
building if they are available in O&M manuals or organisational records. Alternatively
conservative assumptions may be acceptable or trial holes may need to be undertaken
by the client to obtain accurate information so that baseplates can be sized.

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 Hw can the Potential Trip
Hazard of Base Plates be
Avoided?

If baseplates are located in a walkway and are large in order to distribute load over a
poor slab, then they can be a hazard. Surface mounted plates can be fitted with
countersunk fixings and have chamfered edges to minimise the hazard. A screed can
be laid over the whole area to conceal the base plates.

Base plates can also be lost in pockets cut in the existing concrete slab, and backfilled
with a high performance self levelling grout. This has the benefit of eliminating changes of
level.Where an office layout is planned, special baseplates can be designed that become
lost in partitions.

Can a Mezzanine Floor be

Installed in an Upper
Storey?

Yes, possibly, as long as the building structure itself has sufficient spare capacity to
accommodate the additional loads that will be applied to it, and the mezzanine can
be designed to satisfactorily tie in with the existing structure.

Building Regulations are more demanding under these circumstances, and extra
care should be taken to liaise with the building inspector to ensure that he is satisfied
with proposals prior to commencement of work.

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 How Easy is a Mezzanine
Floor to Install?

The installation of a mezzanine floor is relatively straight forward, however even with
very small projects, relevant training, experience and the right tools and equipment
make it a faster and safer exercise when undertaken by a competent, skilled
installation team.

What Equipment is
Required to Install a
Mezzanine Floor?

On all but the smallest or specialised projects a fork lift truck will be required to unload
materials from the delivery vehicle and to lift materials during construction. If the site
conditions do not permit this then consideration of alternative lifting equipment such as
cranes must be considered. A gas powered counterbalance truck capable of lifting 2
tonnes to the finished floor level plus 300mm is usually adequate. If spare gas bottles are
being stored, a clearly labelled secure mesh storage cage will be required on site.
On small projects a HIAB crane offload combined with trolley and Genie lift may suffice.

Access to the structure whilst bolting together can be achieved using podium steps,
scaffold towers or scissor lifts depending upon working heights in order to ensure the
safety of installation teams.

Scaffold towers, fall restraint safety harnesses, fall arrest mesh or airbags and edge
protection should be used to protect operatives engaged in leading edge operations
during the laying of decking materials.

Laser levels, measures, stand up collated screw guns, nut runners and circular saw are
essential, either battery or 110V (in which case transformers and leads will be required).
All operatives should hold appropriate certification and training for plant and
equipment that they use and for health and safety.

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 What Hazards are Presented by
the Installation Process?

The installation of mezzanine floors is a potentially hazardous task, risks being

presented by lifting operations where heavy components could collapse or fall,
working at heights where staff could fall, materials or tools could be dropped, the

use of mechanical plant and equipment where collision with structures/people,

trapping of limbs could occur.

In these circumstances it is vital that the installation area is kept out of bounds
to all personnel other than installation staff during installation.
Installation of a mezzanine floor is impractical above or adjacent to any area where
people are working, or a thoroughfare unless steps have been made to isolate the
installation zone and prevent client’s staff access.

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 What are ‘The Construction
(Design & Management)
Regulations 2015’ (CDM 2015 )?

Building owners, users or managing agents having maintenance, small scale building
work or minor works carried out in connection with a business are clients with legal
duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.
Most mezzanine floor installations will therefore fall within the scope of the regulations.

The purpose of the regulations is to ensure that Health and Safety is adequately
addressed at project inception, and managed throughout the project with
responsibilities of all parties clearly defined.

If more than one contractor will be involved, the Client has responsibility for appointing a
Principle Designer and a Principle Contractor in writing.
The Principle Designer should be appointed as early as possible to gather information
about the project, plan, manage and coordinate planning and design work to ensure it
can be built safely.
The Principle Contractor should be appointed as early as possible to plan, manage and
coordinate the construction work and liaise with the Principle Designer.
Principle Designers and Contractors should have the skills, knowledge and experience
to identify, reduce and manage health and safety risks, be competent and have
adequate resources allocated to the proposed project.

In practice some these roles can be combined, however the regulations clearly set out
the responsibilities of the parties.

Mezzanine floor contractors should have a working knowledge of the regulations and
may be able to fulfil some or all of the roles, or be able to advise clients of suitable
professional consultants to undertake these roles.

A useful link for further information is hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg411.pdf

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 How Much Does a
Mezzanine Floor Cost per
Square Meter?

A headline cost per square metre is relatively meaningless as there are so many
variables involved and a clear understanding is required of which costs are included.


Buying solely on the basis of a low cost per square metre is ill advised unless the
application is extremely undemanding and you have low expectations.

Cost depends on many factors such as:

• The extent of the mezzanine floor.

