INDUSTRIAL

FLOORS
NAVEED A. SHEIKH
ARCHITECT
In factories, not only there are heavy machine
loads, for which special foundation designs
are required; there are heavy moving loads
like trolleys and forklifts, imposed / dead
loads like stacked / stored materials, and
impact loads like dropping heavy weights, or
striking hammer blows to materials etc. For
this kind of floor, it requires special design
considerations.
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CONCRETE INDUSTRIAL FLOORS:
• Decision must be made to locate factory on
good soil.
• If very poor soil OR if very heavy loads are
involved, then do soil investigation.
• Distribute load evenly on per square foot
(PSF) & the soil will support the load.
• Therefore concentrated loads must be
distributed evenly over larger area of the
floor.

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FILL:
• Must be suitable, preferably sandy silt, as
silt fills gaps.
• Avoid clay and if controllable, break up
lumps, pulverize the lumps.
• Vibrators are used for compaction up to one
(1”) to five (5”) inches depth of the fill to
settle. Therefore fill should be not more
than 6” at a time, in layers.
• Cost increases as the entire layer has to be
covered at a go by a vibrator.
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• Fill in layers, each layer being watered,
vibrated and then the next layer is filled.
• Local practice discovered that donkey
hooves help compaction of soil. Therefore
machinery was developed for compaction.
• Usually vibrating rollers are used for non
cohesive soils.
• Sheep foot rollers were developed & are
used in clayey soils.
• Compaction must comply to “California
Highway Tests”.

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SHEEP FOOT ROLLERS

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• BEST MIXES FOR FILL: Sandy soil
• OTHER MIXES: Silty soil
Silty clay
Clayey silt
• Remove lumps of clay which normally occur
in earth or clay as shrinkage can occur later.
• If spaces are left in between lumps, soil with
rain water flows in between these spaces &
the whole thing settles, depression occurs.
• For roads, drains are provided alongside.
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SUB BASE:
HARD CORE is used here.
• There are two (2) types of stones.
a) ANGULAR
o Stone ballast (yellow stone), used 4” &
down, in layers of 6” to 8” thick.
o Not as effective as voids left in between
b) GRANULAR (rounded)
o Best but very costly
o Boulder & shingles (Hub)
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 c) SOLING:
Same stones as above, but not broken,
stones placed vertically.
Advantages:
1. Takes load vertically down ward.
Each stone acts like a small pile.
2. Concrete jams down into crevices,
it does not happen with granular
stone.
3. Porosity of hard core enhances the
total performance of the system.

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 4. Under point loading e.g. racks &
wheels, it modifies the local behavior of
the ground towards an elastic behavior.
5. Pallets: Fork lift vehicle lifts 40”x40”
pallets & places these onto steel racks.
Load is transferred to angle iron frames
& supports.
6. Floor joints reduce deflection of floor
slabs due to concentrated or moving
loads.

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CHOICE OF MATERIALS
FOR HARD CORE:

• Brick bats (soling)

• Stone ballast. (granular)

• Rubble packing (soling)

• Lean concrete.

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STONE / BRICK BATS SOLING

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SLIP MEMBRANE

It is polythene sheet @ 250 kg/m³, 2mm thick,

normally used in 2 layers, joints lapped by 6”.
Used so that when 1:2:4 concrete cures, the
water does not drain into the soil. Ponding is
done to stand water. Also adds as DPC to
prevent dampness from rising up.

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 PONDING OF WATER FOR
CONCRETE CURING

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 SLIP MEMBRANE

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1. Reduces friction between floor slab and
base concrete. Avoids cracking due to
expansion & contraction (differential).
During the day the building elements i.e.
slabs move. If joined to the original
structure, it becomes structural & is
constrained.
2. Allows floor to be free from stresses
transmitted through the base concrete or
the building structure.
3. Prevents loss of moisture downwards.
4. Serves as a DPC.
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 SLIP MEMBRANE

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NORMAL INDUSTRIAL
FLOOR LOADS
1. UNIFORMLY LOADED (UDL):
(furniture, people @ 40-50 lbs / sft),
(slab=84 + plaster=90 lbs/sft). All loads are
in compression.
2. CONCENTRATED LOAD:
Stock in pallets / Pallets in racks / Racks
supported by angle iron legs.
3. MOVING LOADS:
Most dangerous (e.g. fork lift, trolleys)
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 WAREHOUSES

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 WAREHOUSE PALLET RACKING

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• Flooring is always casted in panels to avoid
crazing. Cracking is controllable.
• At joint the load jumps from slab A to B,
moving impact must be controlled.
• (1:2:4) or (1:1.5:3) concrete should have the
capacity to bear the load.
• Concrete should have the capacity to resist
wearing.
• Tougher finish wears longer.

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 INDUSTRIAL FLOORS

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• Smoother finish with marble powder or
cement paste on top surface makes it
weaker. BRC fabric (weld mesh) is made of
tough rods welded together & comes in
rolls.
• 3/8”dia reinforcement is more for shrinkage
than loading.
• Add surface hardener concrete additive.

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Two type of joints:
• Shrinkage
• Construction.
•
Chess/Checker Board patterm floor:
• Not done this way now.
• Disadvantages: Exposes all 4 sides corners
give trouble curling occurs.

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LOAD TRANSFER BARS
Bond bars extended from the slab so that the
bars transfer the load to the next slab.
L-Joint :2 different slabs transfer of load is
important.
Transverse control joint: It will not break the
joint over long distance every 30 ft at the
most.
Prevents stresses being developed over long
distances.
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 LOAD TRANSFER BARS

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 INDUSTRIAL FLOORS

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SLAB ON GRADE
• BRC is paced 2” deep from top shrinkage
takes place from the top, therefore
reinforcement is needed at top.
• Floor slab thicknesses, usually varies from
5” to 8” depending on the load or traffic
conditions.

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• Slabs are reinforced usually with BRC fabric
or light steel reinforcement running both
ways as recommended by the latest
research.
• Reinforcement is laid approximately 2”
below the surface.
• This reinforcement provides much control
by distributing & absorbing tensile stresses
due to either shrinkage or temperature
differences. Especially, in the early life of
the freshly laid concrete.

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 INDUSTRIAL FLOORS

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 INDUSTRIAL FLOORS

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 INDUSTRIAL FLOORS

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 INDUSTRIAL FLOORS

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 INDUSTRIAL FLOORS

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