Industrial

Grade A warehousing: the four numbers that decide it

Clear height, floor load, dock ratio and apron depth. Everything else in a warehouse brochure is commentary — and a 600mm shortfall on the first number costs you an entire racking level.

"Grade A" is not a certified standard in India. It is a market convention, which means it is used loosely by anyone with an incentive to use it loosely. Fortunately the convention resolves to a small number of measurable things, and you can check all of them in an afternoon on site.

Clear height at eaves

Nine metres is the practical floor for Grade A; contemporary stock is typically built at 10 to 12 metres, which supports five to six racking levels. Note the phrase "at eaves" — height quoted at the ridge is a different and more flattering number. Measure it yourself, at several points.

Floor load and flatness

The convention is a uniformly distributed load around 5 tonnes per square metre, with FM2-category flatness in trimix or VDF concrete. Flatness matters as much as load if you are running very narrow aisle equipment — a floor that is strong but not flat will not take VNA racking at height.

Dock ratio and apron

Roughly one dock leveller per 10,000 square feet is the working convention, at around 1.2m dock height. The apron in front matters just as much: a concrete apron of about 25 metres, with internal roads that a 40-foot trailer can actually turn in. A building with excellent docks and an inadequate apron is a building where trailers queue on the road.

Sanctioned power

Not connected load — sanctioned load, in KVA, confirmed with the utility. Material handling equipment charging and any cold chain requirement will define this, and upgrading sanctioned load after signing is slow and sometimes not possible at the scale required.

And then the boring part

Industrial zoning or KIADB position, fire compliance matched to your actual storage category rather than a generic NOC, and highway access measured from the parcel's real access point rather than from its nearest corner. These are the findings that stop deals, and they are all checkable before you sign.

Apply it to your parcel

General is useful. Specific is what you are paying for.

Send a survey number and we will tell you which of the above actually binds on your land, free, in a couple of days.

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