A Guide to Enhancing Staff Facilities with a Mezzanine Floor

Creating a workplace environment that promotes employee well-being and productivity isn’t just a perk – it’s a necessity. Many employees spend more of their waking hours at work than they do at home, so investing in a workplace that’s not only practical but also comfortable has become a top priority for businesses.

While most offices and warehouses offer basic staff facilities like toilets and kitchenettes, modern workplaces are evolving. The integration of wellness features, comfortable breakout areas, and improved amenities is now recognised as essential to cultivating employee satisfaction.

For businesses facing space constraints, enhancing facilities can feel like an overwhelming challenge. Relocating or undergoing large-scale building work may be options, but they often come with significant costs, disruptions, and delays. The good news? There’s another solution that’s efficient, cost-effective, and practical.

If you’re considering ways of enhancing your staff facilities and working environment and feel that a mezzanine floor could be a solution worth exploring, this guide is for you.

We’ll run you through everything you need to know - from exactly what a mezzanine floor is and why it could be an option you consider to ideas on how to fit out and make the most of your newfound space to maximise it’s use.

A mezzanine floor is a level installed between your floor and ceiling, effectively giving your building a "second-layer" of usable space. Most mezzanine floors are relocatable fixtures, but depending on your project scope, they can also be permanent installations. This flexibility makes mezzanine floors a versatile and efficient choice for many types of businesses.

There are plenty of reasons why a mezzanine floor could be the ideal solution for your workspace. Here are a few scenarios where a mezzanine floor can make a big difference:

• Your commercial premises has plenty of ceiling height but limited floor space
• You want to increase available breakout space for a growing team
• You wish to find a solution that is less disruptive
• You want the freedom and flexibility to design a space that works for your goals, employees and budget

A well-designed mezzanine floor can transform your workplace. Here are six ways to optimise employee well-being and productivity with your new space:

1. Toilets and Washroom Facilities
On-site shower and washroom facilities are especially appreciated by employees who cycle to work, jog during their commute, or incorporate fitness into their day.

2. Locker Rooms
Provide secure storage options for coats and bags to prevent trip hazards and give your staff peace of mind knowing their belongings are safe.

3. On-Site Gyms
Encourage employee wellness and work-life balance with an on-site gym. A mezzanine floor offers an excellent space to set up exercise equipment and support a health-conscious culture.

4. Breakout Areas
A comfortable breakout area encourages employees to step away from their desks for rest and recharge. Include cosy furniture, tables, and spaces to make coffee or tea, ensuring the area is a welcoming respite.

5. Staff Kitchens
Offering a functional kitchen equipped with storage, food heating, and washing facilities can hugely improve workplace morale. A mezzanine floor can easily accommodate a kitchen for employees to prepare and enjoy their meals.

6. Staff Cafeterias or Coffee Shops
For larger office spaces, consider creating a vibrant cafeteria or coffee shop. Employees can enjoy a variety of fresh meals and beverages during their break times without stepping outside the workplace.

Benefits of Installing a Mezzanine Floor

Adding a mezzanine floor to your commercial workspace comes with numerous benefits, both operationally and financially. Here’s why more restaurants are choosing this option.

Cost-Effective Alternative

Instead of costly relocations or property expansions, why not choose a mezzanine floor? It enables you to make efficient use of vertical space at a fraction of what other solutions would cost. Relocations often double your expenses by requiring you to occupy two premises temporarily, while extensions can involve significant planning and delays. An office mezzanine lets you expand and improve your employee facilities with minimal expense or hassle.

Minimal Disruption to Operations

Unlike the potential downtime associated with major refurbishments or relocations, installing a mezzanine floor is considered a quick and streamlined process. This means you can often continue serving your valued customers without significant interruptions.

Reduced Risk

Why gamble on relocating to unfamiliar locations that could result in disruption to staff commuting, shift patterns and parking when your current location already works for your team? A mezzanine allows you to optimise your existing location without disrupting not just daily operations but your team’s daily routine and work-life balance.

Flexible Design Options

Mezzanine floors are fully customisable to suit your needs, whether you’re looking for a simple install or a complete fit-out with electrical work, suspended ceilings, partitions, and more. This scalability makes it an attractive solution for businesses with varying budgets and space requirements.

A Turnkey Solution

Partnering with a principal contractor like HMF streamlines the entire process. From the initial design to the final finish, the entire project is managed seamlessly under one scope, giving you more time to focus on running your restaurant.

If a mezzanine floor is right for your business, the first thing you’ll need to do is find a reputable mezzanine floor installer, such as HMF.

The design and installation of mezzanine floors must comply with strict Building Regulations and health and safety standards. A specialist installer like HMF ensures your project is handled professionally and adheres to safety standards.

A principal contractor not only installs the mezzanine but also manages every aspect of the project. From structural design to interior fit-outs and regulatory compliance, companies like HMF take care of it all under a single contract.

