Face Consultants has been making an important contribution to the long-term efficiency and viability of a major new distribution center being built in Buckinghamshire to serve John Lewis department stores.
Client: John Lewis, UK
Face Consultants Solution: Total Quality Management Service
Floor Area: 60,400 m2
Floor Specification: TR34 DM1 & FM2 Special
Slab Thickness: 215mm
The CoGri Group has a 14-year relationship with John Lewis, so when this leading UK retailer was planning a new 60,400 m² distribution center at Milton Keynes, it decided to call on our expertise once again.
For this particular project it was the Total Quality Management package provided by FACE Consultants that John Lewis called on, in order to ensure that the floor was designed and installed to enable the warehouse to be operated as intended and minimal maintenance would be needed in the future. FACE were involved in the project from initial design concepts to final hand-over.
Led by Technical Director Tony Hulett, FACE first advised John Lewis on the floor requirements for the new warehouse, including issues such as floor flatness to enable man-up order pickers and other trucks to operate as
efficiently as possible and the position of floor joints to allow for mezzanine floors, high-bay racking and sorting/packing facilities. For the area in and around the racking, measuring around 10,000 m², FACE specified a floor that would meet the latest Concrete Society TR34 DM1 standard and the equivalent proposed European standard for defined movement areas, while the Concrete Society FM2 Special standard was specified for the rest of the building. A concrete floor slab 215 mm thick conventionally reinforced with steel mesh fabric was specified throughout, with saw cut joints positioned to allow for racking and other structures.
FACE Consultants were then appointed to supervise the installation of the floor and test the finished structure, working with the property developer (Gazeley UK Ltd), the main contractor (Simons Construction) and the project managers (Lysander Associates).
The outcome of the flooring installation has been excellent. Having checked that the sub-base was to the required standards, FACE also ensured that the floor slab was installed to the full 215mm thickness throughout, that the concrete was the correct quality and the joint details were as planned. Crucially, the flatness standards were achieved throughout the 65,000 m² building without any grinding, and the entire project was completed on time.
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