Warehouse renovation in Batumi: industrial floor, loading doors, lighting

What the warehouse stores and what drives across it

We start a warehouse renovation in Batumi with questions for the owner: what will be stored, at what height, and what it will be moved with. A building materials warehouse with pallets on the floor, an online shop's warehouse with shelving units, and a distributor with pallet racking several tiers high need different floors, lighting and doors. A hand pallet truck and an electric forklift load concrete in different ways: a laden forklift weighs several tonnes and presses on the floor through small, hard wheels, and a weak slab surface crumbles under it within a few months.

If the goods need particular conditions, for example paints, paper or electronics that must be kept dry and not allowed to get cold, we write this into the brief straight away: these conditions decide whether the walls need insulating and whether heating is needed. The office, toilet and staff room at the warehouse are done in the same way as an office renovation.

Surveying the building: roof, slab, power supply, access

Warehouses usually stand in industrial zones and on the edge of town: former brick and concrete production buildings, steel-framed hangars, the lower ground floors of commercial buildings. Before the estimate, the site foreman and an engineer look over the whole building:

• the roof: signs of leaks, rust on the purlins and the sheeting;
• the floor slab: cracks, settlement around the columns, voids, its level relative to the yard outside;
• the frame: the columns, the trusses, the door fixing points, and in an old building the masonry as well;
• the electrics: how much power is allocated, whether there is a three-phase supply, where the meter is;
• access: where a lorry can turn and where the rainwater goes.

A leaking roof is repaired before the floor and walls, otherwise the very first winter will spoil the new concrete and insulation. If the warehouse stands on a suspended floor slab rather than on the ground, our structural engineer checks the load from the racking.

Industrial floor: dust-proof the old one or pour a new one

Old concrete in a warehouse almost always dusts: wheels wear away the surface, and the dust settles on the goods. If the slab is strong and sound, it is not replaced. We grind the surface back to dense concrete, fill the potholes and treat the floor with a penetrating hardener that seals the pores.

If the concrete crumbles to some depth, sounds hollow or the slab has dropped out of level, we pour a new one. On the ground we compact the sub-base, lay a damp-proof membrane under the slab, reinforce it with mesh and pour it in bays. Into the fresh concrete we work a dry-shake hardening mix, the topping, and power float it to a dense, smooth surface. Usually the next day we saw-cut contraction joints along the column lines and between them, otherwise the slab will crack wherever it likes. In apartments we pour a cement-based self-levelling floor under laminate and tiles, but a thin layer like that won't hold up under forklift wheels.

We use an epoxy self-levelling floor where the warehouse is washed and there must be no dust at all: food, pharmacy goods, clean packaging. We only apply it to strong, dry concrete: our threshold is 4% moisture on a moisture meter. On an old ground-bearing slab with no membrane underneath, moisture eventually pushes it up in blisters, so we measure the moisture first.

Doors, the loading area and impact protection

We fit sectional doors with an automatic opener when the opening is used dozens of times a shift. The forklift driver opens them with a button without getting off the truck. In an exposed yard, gusts of wind bend a lightweight door, so we choose insulated, reinforced panels and fit photocells at the bottom that stop the door above a vehicle or a person.

In front of the doors we lay a fall away from the opening and a drainage channel, and put a canopy over the loading area: in a Batumi downpour, boxes unloaded in the open get soaked within a minute. If lorries back up to a loading dock, we prepare a pit and embedded plates for the dock leveller from the door manufacturer.

Columns, the corners of openings and walls along traffic routes are protected with impact guards and bollards in yellow-and-black stripes. Replacing a bent bollard costs less than replacing the door's track.

Racking: what we prepare before it goes in

Racking is usually designed and supplied by its manufacturer, and we ask for their layout before the floor is poured. From it we mark out the aisles for the forklift to turn, the anchor positions and the strips where there must be no cable and no joint in the floor. Flatness under the uprights matters: on a slope an upright leans several centimetres out at the top. A joint under an upright's base plate eventually chips away at the edge, and a cable in the anchor zone will be cut at the very first drilling.

The slab takes several weeks to gain strength, and racking is not put on it before then. We fill the pause with the doors, walls and lighting, and paint the floor markings last.

Lighting at height and warehouse electrics

We hang industrial LED light fittings above the aisles between the racks. Above a rack the light hits the top tier, and the aisle below stays in shadow. We check the mounting height against the forklift mast and choose a housing protected against dust and moisture: in an unheated warehouse condensation settles on it. A light fitting installed from an access platform costs from 420 to 600 ₾.

We divide the lighting into groups by zone and put motion sensors in aisles that are rarely used. Emergency lighting and exit signs go into the design together with the main lighting. The circuits for the doors, heated air curtains, forklift charging and the office are brought together in a three-phase distribution board with labelled circuits. How we split circuits into groups is described on the page about consumer unit assembly. We put the charging point for lead-acid batteries in a ventilated corner, because they give off hydrogen while charging.

Walls, heating and damp

We clad the walls with sandwich panels when the storage area needs insulating or separating from a cold space. The mineral wool in these panels is non-combustible, so by the forklift charging point, by the switch room and along escape routes we use only panels like these. Panels with a foam core are warmer, but where they can go is decided by the design, taking the fire safety requirements into account.

Frost is rare in Batumi, and most warehouses need dryness more than warmth. On a damp night the cold metal of the roof and walls is covered in condensation, and drops fall onto the top tier. Ventilation, insulation and dehumidifiers help; how we choose them is described on the page about dehumidification. Above the doors we hang an air curtain so that damp air doesn't travel deep into the building while the opening is open.

Where people need the warmth, we hang infrared heaters above the workstations, and where the goods need it, we install warm-air heating by zone. The office and the welfare rooms are heated by air conditioners in heating mode. Gas heaters are connected by the gas service; we don't touch the gas pipe.

How much a warehouse renovation costs in Batumi

A warehouse renovation with labour and materials costs from 330 to 480 ₾ per m². The price includes the floor, the walls, the lighting and the doors. Roof repairs and racking are priced separately.

The biggest line in the estimate is usually the floor. A turnkey industrial concrete floor with dry-shake topping costs from 115 to 145 ₾ per m², and an epoxy self-levelling floor from 115 to 155 ₾ per m². The price table also has a line for pouring and power floating a concrete floor, from 13 to 18 ₾ per m²: that is labour only, and the concrete, mesh and topping for it are counted as materials. Sectional doors with an automatic opener cost from 7,200 to 9,600 ₾ per opening.

An unheated warehouse with a strong slab that only needs dust-proofing comes out cheaper. A new ground-bearing slab, insulated walls, several doors and heating cost more. From photos and a plan we send a preliminary estimate within 24 hours on business days. The final cost is set after the survey and the site measurement, once the estimate is agreed.