Bizarre/sad/unusual request...does anyone know about Mezzanine floors?

[KatyMac]

As in

How much they cost?

How to do them?

Any downfalls?

Silly questions I know...sorry

Why you asking KM? I have been considering them too, new flat has 15ft ceilings. I'm sure we could fit in a whole other family half way up

I am trying to open a nursery in a chapel (you don't know how odd that sounds....I wanted to open one in a barn for 2 yrs but it fell through) & a mezzanine floor would make a fab staff room, office and additional room to rent out

But if they are too expensive I have no chance

For you - I would have thought a spare room/office would be lovely on a mezzanine, or perhaps a grown-up lounge or a games room (think about sound insulation for that though)

Katy that is a great idea. (laughing at the 'fell through' bit )

From what I know they are really not that dear, they always have them on Grand designs. You might need planning permission though?

Another flat we looked at had a mini mezzanine bit in the tiny dining room. It was basically a very well made staircase leading up to a sort of 6x3ft platform, no idea what for, very odd!

But I think with some coach bolts into the walls you could pretty much build your own. You'd need to buy a staircase or get it made though.

I might go for the ikea loft bed easy option actually

Less capital cost.....less space

BTW - unless you got building control involved & had calculations for the coach bolts, you couldn't call it a room when you sold it

We had one built in the lounge of our old flat. It probably wasn't the cheapest way to do it, because it sort of floated over the level below instead of having a support. You can see what I mean: www.divearchitects.com/docs/home.php?id=3:1:1:0:4:15:4

I think the total project came to about £40-50k including VAT (am in denial about real figures and it was some time ago), but that included the kitchen (mostly basic ikea) and re-laying the floors. So maybe £30-35k ish??? I'm sure you could get it done for less.

We didn't need planning permission, just building regs.

there are companies that specialise in the design and construction of mezzanine floors.

the main concerns would be

getting building regs and planning permission; as it's a business I think this would be mandatory with regard to insurances etc. the last thing you'd want is it collapsing on your charges!

following on from that making sure the thing was structurally stable; as a structural engineer I've come across one or two mezzanine failures in my time. this would include making sure it had an adequate support structure, whether it is built into existing walls or supported on lightweight columns.

As a way of creating extra space they are great, so no real downfalls there.

cost wise, it would depend on the square footage, what the support structure was like (ie whether any strengthening is required, what investigations need to be carried out etc)

I'd suggest contacting a local architect or engineer and geting them to work out the feasibilty of it for you. You'd need an architect for the building regs side of things and an engineer for the structural aspect.

hth

You wouldn't need planning permission if you were building within the existing building envelope UNLESS it was a listed building. In which case you would need listed building consent. You would need building control to be involved though. And an engineer too obviously. You would want to be aware of the additional point loading of the mezzanine structure on the existing floor slab, so some foundaation work might be necessary (which can add up in terms of £££), but your engineer could advise.
What lackadaisycal said is spot on.

(ooh, just realised lackadaisycal is an engineer....)

lol

yup planning permission only relates to changing the outside of the house; so if you wanted to put in additional windows or something. being an old chapel, it might be listed.

Oooh Lackadaisycal...what do you think of my dad's idea

To have a completely free standing mezzanine floor with a staircase inside and a fire exit outside - with foundations into the subfloor (?)

That sounds like the layout of my friend's nursery. They have the mezzanine as a staffroom and observation area. Parents can also go up there and observe their child without the child knowing you are there. It's particularly good when the children are first settling in to nursery and parents need some reassurance.

There probably wouldn't be a viewing platform

At least I hadn't thought of their being one tbh

katymac....that sounds like one of the proprietary mezzanine systems that you can get. It needs to have some sort of bracing to stop it from swaying.

this company is one of many who will design and build them to your requirements. they have a form here for getting a budget price. The floor loading you'd need would be 2.5kN/m2 for offices, more if there was going to be a storage or file room.

I was thinking about hiring it out to dance/aerobics etc so would it need to be stronger?

It would be over the whole building - just inside the walls, if that makes sense?

I don't know about cost etc, but they are always much hotter than the room that they are above. So if you mezzanine is above a hallway that you tend to keep cool then it's not an issue, but if it's above a room that you would tend to keep comfortably warm (like the baby room for eg) then the mezzanine will be uncomfortably hot.

If you built it more as a traditional first floor, with a doorway to the rooms so that they were separated from the staircase, or if there were going to be windows at the mezzanine level then the heat would be much less of an issue.

I'm not sure about dance floors; you'd need to get some specialised advice. The proprietary ones can be quite lightweight so would need some heavy duty bracing to deal with the dynamic loading from a dancefloor. You would probably be better building something in to the walls as that was the load is distributed through the walls into the foundations, iyswim. Provided, of course that the exisiting foundations and the existing ground are good enough.

I'd suggest getting some advice from a local engineer who will know more about the local ground conditions etc. you can find a local engineer here

Thanks

I am on my way to getting an engineer atm

It will have windows at this height (I hope) & opening ones

sorry, that made no sense......It should have read....."You would probably be better building something in to the walls as that would mean the load is distributed through the walls into the foundations, iyswim"

I knew what you meant

I'll have to think about that - as it would cost a lot more (I think?)

depending on the size, there might not be that much in it cost wise. If you built into the walls, you'd need fewer, but heavier beams. i'm not sure how well you could acoustically insulate one of the lightweight ones as well. If the dancing etc were going on at the same time as you had children in, noise transfer might be an issue. the building regs tightened up on acoustic noise a couple of years ago and i think it can be quite hard to satisfy some of the requirrements. That's more on the Architectural side though, so I'm not too sure.

Now......where do I send my consultation fees?

Well.......If you want you can get my details from my website.....but I only pay in virtual cream cakes - is that OK?

lackaDAISYcal - what do you know about staircases?

BC want then out of view of the windows which messes up my floor plan

virtual cream cakes sound lovely

I'm thinking that they want you to maximise the amount of fenestration into rooms, and that the windows will probably not comply for stairs due to the glass not being strong enough (ie there will be a potential for someone to fall through?....although if you had a handrail/balustrade then this would be unlikely). I'm not too up on all aspects of the building regs unfortunately so that's just an educated guess.

You need a MN architect!