Commercial office suspended floor layout

[Frane Selak]

Has anyone ever dealt with one of these, I've got some work to do which involves taking one up, I went to look today and on top was carpet tiles but under the tiles were what seemed to be metal plates, maybe 600 wide by 1000 or more long with screws in the corners. I was expecting more of a modular sort of thing, a bit like a grid ceiling where you could just simply lift out square sections of the floor.

Thing is they want the work carrying out whilst the office is up and running but if I have to take big plates up then all the desks will need moving out of the way.

[Mr Pointy]

It's common in computer rooms although usually the tiles are 600x600: the screws in each corner go into pedestals which are stuck to the concrete floor. How deep is the void? It can be anywhere from 4" upwards to 500mm & if it's deep enough you can sometimes crawl underneath. You'll need a double cup suction handle to lift the tiles up - Screwfix do them. Don't lose the fixing screws.

[Frane Selak]

Mr Pointy said:

It's common in computer rooms although usually the tiles are 600x600: the screws in each corner go into pedestals which are stuck to the concrete floor. How deep is the void? It can be anywhere from 4" upwards to 500mm & if it's deep enough you can sometimes crawl underneath. You'll need a double cup suction handle to lift the tiles up - Screwfix do them. Don't lose the fixing screws.

Thats what I was expecting but on lifting the carpet tiles it seemed like quite a large tin sheet under them, maybe its been screwed down over the tiles to form a smooth area for laying the tiles, looked odd to me anyway. Stupidly I forgot to get a photo of it.

[Stegel]

The floor panels are thick chipboard wrapped in thin galvanised steel sheet - the tin you refer to. If you can t get to crawl underneath - it s not usually possible - you may be able to take up a run of panels along a walkway and then fish whatever you need to laterally to desk position.

ETA - did you lift carpet tiles at the edge of a room? If so, I have seen oversized panels used at the perimeter which can be cut down to avoid small off cuts which would be difficult to support and level. It may well be they revert to a 600x600 grid everywhere else.

Edited by Stegel on Friday 9th October 18:43

[pghstochaj]

There are two different types, well many different types but the above are the two main types. You can have the traditional raised floor used for electrical/server rooms which has a grid style system where you lift the tiles (which are say 40 mm thick chipboard with a vinyl top) using a sucker. You also can get a metal deck system where you don’t have those tiles and you can just put carpet tiles over the top. My current project has the latter but since this is my first time seeing that type I can’t really comment on them other than to say I think are removed just as easily? They’re normally in a 600x600 grid pattern but sometimes you have to put down ply on top before vinyl or carpet which defeats the objective for me.

[Rough101]

I ve only ever seen 600x 600 tiles, some lay in, some have four screws, as above post, data room lies fit the same layout, but have anti static vinyl bonded to them.

Regular ones need carpet tiles on top if you want back in quickly, but with thin ply on top you can fire a hard floor surface.

What you might have is linear screeded in floor trunking, which runs continuously from wall to wall at 2 or 3m centres, cast in flush with the concrete

[Collectingbrass]

You weren't looking at the floor edge were you? 600 x 600 tiles in a grid should be oversized at the perimeter to avoid thin cuts, so 900 x 600 usually.

[Frane Selak]

Collectingbrass said:

You weren't looking at the floor edge were you? 600 x 600 tiles in a grid should be oversized at the perimeter to avoid thin cuts, so 900 x 600 usually.

No, it was under a desk in the middle of the floor, had to take a few carpet tiles up to find a join.

[Frane Selak]

pghstochaj said:

There are two different types, well many different types but the above are the two main types. You can have the traditional raised floor used for electrical/server rooms which has a grid style system where you lift the tiles (which are say 40 mm thick chipboard with a vinyl top) using a sucker. You also can get a metal deck system where you don t have those tiles and you can just put carpet tiles over the top. My current project has the latter but since this is my first time seeing that type I can t really comment on them other than to say I think are removed just as easily? They re normally in a 600x600 grid pattern but sometimes you have to put down ply on top before vinyl or carpet which defeats the objective for me.

Sounds like the second one maybe, think i'll try and swerve this job, I dont know enough about them and apparently they can collapse if you take too many up and we need to get from one end to the other.

[Mr Pointy]

Frane Selak said:

Sounds like the second one maybe, think i'll try and swerve this job, I dont know enough about them and apparently they can collapse if you take too many up and we need to get from one end to the other.

Take a panel up at each end & shove a ferret or a cat & down into the void with a light pull wire attached to them: it works well if the run is fairly clear.