Ground bearing floor slabs

For certain warehousing operations surface regularity is critical to the proper operation of materials handling equipment (fork lift trucks, masts, pallet trucks, etc.). Concrete Society Technical Report 34 (TR34) sets out certain performance requirements according to end use and provides useful guidance on design.

High bay warehouses are particularly demanding in terms of flatness requirement; TR34 gives an example of a 2.5mm difference in level creating a 25mm displacement at the top of a 10m fork lift. With dynamic movements in the forklift, the actual displacement could be 3-4 times this amount.

One frequent point of difference is whether or not flatness and levelness are one and the same thing. A flat floor is not necessarily a level floor; flatness is usually measured over 300mm, while levelness is measured over 3,000mm.

The difference between a level floor and a flat floor.