If your company is growing and you need more space in your warehouse, you may be looking into adding a mezzanine or modular office to your existing facility. That’ll allow you to expand within the same building instead of moving to a larger warehouse or leasing additional space elsewhere.
But what is the difference between a mezzanine and a modular office? What are the benefits of each? Are there any limitations to either? Here’s what you need to know about the difference between a mezzanine and a modular office.
What Is A Mezzanine?
A mezzanine is also known as an equipment platform and acts as a floor between floors. It allows you to create more storage or production areas by using vertical space in your warehouse. Light mezzanine storage can handle up to 125 pounds per square foot, while heavy mezzanine storage can be rated at 150 pounds per square foot or higher.
What Are The Benefits And Uses Of A Mezzanine?
A mezzanine can help increase the vertical space of your warehouse and provide more storage or production space for a lower cost than moving your entire operation or leasing additional warehouse space.
The key to a mezzanine is that you can take it apart and move it from place to place. Since it isn’t a permanent addition to the building, construction is quicker, simpler, and more flexible than traditional building additions. This also allows you to move or modify mezzanines as your needs change with the growth of your business.
Mezzanines can be up to three stories tall to make the maximum use of your vertical space. While mezzanines can be attached to exterior walls, freestanding mezzanines provide the maximum amount of flexibility since they can be moved from location to location as you rearrange a space to best suit your changing needs. Freestanding mezzanines can be supported by steel beams, pallet racking, or industrial shelving.
There are a wide variety of decking materials you can use for a mezzanine depending on your needs, including steel and aluminum plating, concrete, resin-board, or steel and fiberglass grating.
Mezzanines are also considered capital equipment, so they can be depreciated more quickly to receive the maximum amount of tax benefits in the shortest amount of time.
Ideal Uses For Mezzanines
Mezzanines are such a flexible option that they can have a variety of uses including:
- Bulk storage space
- Conveyor support
- Shelving supports for parts storage
- High-density parts storage
- Elevated work platforms
- Catwalks and walkways
- Crossover bridges
- Equipment and production platforms
- Office or viewing tower elevation
- Pallet storage
As you can see, mezzanines have a wide variety of benefits. The biggest potential limitation would be that mezzanines only provide extra floor space and don’t have any walls to create extra rooms. That’s where a modular office comes in.
What Is A Modular Office?
A modular office is a structure built in pieces offsite. Once the pieces are brought onsite, assembling the pieces into offices is quick and simple. This makes modular offices much cheaper and faster than building traditional offices inside a warehouse or other large space.
What Are The Benefits And Uses Of A Modular Office?
A modular office is a cost-effective way to add rooms to warehouse space. You can use these rooms as offices, break rooms, storage rooms, or more. There are a wide variety of ways you can customize a modular office beyond just color. You may have options for wiring, plumbing, heat, air conditioning, exterior panel features, windows, and doors.
Beyond that, modular units can be disassembled and moved, if your requirements change. They can be built as a one story or two story if ceiling height allows, as well as installed on top of a mezzanine to allow for storage underneath. Traditional building methods can’t allow you that same opportunity. Modular offices can also easily be added to or expanded in the future.
Modular offices are also typically considered capital equipment or depreciable personal property, which can be depreciated more quickly than permanent structures to better utilize tax incentives. Despite being considered equipment rather than construction, they are made of high-quality materials that meet or exceed all building codes for safety and durability.
Since every piece of a modular office is pre-measured and cut offsite, putting up the office space is quick and easy once the pieces arrive at your site. There will be minimal disruption to your operations installing modular offices versus using traditional construction, that can be messy, to add office space to your warehouse.
Benefits of A Modular Office include:
- Cost-efficient
- Minimal maintenance requirements
- Mess-free installation
- Can be moved or added to
- Quick installation with minimal downtime
- Customizable sound control
- Efficient space utilization
- Variety of uses
- Pre-engineered
- High quality
- Tax advantages
- Uses vertical space
- Durable
- Variety of customizations available
A Modular Office can be used as a:
- Guard booth
- Break-room
- Inventory storage
- Clean room
- Machine enclosure
- Conference room
- Foreman office
- Server room
- Lunchroom or cafeteria
- And more
What’s The Difference Between A Mezzanine And A Modular Office?
In essence, a mezzanine is just a floor built above the ground in your warehouse. You can use that floor space for a wide variety of purposes like storage, catwalks, and equipment platforms.
Modular offices, on the other hand, are fully contained rooms with walls and a ceiling. A modular office may be built on a warehouse floor, atop a mezzanine, or even outside. These rooms can have any type of function you can imagine.
Can You Combine A Mezzanine And A Modular Office?
Yes! It’s actually quite common to put a modular office on top of a mezzanine. This can be a great way to add office space without losing floor space. Putting a modular office on top of a mezzanine allows you to use the floor space under your new office space, so you’re adding function to your area without losing usable square footage.
One of the best benefits of mezzanines and modular offices is the ultimate flexibility to make the best use of space for your needs without needing to lease additional space or move your entire operation to a new warehouse. We can help you with a tailor-made solution to optimize your business and its growth.
Contact Us Today To Discuss Your Mezzanine Or Modular Office Needs
Whether you’re looking for a mezzanine, a modular office, or both, we at DACO can help you come up with the best storage solutions to meet your needs.
Contact us here or call us at 877-247-2934 so we can solve the needs of your growing business in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.
WASHINGTON
DACO
8825 S. 184th Street
Kent, Washington 98031
Phone: 253-395-8500
OREGON
DACO
6911 NE 79th Court
Portland, Oregon 97218
Phone: 503-722-4390
