Mezzanine flooring is flooring that is installed above an existing space. A mezzanine floor is a good way to get an additional floor without having to make large renovations. Mezzanine floors utilise the empty space below the ceiling and are useful for storage for instance, especially if there was not a lot of initial space. It’s infinitely safer not having a cluttered floor where people could trip and achieving this through the extra space provided by a mezzanine floor. Installing mezzanine flooring will increase the value of your property and with factories for example will attract a larger number of buyers who are keen to have lots of space for machinery or employee workspace.

An alternative to mezzanine floors is to do a loft conversion if the building has a loft. Apart from this alternative being expensive and requiring lots of time to complete, it might also lead to people who utilise the building needing to relocate whilst work is going on so that health and safety rules are not violated. The loft conversion would cause a great deal of noise and dust which would make it very hard to live or work in the building while the conversion was ongoing.

Another option is to build an extension but like the loft conversion, this process will be more expensive and take longer than installing mezzanine flooring and people might need to relocate for a period while the building was taking place. Also, to get planning permission to build an extension is much more difficult than to get planning permission to install a mezzanine floor. A third alternative is getting space through cupboards or lockers. These items will take up floor space however, which leaves less space for people to move freely. In addition you will have to account for the space required to open the cupboard or locker doors, which uses up even more space. Things such as desks could not be put in front of the cupboards as they would need to be shifted out the way each time you needed to open the cupboards. You could store smaller things in front of the cupboard but again each time you need the cupboard open you’d have to move these items, which is very inconvenient.

You can add shelving to provide more space but it will be difficult to reach items on the top of shelves, particularly if they are high shelves. To reach the top shelves may necessitate the use of ladders, which people could potentially fall off of and thereby hurt themselves or others nearby. Shelving also takes up valuable floor space. If you need more storage space or more office space, an option is to rent this space. This alternative can cost a lot of money, either through monthly rent payments or a hefty annual payment which could put stress on a business’s budget having to pay it all at once. This alternative is also not practical if you have to stretch a business over two locations far away from each other or require frequent access to the items you are storing in another location potentially far away.

In summary, it’s easy to see why mezzanine flooring is the simpler, cheaper and better alternative.

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