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Are industrial mezzanine floors safe to use?
2nd April 2025
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It’s rare that we get any mezzanine floor news to talk about, but we’d rather it was more positive than this story! A serious mezzanine floor collapse appears to have occurred at a warehouse in Singapore, and has prompted questions around its construction—as well as wider fears from some quarters about the safety of industrial mezzanine floors in general.
While it’s too early to comment on many of the specifics of this case, we can comment on the wider issue of mezzanine floor safety. As we’ll explore below, mezzanine floors can support a surprising range of applications completely safely when designed and constructed correctly, and form the backbone of a surprising number of warehouse, manufacturing, and retail businesses.
What we know so far
The mezzanine collapse trapped several people under storage racks and stored goods, with four individuals being taken to hospital. Worryingly, this included two children, although thankfully there have been no reported fatalities. Preliminary investigations indicate that the mezzanine was installed less than a year earlier in May 2024, though it’s not known how long it had been in use for.
The mezzanine is believed to have been of steel construction, and to have included a built-in racking system. Inspections since the collapse show that no Fire Safety Certificate had been issued for the mezzanine, and that no planning application for its construction was submitted to local authorities. Both of these lapses by themselves could lead to major fines, while the lack of a construction permit could also result in a prison sentence of up to two years.
It’s not known what had been stored on the mezzanine between its construction and eventual collapse. However, it appears to have been used to store rugs at the time of the collapse, with several victims being buried under these rugs, and requiring first responders and sniffer dogs to locate and free them. Photos from the rescue show a number of rugs still piled vertically in a rack behind the collapsed mezzanine.
Safe mezzanine design
The immediate question for many may be whether a mezzanine floor was suitable for this kind of storage in the first place. The simple answer is that there is no reason why a mezzanine could not support this kind of storage provided that it was designed for it. Structural steel mezzanine floors can support significant loads under the right conditions, including entire offices or even production lines with heavy machinery. What’s important is that they are designed accordingly, with ample columns to support and distribute the load.
Industrial mezzanines are frequently designed for this exact kind of storage. While rugs may not be the most common storage application, we frequently create mezzanine floors with racking either built onto the mezzanine itself or underneath the mezzanine as part of the support structure. Mezzanine floors are a great way to utilise more headroom in a warehouse while also maintaining a flexible workspace which can be adapted for other uses. As compared to a multi-tier racking system, for instance, a mezzanine floor can be used for different applications, with any racking on it being easily removed and relocated.
An example of this flexibility is our work for aircraft maintenance and repair company Lufthansa Technik. The mezzanine we produced for their specialised product division was designed to create an office-like environment in a small parts storage warehouse for aircraft landing gear. The tight space constraints within the warehouse meant that the mezzanine had to fit within a strict set of dimensions while also offering the potential for both upwards expansion and different use cases.
This kind of challenging project reflects both the importance of extensive consultation and design work, and the flexibility that is possible with a mezzanine floor. When designed to the right parameters and installed correctly, a mezzanine floor can support a wide range of applications, and physically support substantial loads. What’s crucial is that this process is open and consultative, and employs experts at every level, from design and engineering to fabrication and installation.
Safety questions
What is questionable is the design of the mezzanine in this story. It’s clear that a catastrophic failure has occurred for the mezzanine to collapse, although it’s not yet known what exactly this was. It is possible that some external factors were at play, such as a vehicle collision, although this is more common in the case of tall floor-mounted racking where vehicles can easily stray into the racking, and cause a domino effect. The photos from the site seem to indicate that this was both a relatively small warehouse and mezzanine, appearing to rule this out.
Our process for designing mezzanine floors involves an extensive consultation with each business, including at least one site visit. This allows us to determine the precise size and dimensions of the required mezzanine floor, as well as what uses it will be intended to support, and any other systems we need to factor into the build. The weight and distribution of these systems and other use cases will then be considered, and calculations performed to design a mezzanine that supports these use cases within a wide margin of error.
The fact that the authorities have already stated that no permits or licenses were applied for in constructing the mezzanine points to a serious breach in protocols as well as the law. Failing to apply for a fire permit for instance suggests that the installers did not themselves consider the fire safety ramifications of the mezzanine, which are crucial for a variety of reasons, both in terms of escape routes during a fire, and how the storage of items on the mezzanine might impact fire safety measures. Even this lapse by itself reflects an attitude to safety that would not bode well for the construction of the mezzanine itself.
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The rarity of mezzanine floor collapses in the news points to the safety of mezzanine floors in general. Even in industrial settings, incidents such as this are rare—partly because mezzanine designers and installers go to such great lengths to build redundancy into industrial mezzanines, and protect them against overloading or accidental damage.
When designed and installed by approved professionals, mezzanine floors are an ideal way to add additional, flexible space to warehouses, occupying unused headroom and adding new storage systems, production areas, or even office space. To learn more about mezzanines and our design and installation process, browse our Systems section, or get in touch with us today.
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