Materials > Raised floors

Raised floors

By Flores Zanchi

Created to provide flooring permitting maintenance work on electrical wiring and pipes installed under the floor, raised flooring is now a widely used construction method. Its modularity and ease of installation provides the perfect response to the need for flexibility in today's workspaces, whose continuing evolution requires more and more complex technologies.

This building system consists of a cover raised above the ground permitting installation of distribution networks (electricity, lighting, climate control), transmission networks (computer networks, telephone lines) and automation systems (building management, security alarms and fire safety systems) under the floor. The modular panels making up raised floors can easily be removed to permit rapid and effective maintenance work with no need for masonry work, cutting the costs and amount of time required.

These features and the growing dependability of load-bearing structures have contributed to the growing popularity of raised floors in offices, showrooms, dealerships and all spaces used for productive activities.

The advantages offered by raised flooring over conventional flooring are:

the freedom to reorganise the area in response to new needs for organisation of space or new legislation;

the possibility of installing plants of all kinds under the floor, permitting work on them without any masonry work;

energy savings, as the gap created between the earth and the floor provides thermal insulation;

possibility of modifying the load-bearing capacity of the structure at any time in particular areas thanks to the interchangeability of system components.
This is particularly beneficial when the use of the premises changes with time and there is a need to increase the load-bearing capacity of a floor, either in its entirety or in specific areas.

The performance of raised floors is the result of a perfect technical and structural balance between system components. The structure must therefore be proportioned on the basis of the load to be supported, in its principal components:

the supporting structure,

the supporting panels,

the finishing slabs.

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