Attached.

Surname 1

Warehouse construction and design
Student
Institution
Date

Warehouse construction and design
A material warehouse is an area where manufactured materials can be stored for some
time as they wait to be transported to the dealers for selling. It is a large building where various
tasks take place including loading and offloading of materials from and into the transportation
trucks. It has several facades that include the store area, the administrative area and the
restrooms.
General requirements of warehouses
Ensure that the total build up area covers 50-55% of total area, the total parking area,
movement area loading and offloading areas take 40-45% while the open area for the landscape
takes about 5% of the total area (Baker, and Marco, 429).
The front setback should be 13.5m or more while the back setback should be 6m or more. The
setback area should not have any facilities such as electricity room, spare generator room, oil
tanks, guard house, gas room or main interrupters. Ensure that the lateral setback on the
warehouse sides is 12 meters and above from the walls of warehouse and any car parking. It
should be 35 m or more in the case of a vertical and 25 m in case f a diagonal or 45-degree truck
parking on the sides of the warehouse.

Surname 2
The minimum allowed height of the storage area of a warehouse is 7.5 m while the
maximum height is not beyond 30m. The design of the width for the vertical Back Bay for
loading is 4.5m or more. In case the width is below 3.5 m there should be another 5m distance
for moving forward by trucks. The cross dock width is above 4m whiles the minimum area for
the movement of the trucks, circulation, and maneuvering is above 35m.
The openings in the façade of the warehouse are supposed to be 25% of the overall wall area,
that of the administrative buildings faced should be 40% of wall surface area while that of the
warehouse rooftop should be 15% if the rooftop area (Golfarelli, and Stefano, 123)
Excavation and earthwork
A warehouse being a substructure may not require a lot of excavation though just like any
other building, excavation is normally done to attain a firm foundation. in deep cotton soils, it
may be done up to 1 meter. Where the foundation rock is just near the surface, shallow
excavation is needed up to that level. Excavation is done by clearing trees, stumps, or the subsoil.
In deep cotton soils excavation may be done up to 1 meter and then layers of red soil laid back
on the area and compacted to maximum consolidation. This is done with the use of the sheep
foot roller and the drum roller. The cotton soils are cleared and discarded and replaced with red
soils of good strength. In this case, three layers can be done up to the surface before the sub
grade layer is laid.
• Use of explosives
Where the area has rocks and excavation cannot be done easily due to the rugged terrains,
the use of explosives may be used. However, these should be done in an area where there are no
other buildings nearby as they can affect their strength or have them demolished. Initially,

Surname 3
dynamite and black powder were used but others like the ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO) are
used. Where the area is flat explosives are not necessary.
• Anti-termite treatment
This should be done by enveloping the whole foundation with a chemical barrier. The
chemical treatment is supposed to start to form the sub structure up to the plinth level. It involves
the application of emulsion @ 5 liters per square meters on the foundation layers and 7.50 liters
per square meters along vertical surfaces between earth and the sides of columns. The treatment
starts at 500 mm depth below the surface level. When the consolidated soils do not allow the
chemical to seep through, holes of 50mm t0 75mm are made on the soil using a 12mm diameter
rod. The chemical is then put in these holes and left to saturate. Along the wall and floor
junctions, a channel of 30x30 mm restrooms before the sub grade rooftops. External perimeter is
also treated. The expansion joints if any require 2 liters per meter running. A chemical such as
Chloropyriphos 20% EC is used to prepare the emulsion that involves getting one part of the
chemical to mix with 19 parts of water to get an emulsion of 1% (Gu, Marc and Leon, 544). Any
other chemical is used as per the instructions of the warehouse design or manufacturer.
Concrete work
Concrete work involves the use of concrete mix and this starts after the consolidation of
the sub base has been done to the maximum. Concrete work is done on the foundation floor,
column bases, retaining walls, strip footings and on the perimeter walls. Mixing is done using
cement of 35N/mm2 and aggregates in the ratio 1:2:3 for cement, sand, and aggregates
respectively. All areas that require reinforcement including the supplying and fixation of all
down holding bolts need concreting. The ground floor slab of the warehouse is the mesh
reinforced concrete slab done to the specialist design. It is done to a minimum thickness of

Surname 4
170mm and a power float machine used to provide a smooth finishing of all the floor areas that
are within the building. The slab should have a maximum loading capacity of 50kn/mm2
including the rack loading that is done back to back with center base plates in 100mmx 100mm
sizes that should be placed at 300mm apart and 150mm far from all the floor joints (Mohsen, and
Hassan, 433).
• Concreting
This done manually in case the magnitude of the work is not large but the concrete truck
mixer can do concreting of the slab while the other minor works, use the smaller mixers mounted
on the ground. As the mixer pours the mixed concrete directly on the slab, workers need to
spread it evenly on the slab. In case the mixer is mounted on the ground the concrete is ferried to
the slab area using wheelbarrows, poured and then spread. Compacting is done using a floater
and the power float does the floor finishing. Other areas that require concreting like on the
columns and the retaining walls, this can be done manually. Concreting is done using a vibrator
which ensures that concrete penetrates well and uniformly in all areas. Vibration also avoids the
cob...