• The load capacity for which the structure is to be designed.
• The deflection limit to which the floor is to be designed.
• The column grid required.
• The maximum depth of the structure itself.
• How many, and what kind of means of access are required.
• Are any landings required?
• Is fire protection required?
• Are materials being delivered, and if so where to?
• What material is to be used for the decking?
• Is the mezzanine to be installed on a clear and level site or over existing equipment?
• Is installation required?
• Is installation to be undertaken during normal working hours or at weekends or
evenings?

Quoted costs per square metre may exclude necessary staircases, hand railing,
delivery, installation, and are likely to assume a most economic grid and low load
bearing capacity, low deflection limits.
For accurate costing a detailed specification of works will always be required.

Are Secondhand Mezzanine

Floors Worth Considering?

Occasionally there can be circumstances when buying second hand can be

worthwhile. It is undoubtedly environmentally friendly. Under the wrong circumstances
it can be a disaster.

A second hand mezzanine that can be viewed in situ, is of adequate load capacity for
the new application, and has the benefit of its original drawings, calculations and
certification, that can be dismantled, transported to a new site and re-erected by the
same experienced team without reconfiguration should provide a cost saving.

In these circumstances it may be necessary to provide steel spreader plates if the

new site has a floor or subsoil with lower load bearing capacity than the original site.
A new Building Regulations application should be made, using the information from
the original documentation, or new drawings and structural calculations will have to
be professionally prepared and submitted.

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 At least some new decking will be required to make up for pieces damaged during
dismantling, and often with an older structure, all the decking will require
replacement, as swelling of the boards can make dismantling impractical without
damage and reassembly difficult and time consuming.

The main saving achieved is therefore the cost of the steelwork, against which the cost
of dismantling has to be set. If the mezzanine has to be transported to a different site
for temporary storage or rework then additional transport handling and rework costs
must also be offset against the saving on steelwork cost. Any alterations should be
undertaken by a fabricator with BS EN1090-1 Execution Class 2 certification.

The type of construction of the second hand mezzanine should be considered if

height is critical. Inset (slim line) construction will occupy less vertical space than
‘over the top’ construction.

If a significant amount of site alteration is required to make the second hand mezzanine
floor suit a new site, then it can swiftly become uneconomic to consider this as an
option. If, for example, the floor is too low, some steels are too long or the load capacity
is unsuited then some steelwork will either need to be double handled to rework it off
site, or will need to be reworked on site by a certificated fabricator posing associated
risks (is the site insured for hot works?).

Rework must be undertaken to an acceptable standard – a new mezzanine floor from a

reputable supplier will not have any structural members that have been welded together
from off-cuts, but will comprise prime steel cut to size.

If documentation is not available, then research will be necessary to obtain relevant

beam data and testing may be required to confirm the grade of materials used.
Structural calculations prepared by a mezzanine floor supplier with relevant data at
hand will be far more cost effective than those prepared by a structural engineer from
first principles.
Summarising, unless the mezzanine floor is fully documented and certificated, has
decking that is in good condition and the structure doesn’t need significant alteration,
then it is often likely to be a false economy to attempt reuse.

An initial assessment of the feasibility of reuse of a mezzanine can usually be

made by bearing the above points in mind. If it appears viable, assistance from a
professional mezzanine supplier is best sought for confirmation.

A professional supplier will provide an impartial opinion for a fee and may be
willing to undertake dismantling and relocation.

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 Is There Such a Thing as a
Mezzanine Floor Designer?

A professional mezzanine floor supplier will guide clients through the process of
specification of their mezzanine floor.

This can be a time consuming process, however the benefit of using a mezzanine specialist
is that they have constant day to day applications and problem solving experience in many
environments which can be applied to the clients project, whereas a construction or
architectural designer will have less in depth experience of working with mezzanine floors.

Competitive tendering prior to development of a detailed specification fails to harness

the potential design input and experience available from professional suppliers.

A mechanism employed by mezzanine specialists to offer competitive pricing along with

design service is for the client to engage the supplier to provide mezzanine floor design
advice, prepare a specification, drawings and calculations and submit them for Building
Regulations approval in return for a fee.

This package can be used as a basis for tendering the mezzanine floor work. The fee is
subsequently refunded if the supplier who develops the specification tenders
successfully.

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 Mezzanine Floor Buyers
Quotation Checklist
Typically a mezzanine floor is priced somewhere between a second hand car and a
house, neither of which are bought without extensive deliberation of their merits. The
purchase of a mezzanine floor deserves similar attention to detail to ensure that the
sought after benefits are obtained.

In our experience, time and effort spent planning a mezzanine purchase maximises
our client’s investment return and has the potential to reward them many times over
by optimising efficiency.

When assessing proposals the following checklist may prove useful:

• Do all proposals meet the design brief?

• Check uniformly distributed and point load capacities, ensure that deflection
parameters match needs.

• Check the quoted dimensions meet the specification.

• Check that vertical dimensional requirements are met – clear headroom, finished floor
level, construction depth allowing for any necessary ceiling/service voids and
clearances, any need to match height to existing structures.