This can help you to save time, cost and ensures that any refurbishment work is carried out on the same timeline and project scope.

The process of designing a mezzanine floor to enhance staff facilities

To create a safe, efficient and purposeful mezzanine floor that offers real employee benefit, getting the design right from the offset is essential. But, expanding your office space and improving its functionality and employee offering doesn’t always mean a total overhaul. That’s the beauty of opting for a mezzanine floor install.

A creative and practical solution like installing a mezzanine floor can significantly transform your office, enhance employee experience, and boost productivity. Here are some essential design elements and considerations to make your restaurant mezzanine floor a standout success.

Banisters and Rails

Safety comes first! Banisters and rails are a crucial design feature to prevent falls and ensure a working environment for your employees. With a wide range of styles available, you can choose a design that seamlessly matches your interior theme, from sleek contemporary glass railings to more traditional designs.

Access

Every mezzanine floor needs easy and safe access. We can help you integrate stair access in a way that maximises your existing space while remaining aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, consider including lifts to make your mezzanine floor accessible for everyone in your office, ensuring inclusivity and compliance with regulations.

Partitions

Your new mezzanine floor may have multiple purposes. In addition to improving your employee facilities, you may also decide to use the mezzanine floor to create some new work stations, private office spaces or perhaps to create a larger meeting room. If this is the case, you’d need practical, yet aesthetically pleasing partitions to break up the space. Dividing the space with creative partitions can elevate the atmosphere and improve operational flow. From relocatable partition walls to sleek glass partitions that keep the space open and light, the possibilities are endless. Relocatable walls are particularly advantageous for quickly adapting your space to meet different needs.

Commercial Flooring

Your mezzanine floor will require sturdy, durable flooring that withstands day-to-day footfall while maintaining visual appeal. Commercial flooring options offer the perfect combination of practicality and style, ensuring your mezzanine space stays safe and inviting for years to come. We can install a range of flooring options for different space, including non-slip safety flooring in toilets, gyms, locker and shower rooms as well as kitchens.

Ceilings

A suspended ceiling is a perfect design choice to enhance the look and feel of your mezzanine while concealing wires and pipes. It offers a clean, polished finish and can complement the overall design and feel of your office environment.

Mechanical and Electrical Installations

No mezzanine floor is complete without mechanical and electrical considerations. Lighting is often a key requirement to ensure work spaces are well lit and comfortable on the eye. Fire alarm systems may need updating to meet Building Regulations, and for mezzanine floors used for kitchens or toilets, additional plumbing, heating, and ventilation systems will likely be required. From air conditioning to electrical work, we can oversee all installations to create a seamless and fully operational space.

Storage Space

Storage is critical when increasing your restaurant space. Mezzanine floors offer a unique opportunity to integrate functional storage solutions in otherwise unused areas, helping to optimise kitchens, stockrooms, and back-office operations. We can help design storage systems that are both efficient and stylish, ensuring practicality meets aesthetics.

Initial designs must be submitted to Building Regulations for approval before work begins. To streamline the process and ensure compliance, partnering with a reputable commercial mezzanine floor installer, like HMF, is essential. We work closely with you to design a space that fits your needs while meeting all regulatory requirements. From structural integrity to mechanical and electrical elements, we handle everything, including managing the Building Regulations application with the Building Control Body (BCB).

What Does a Typical Mezzanine Floor Application Include?

For a mezzanine floor designed specifically to create or improve staff facilities, the application would generally include the following:

• Application for a mezzanine floor
• Complete floor plans
• Full internal building plan
• Building location plan
• Structural framework calculations
• Slab capacity calculations

How HMF Ensures Compliance

At HMF, we act as Principal Contractor to ensure your restaurant mezzanine floor complies with all necessary Building Regulations. Our expert team refers to the relevant Approved Documents to guide every stage of the project.

These Approved Documents offer official guidance on meeting regulatory requirements. While not all documents are applicable to every project, the key considerations for an office or commercial mezzanine floors typically include:

• Approved Document A – Structure
• Approved Document B – Fire Safety
• Approved Document K – Protection Against Falling
• Approved Document L – Conservation of Fuel and Power
• Approved Document M – Access and Use

Our team will assess which documents are relevant to your unique project, ensuring every aspect of your design and construction is future-proofed from a compliance perspective.

A mezzanine floor is more than just a physical extension to your office or warehouse; it’s an investment in your team’s well-being and your business’s future. It offers a cost-effective, sustainable way to meet the growing demand for improved staff facilities and create a workplace that inspires and retains top talent.

Whether you’re looking to increase existing office or warehouse space, elevate your corporate interior design, or simply improve your employees workplace experience, a mezzanine floor is the ideal solution.

Contact us today for a personalised consultation and quote.