Mezzanine Floors in Dubai
A mezzanine floor gives you a second level inside height you are already renting: storage or an office above the racking in a warehouse, a display level in a showroom, parts storage clear of the benches in a workshop. It is a structural alteration to a building you probably do not own, so the steel is engineer-designed, the landlord agrees in writing, and the authority permits it before we cut steel.
Samra Facilities has worked in Dubai since 2015. We are a women-owned maintenance, fit-out and renovation contractor with in-house MEP, joinery and an interior designer, so a mezzanine does not stop at the steel. Lighting under the deck, power on it, sprinkler modification, stairs, balustrade and floor finish all run on one programme under one contractor.
What we deliver
Every mezzanine runs through the same stages, all priced up front so none arrives later as a variation.
Site survey
Measured slab-to-soffit height, existing columns, shutter and door heights, the sprinkler and lighting layout overhead, and the routes your forklift takes.
Structural design
Loadings agreed with you in writing, then framing, connections, baseplates and foundation checks by a qualified structural engineer, issued as stamped drawings and calculations.
Approval submissions
Landlord package first, then the authority package, with our team following the file through comments and resubmission.
Fabrication
Columns, beams, connections and stair components cut, drilled, welded and coated to the approved drawings before delivery.
Installation
Setting out, baseplate fixing, erection, decking, stairs, balustrade and gates, with the work area screened off where you keep trading.
Services under and over the deck
Relighting below, lighting and small power above, data containment, emergency lighting, smoke detection, and the sprinkler modification where the design calls for it.
Handover
As-built drawings, a load notice at the stair head stating the design imposed load, material documentation, and snags closed out.
What drives the design
Four things decide most of a mezzanine, all settled before steel is ordered.
Imposed load
What the deck carries in normal use, in kilonewtons per square metre, plus point loads from racking legs, machines or a loading gate. A deck for boxed stock is a different structure from one for light office use, and both differ from one that takes a pallet truck. Tell us the heaviest thing that will sit on it and the heaviest thing that will move across it. Under-declaring the load to save tonnage is the one shortcut that cannot be put right afterwards.
Span and column grid
Longer spans mean fewer columns on your floor and deeper beams overhead. Shorter spans mean shallower beams and more columns to work around. The grid also has to miss racking aisles, shutter openings and vehicle routes, so the layout below usually sets it before structural efficiency does.
Clear height above and below
Take the slab-to-soffit height, subtract the beam depth, the deck build-up and the services zone, and what is left splits between two levels. Below you need clearance for racking, doors and anything that passes underneath. Above you need standing height plus room for lighting, sprinklers and ductwork. This arithmetic decides whether a mezzanine is worth doing at all, and we run it at survey.
The slab you are landing on
Columns concentrate load into baseplates, and the existing ground slab may or may not take it. Where slab records are unavailable the engineer will call for it to be proven, and the answer can be spreader plates, larger baseplates, or pad foundations cast into the slab. Budget for that from day one.
Decking choices with real consequences
Steel deck with a concrete topping
Heaviest and quietest, best performance underneath, longest wet programme.
Flooring board on steel joists
The usual storage deck. Quick to lay, but it needs a sealed or covered finish and dislikes standing water.
Steel chequer plate
Hard-wearing and washable, suited to workshops and plant decks, noisy underfoot.
Open steel grating
Lets light and sprinkler discharge through, but wrong anywhere small items can drop between the bars.
Finished floors on top
Vinyl, carpet tile, epoxy or microcement on an office or customer-facing deck.
Stairs, edge protection and escape
Access, guarding and escape are settled by the fire strategy and the way the deck is used, not by whatever corner is left over on site.
Stairs
Width, riser and tread, landing positions and whether the flight is straight or turned follow from how many people use the deck and from the escape strategy, not from whatever corner is left over. Handrail goes to both sides, treads get a non-slip nosing, and the flight lands with room to stand rather than into a racking aisle.
Edge protection
Every open edge gets guarding to full height with a toe plate at deck level so nothing can be kicked over the side. Where infill mesh or panels are used, the spacing keeps small items in.
Loading positions
Wherever stock is lifted onto the deck you need a gate that never leaves the edge open. A pivoting up-and-over gate or a sliding gate keeps a barrier between the operator and the drop throughout the cycle. A removable section of handrail is not edge protection and we will not fit one in its place.