• Confirm that the same design parameters have been applied in all proposals. Be aware
that the most economic design will satisfy minimum statutory requirements but can be
depended upon to provide maximum deflection and minimum rigidity; will this meet your
needs?

• Have any special considerations been allowed for such as recessed footplates or
extra deckbeams located to distribute point loads or racking.
• Have the same accessories been included such as stairs, handrails, kickplate,
pallet safety gates, and do their quantities and specifications match?

Having ensured that a specification that accurately reflects your requirements has
been developed and can be met by your prospective suppliers,
• Establish whether the cost of provision, delivery and collection of suitable
handling and access equipment, gas bottle storage, disposal of waste materials,
site surveys, structural drawings and calculations, building regulations application
and inspection fees are included in proposals, and if not make appropriate
adjustments.

Comparison of less tangible factors can now be undertaken.

• Check that the prospective contractor is competent by asking to speak to clients or to

see completed projects. Did your prospective supplier deliver on time, meet deadlines
and live up to expectations? Does the installation perform according to specifications
or does the client have any reservations.View the product, compare quality, check the
prospective suppliers performance record.

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 • Obtain copies of insurance certificates from prospective suppliers to ensure that
adequate insurance cover is in place. Public liability insurance costs have increased
steeply in recent years - check that payment is up to date. Most employers liability
cover is for £10M. Public liability insurance should be in place of at least £1M, more
commonly £5M. Would this be sufficient cover for your site? Is the cover valid on your
site? – for example airside work at airports is excluded from most policies.
• Establish the actual project timescale and the ability of suppliers to meet it. Time will
usually be required to undertake a site survey, prepare drawings and calculations
based upon the tendered specification, and to schedule material manufacture and
installation.

• Establish at which point each supplier’s quoted delivery timescale commences, and
how it may vary dependant upon manufacturing and installation capacity. Can they
demonstrate a record of consistently achieving target delivery dates and
programmes?

• Assess whether the project comes within the scope of the CDM 2015 regulations and
if so, establish whether the proposed supplier is capable of undertaking the necessary
roles, or whether other parties need to be engaged in order to meet your obligations.

• Have all costs associated with CDM compliance been included in proposals?

• Assess prospective suppliers health and safety management and obtain a copy of
their health and safety policy. Ask to be provided with risk assessments and method
statements.

• Compare payment terms. Your supplier is making a significant financial commitment in

terms of materials, machinery, plant and labour and is likely to want a deposit of up to
a third of project value with order, around a further third upon delivery of materials to
site followed by the balance within 30 days, subject to satisfactory credit checking, and
will price accordingly.
• Expect to credit check and to be credit checked, and for terms to be negotiable.
Suppliers are likely to offer significantly different terms to a startup than to a
multinational. Terms affect price and may also be negotiable to all parties benefit.
• Only pay upfront if you are confident of the financial stability of the proposed supplier.

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 To Progress Your Project
Further
On the basis of this guide, or with the assistance of your designer or supplier,
prepare a design brief and develop a specification.

Once a specification has been drawn up, competitive quotations can be obtained
and prospective suppliers assessed.

When comparing proposals, take regard of intangibles and their value to you.

For example prompt delivery - a delivery delay may be insignificant to one business, to
another it could lead to massive consequential loss, making timing and duration of
contract fulfilment far more significant than marginal capital cost saving to the second
business.

Likewise payment terms – a cheaper price negotiated on the basis of a larger deposit
is of little comfort if the proposed supplier disappears or goes bust.

Join the Fast Track

To streamline your project prepare the following which will be required at different
stages of the project:
• Check that you don’t have any planning conditions with regard to mezzanine floors
on your building.
• Sketches and notes of what you want to achieve.
• Any existing drawings of the building in which the mezzanine is to be located at
1/100 scale.
• Any existing drawings of the site at 1/1250 scale.
• Any documentary evidence of the construction of the floorslab and nature of the
subsoil from drawings, structural engineers calculations, planning or building Control
documents, O&M manuals, trial hole investigations. In the case of leasehold
properties these may be available through managing agents.
• Any available information about existing structures and hazards such as asbestos,
buried services.

MEZZANINE FLOORS A BUYERS GUIDE © LLONSSON LTD 2020 21

 Our updated guide is intended to give prospective purchasers with limited construction
experience an overview of the many practical and statutory matters relating to the
undertaking of a mezzanine floor project.
The guide is by no means exhaustive, and even with many years experience new
scenarios arise.
Many regulations, standards and practices have changed over the years that we
have been trading, all increasing quality and safety, and they will continue to do so.
Always contact your trusted supplier for the most up to date advice.

For Further Assistance,

Design or a Quotation
Contact Llonsson Ltd
01883 622068
sales@llonsson.co.uk

MEZZANINE FLOORS A BUYERS GUIDE © LLONSSON LTD 2020 22