Bending the rules continued

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Our floor looked just like this with the wooden panels. The older ones had a slightly darker tinge so stood out and we knew it was weaker than what we were told.

The other night I did a post about bending the rules at work. Some of the rules are plain stupid and others are there to keep everybody safe. We had moved into this massive warehouse and were totally separate. There was a sliding roller shutter door we could open to link us to the main ware house for access.

The land lords had moved our mezzanine from the old warehouse and had incorporated the flooring into parts of the new one. I wasn't overly pleased as there was a difference in thickness.You had to be blind not to see it as well. They erected signs saying no more than 500 Kilograms per square meter. That was fine as i am a human calculator and can work with the weight loads.

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Ours looked similar to this from underneath except we had wooden flooring and not metal flooring.

Half of it was used for storing bicycles in boxes and the other half was for spares stored in racking. We were told to keep a meter from the walls by health and safety, but I couldn't spare that waste of space so that was ignored. I was going to get the 500 kg per square meter as I needed every meter of space. It was seasonal so for 5 months of the year you wouldn't see much flooring except for the access points and walking areas.

I worked out I could go 6 boxes high and that would get me to around 480 kg's per square meter. I didn't trust the flooring for anymore. I packed some boxes underneath to touch the flooring above as back up in case it collapsed. I knew it was under strain when trolley jacks were pushed over the flooring and could feel the vibrations. I wasn't happy but there was nothing I could do.

They tried to get me to go higher which I refused as I showed them how close we were. I pointed out the offices downstairs that had cracks in the walls from the floor dropping. I had also noticed the lights were flickering downstairs and could only think that the wires were being pinched by the weight above.

We experienced some severe storms and had a few leaks appear in the roof which damaged the flooring and the landlords wouldn't replace the damaged boards. These boards are laminated and we started having pallet jack wheels going through these damaged spots.

In the spares cage section we had racking starting to show signs of leaning as the weight tested the floor. Even with protective plates on their feet they were looking rather precarious.I used to get the guys to check and tighten the bolts on the mezzanine frame weekly as they would work themselves loose. All the weight vibrated through the framework which loosened the bolts.

When the first racking leg came through the floor I bought the engineers who built the mezzanine back in. It was then revealed that the landlords had cut corners using the old flooring which had only the strength for 400 Kilograms a square meter capacity.I wasn't shocked at this as I knew something was up, but we had more than 100 people working below the structure.They had put everyone at risk and was glad common sense prevailed and didn't go over the 500 kg square meter specs.

When we finally moved I was probably the happiest person around as I was sick and tired of calculating making sure we were all safe. Honestly I would hate to know if someone else was in charge what could have happened. We were there for over 3 years and I was worried and stressed for 75 percent of that time.

I had one injury in that period when a worker fell off the mezzanine whilst trying to catch a pen. Someone through a pen up to him and apparently he was low on blood sugars and lost his balance and came down with the pen. I was about 3 meters away when it happened and the guy below didn't try and catch him, but stepped aside. The ambulance arrived and he made a full recovery. His nickname after that was "superman" and banned form going upstairs on the mezzanine.

My task was to keep everyone safe and I am proud of what was achieved in such a small space 25 000 square meters with over 100 staff members and only had one accident in over 10 years.I think it was because I was hands on and knew every single job in the warehouse and double checked on everyone regularly. If health and safety had come along they may have checked their lists and banned a lot of things that were happening.I wouldn't do that again mind you and we may have just got lucky.