Escape
Deck area, the number of people on it and travel distance to a protected route decide how many staircases you need and where they land. On larger decks that is two, at opposite ends. It is a fire strategy question answered in the authority submission, not on site.
Fire rating, sprinklers and lighting
A mezzanine changes the fire behaviour of the space it sits in, which is why this section sets the programme.
Fire rating of the structure
Bare structural steel loses strength as it heats. Where the approved design calls for a rating, columns and beams are protected with intumescent coating, board encasement or sprayed protection to the specified period. The rating is not a preference, it follows from how the deck is classified.
The soffit
If the space under the deck is treated as an area in its own right rather than part of one open volume, the underside has to be built as a rated soffit, which changes the deck construction, the service penetrations and the price. Whether your deck is a mezzanine inside one volume or a floor in its own right is settled at approval stage, and that answer is worth having before the steel is ordered.
Sprinklers
A deck under an existing sprinkler system shields everything beneath it from the ceiling heads. Past the point where the deck is large enough to matter, heads are needed underneath, which means new pipework off the existing system, a hydraulic recalculation by the sprinkler designer, and the modified system going back to Dubai Civil Defence. Smoke detection under the deck normally follows. Treat this as part of the job until the fire consultant rules it out.
Lighting and power
The deck blocks the ceiling lighting, so the level below needs its own fittings, and the new level needs lighting, small power, data and emergency lighting with exit signage. Our in-house electrical team does that under the same contract: see lighting installation, commercial electrical and DB board upgrade where the added circuits exceed what the board carries. Where air distribution above the deck is disturbed, our ducting team alters it rather than leaving the top level unventilated, see duct modification.
Why owners choose Samra for this
One contractor across steel, deck, services and finish, with the approval running done in house.
One contractor, not five
The steel, deck, stairs, guarding, fire protection, electrical work and finished floor sit in one BOQ on one programme. Splitting a mezzanine across a steel supplier, an electrician and a fire contractor is how the sprinkler modification ends up unowned.
We do the approval running
Landlord package, authority submission, comments, resubmission. You get updates, not homework.
We work around a live unit
Erection out of hours where the building allows it, screened work areas, and phased handover, so tell us at survey which aisles and shutters cannot be blocked.
We will tell you when the answer is no
If the clear height does not support a usable deck, or the slab needs work the budget cannot absorb, that comes out at survey rather than after you have paid for drawings.
Trades in house
MEP, joinery and an interior designer under one roof, which is what makes an office or showroom on the deck a finished space rather than a platform with a socket on it. See fit-out in Dubai and commercial services.
Landlord consent and authority approval
A mezzanine is a structural alteration. It is not a fit-out item you can put in over a weekend, and treating it as one is how tenants end up dismantling steel at their own cost.
Landlord first
Your lease will almost certainly require written consent for structural work. The landlord or building manager will want the structural drawings and calculations, the contractor's trade licence and insurance details, and usually an undertaking to reinstate at the end of the term. We assemble that package, and our licence and policy documents go to your landlord from us directly.
Then the permitting authority
Which authority approves your mezzanine depends on the land, not the district name. Trakhees governs Nakheel-owned land and specified zones, DDA governs its own zones, and Dubai Municipality is the default where no zone instrument applies. Free zones and community developers can add a parallel approval on top of that. Boundaries have moved over the years, so we confirm the authority from the property's own documents before any drawing is prepared rather than assuming it from the address. Send us the title deed or the Ejari and we will tell you which authority and which portal applies. Whichever route it takes, the submission carries structural drawings and calculations stamped by a qualified structural engineer, and some landlords add a third-party review on top.
Fire and power
Fire and life safety goes to Dubai Civil Defence, and any change to the incoming supply or the distribution board goes through DEWA. Samra coordinates the building-permit, DEWA and Civil Defence submissions as part of the contract, to whichever authority your plot answers to. What we will not do is promise a date the authority controls, or start steel before the consents are in hand.
How we price a mezzanine floor
We price a mezzanine as a bill of quantities, never as a rate per square metre, because a rate hides everything that varies between two units of the same size.
The imposed load
Steel tonnage follows load and span. The biggest single lever.
Span and grid
Fewer columns on the floor means heavier sections overhead.
Slab condition
Whether baseplates land on an adequate slab or need pad foundations.
Deck build-up
Concrete on steel deck against board on joists is a different weight, programme and price.
