To the uninitiated eye floors seem harmless enough and, perhaps, give the false impression that they need little attention, even though it has long been acknowledged that a concrete floor slab is one of the most important components of a modern warehouse. Such an insouciant view, in an industry well-known for its continuing floor neglect, can have more cost repercussions than neglecting maintenance and operating procedures of  mechanical handling equipment (MHE), and that includes the safety factors.

chazFloors not only need to be kept regularly clean and safe through proper housekeeping and line marking to separate pedestrian walkways clearly from truck traffic but they also need to be chosen well when starting from scratch and that means analysis of the likely pounding from traffic that a new floor slab will be subjected to. Following that exercise comes the decision on which basic floor design to choose – ‘jointless’ SFRC slabs without troublesome saw cut joints or saw-cut induced contraction joints.

It is well documented that reducing the number of joints in a floor slab will have a major impact on operational efficiencies as well as floor and MHE maintenance costs. But as with buying forklifts it would be a mistake to be driven purely by initial costs because this could be at the expense of functionality, meaning that short-term financial benefits can often become long-term maintenance and operational losses.

To gain optimal performance of MHE it is vital to minimise the contact pressure of the wheels on the floor slab/construction joint. Contact pressure is worsened by moving heavy loads and MHE with small-diameter, hard tyres. Where ‘jointless’ slabs, large enough for a whole day’s single pour, do need joints the correct installation of a quality armoured construction joint is essential and to this end Twintec has developed its HC Sinus-slide expansion joint, enabling vibration-free crossings for smooth load transfers.

Once the most appropriate floor has been chosen it then behoves operators to treat it with respect. To help in this respect the Concrete Society Technical Report 34 (2013 edition) gives useful advice in section 13 on inspection and action schedules, together with outline suggestions for good practice in cleaning and maintaining your floor slab.

At the extreme end of floor nightmares is when the entire floor slab starts to dish owing to poor subsoil conditions creating voids below the slab. This is particularly bad for high bay, very narrow aisle installations, where a few millimetres adrift on the aisles’ transverse floor will be magnified many times over at racking heights of 12 mt or more, leading to collisions of trucks with racking. At one time the solution to such a problem was costly and disruptive pile driving but back in 1989 Uretek introduced its pumped foam injection technique through small holes, achieving a levelling accuracy of 1: 1,000. Improving floor flatness has also been made less disruptive with the use of laser grinders of the kind provided by the Cogri Group.

Given the high national cost of slips and trips in the workplace, put at £512 million in 2013, it is important to maintain a robust floor-cleaning regime to comply with the law and minimise costs arising from employee injury claims. The quality of floor coverings can vary widely and incorrect cleaning materials may harm performance. It may also be necessary to use polyurethane-based flooring in installations where there is a risk of static build up.

As with any other business involving safety risks and potentially large remedial costs arising from neglect, prevention is better than cure but on this the warehouse industry could do better.

Comments are closed.