Advanced Structural Designs

ACN 097 789 87 92 Vasey Crescent CAMPBELL 2612

Telephone 61612171 Facsimile 61612170

Email mal@structuraldesigns.com.au

Compactus or Safe Load Check in Canberra

Most of the commercial building stock in Canberra have some indication of floor loading capacity on loading plates located somewhere around the lift cores. These load plates will generally indicate an allowable uniformly distributed load (UDL). The minimum requirements for floor loading is set out in AS1170.1 but many government office buildings have been designed for slightly greater loads to allow more flexibility when situating items such as compactus units and safes. The load plates will sometimes indicate that a floor has been strengthened in certain areas to accommodate compactus units. The floor is not just stronger in these areas but also stiffer as compactus systems do not operate well is slabs are too flexible. Typical design live loads for office floors will range from 300 to 400kg/m2 (3 to 4kPa) for normal office loads to 750 to 1000kg/m2 (7 to 10kPa) for designated compactus areas. If you are looking to load a designated compactus zone then chances are that there will be no problems regardless of how dense the configuration. For areas outside the compactus zones isolated units can normally be accommodated on suspended concrete floors but the orientation and spacing of the compactus unit can be a concern at times. Some floor systems for example are unidirectional with a poor ability to spread load laterally. Campbell Park Offices is a good example where stressed Tee beams are used over large spans but there are many buildings in the city with a reinforced Tee beam construction which exhibits similar limitations.

From a due diligence perspective you are wise to have a structural engineers sign off on your new layouts of compactus units and safes. We carry out this type of checking regularly and have the structural floor plans many existing building in Canberra on file so load checks are often relatively quick and inexpensive. If you know which structural engineer designed your building and they still operate a firm locally we suggest you call them directly otherwise you can call us and if we do not have the relevant drawings on file we can readily obtain them from ACTPLA provided we have the permission of the building owner.

Timber floors are more of a challenge when it comes to heavy loading but we have certainly managed to successfully sign off on modern office fitouts in heritage listed buildings with timber floors in the past. It is useful to remember with timbers floors that the maximum point loads may be more problematic than the uniformly distributed loads.

If you need a compactus or other floor loading check carried out and you are in the Canberra region call Mal Wilson from Advanced Structural Designs on 02 61612171. Mal has been designing office buildings in Canberra and the surrounding district for over 20 years and may well have designed the slab you’re standing on. It is worth noting here that some buildings we consider to be secure buildings for various reasons and any information we have on these buildings is archived off site for security purposes. This can lead to a day’s delay in retrieving drawings we have.

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