Fire protection
Whether the steel needs a rating, and whether the soffit does.
Sprinkler modification
Heads under the deck, pipework, recalculation and resubmission.
Electrical scope
Relighting below, lighting and power above, emergency lighting.
Stairs and safety
Number of staircases, metres of balustrade, gate type at the loading position.
Working hours
Night or weekend erection in a trading building costs more than an empty shell.
Approvals
Drawings, calculations, submissions, and third-party review where a landlord asks for one.
You get back a BOQ with the steel, deck, stairs, guarding, fire protection, services and approval work priced as separate lines, so you can see what changing the load or the deck type does to the total before you commit. Provisional items are marked as provisional rather than buried. We do not issue a figure before the survey, because a mezzanine quoted off a floor plan is a guess corrected on site at your expense. How we build up fit-out costs sets out the same method.
Workmanship and material warranties
Two layers across every mezzanine. Workmanship is ours across the trades we install. Material warranties pass through from each manufacturer.
Workmanship warranty
6-month workmanship warranty from handover covering our installation: connections, decking, stair and balustrade fixing, applied finishes and the services we install.
Material warranties
Material warranties are separate and pass through from the manufacturer. Protective coatings, decking products, floor finishes, light fittings and sprinkler components each carry their own terms and durations. We confirm which apply, and for how long, in the quotation.
Structural design responsibility sits with the engineer who stamped the drawings, and those details are on the set issued at handover. If you later want to raise the load on the deck, that goes back to the engineer for a fresh check. It is not a site decision.
Frequently asked questions
The questions Dubai tenants send us before a survey. Send anything else on WhatsApp and we will answer before we visit.
Do I need permission to install a mezzanine floor in Dubai?
Yes, twice over. The landlord has to consent in writing because it is structural work on their asset, and the permitting authority has to approve it on stamped structural drawings and calculations. Fire and life safety goes to Civil Defence. A deck built without either consent is a liability at lease end and an obstacle at your next inspection.
How much clear height do I need before a mezzanine is worth it?
Work it from the bottom up rather than against a rule of thumb. Take what must pass underneath, add the deck build-up and beam depth, then add standing height plus the zone for lighting and sprinklers. If that total exceeds your slab-to-soffit height, the answer is no, and we would rather say so at survey than after you have paid for a design.
Will I need sprinklers under the mezzanine?
Often, and you should budget as though you will until the fire consultant rules it out. Once a deck is large enough to shield the floor below from the ceiling heads, heads are required underneath, with pipework, a hydraulic recalculation and a resubmission.
Can the mezzanine be removed at the end of the lease?
A bolted steel mezzanine is designed to come apart, and most leases require exactly that: fixings drilled out, slab made good, services stripped back. If reinstatement is in your lease, ask us to price it as a separate line so you know the exit cost while you are still deciding.
How long does a mezzanine floor take?
The programme has three parts: design and approvals, fabrication, and installation. We control the second and third and give you dated stages for them in the quotation. The approval stage is not ours to control, which is why we start it first and keep fabrication behind it rather than ordering steel against a drawing that may change.
Can we put an office or a showroom on top of the deck?
Yes, and it changes the design rather than just the finishes. Office use sets a different imposed load, brings partitions, air conditioning, data and acoustics onto the deck, and can change the escape provision and the fire rating. Say so at survey rather than after the steel is designed. See office fit-out.
The structure itself, the columns, beams, decking, staircases and handrails, is fabricated and erected by our steel fabrication team.
Areas we cover
Mezzanines follow the industrial and showroom stock. These are the districts where we install them most often.
Al Quoz is the main workshop belt, with older units where the existing slab decides what the columns can carry. Jebel Ali is warehouse country and the height is already paid for. Business Bay and Downtown Dubai come up for double-height retail podiums. Dubai Marina is occasional showroom work. Other industrial districts are covered; the list is on our areas page.
Send us the space
Send us the space and we will tell you whether a mezzanine fits it before anyone talks about steel. To start we need the floor plan, the slab-to-soffit height, what you intend to store or do on the deck, and the title deed or Ejari so we can confirm which authority governs the plot. Photographs of the ceiling showing the sprinkler and lighting layout help more than most people expect.
Send your floor plan for a BOQ on WhatsApp, the quickest route to our estimating team, or through the contact page. We survey before we price, so you get the honest answer on clear height, slab and services rather than a number that changes on site.
