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Customised Truedek Panels Used in Cost-Effective Suttons Motors Floor Project

Announcement posted by Truedek Australia 21 Jul 2017

Premier Steel Technologies, the manufacturers of Truedek steel decking, has recently completed a floor project with Sutton Motors. Suttons is an Australian auto dealership group offering a wide range of new and used cars and trucks. The project was for a mezzanine floor installation is in a new spare parts warehouse being set up by Suttons. The floor was installed and completed in approximately 50 per cent of the time it would take to manufacture a standard mezzanine floor using conventional structural steel and purlin.


The Suttons project had a few specifications. The size of the mezannine floor was approximately 1,600 m² with a load bearing capacity of 5 kPa m². It needed a flat soffit underneath and needed protected automatic fire sprinkler system to avoid damage to sprinkler heads by mechanical stock pickers. Range pipes had to be run inside the floor structure. The design needed to be modular in a 5m x 5m grid for future projects. It needed a low profile floor to maximise height both above and below the floor. The assembly of the floor needed to be done with standard “materials handling equipment” without the use of expensive crane hire. Also the design needed to allow for relatively easy dis-assembly of the floor if it was required to be relocated into bigger premises in the future. Suttons also needed lighting installed under the floor.


Premier Steel’s solution for the project involved manufacturing structural beams and columns to incorporate the design criteria for the floor. They used customised Truedek TD 170 panels manufactured with zero pre-camber to produce a flat soffit underneath the floor. The Truedek panels were manufactured and installed in a “truss-pan-truss” arrangement which reduces the overall weight and cost of the floor.  Truedek, a permanent concrete formwork system, is lightweight, modular, easy to handle and made to specification.


32mm structural plywood was then screwed to the “top chords” of the Truedek panels.  Reinforced holes were provided in exact locations along the structural beams to facilitate the installation of the fire services range pipes within the floor structure. This is the first project where Truedek has been used as a structural element, without the use of concrete, to create a floor, proving the versatility of the Truedek product. Low profile LED strip lighting was installed to the underneath surface of the floor to prevent accidental damage to the lighting by the mechanical stock pickers. The plywood floor was sanded and painted with an industrial epoxy flooring paint for durability and visual appeal.


Truedek, a product that is exclusively produced and sold by Premier Steel Technologies, is excellent for steel decking and has many applications for concrete-frame buildings, steel-frame buildings, large floor-to-ceiling heights, infill slabs for lift shafts and limited-access areas.


Truedek can be contacted on (02) 9756 0602 by email at enquiry@truedek.com.au.

For more information on Truedek:

https://www.truedek.com.au/permanent-concrete-formwork-systems/