Bunnings Warehouse Waurn Ponds

Bunnings Warehouse Waurn Ponds

237 Colac Road, Waurn Ponds

The Bunnings Waurn Ponds store began construction in early 2003, and opened in October in that same year. According to Chris the store manager it was constructed by the First State Group, who are an Australian company involved in all sectors of property construction and investment. The archiects for this Bunnings and 10 others around Australia was Bird dela Coeur, whom are a Melbourne based firm.

All Bunnings warehouse exteriors are made using pre cast concrete panels from the ground up to about 3 metres (preventing any possible damage by forklift or other heavy machinary), after this point they are a light aluminium facade.

Total indoor floor area is 8000 sq metres

Total store area including outdoor nursery is 13500 sq metres

Portal frames have the ability to provide long spans without vertical coloumns, allowing for uninterupted floor space. This is possible due to the loads being transferred directly to the footings, instead of the structural components absorbing these loads. Also as you can see in the photo above portal frames have a low pitched roof which minimises the stresses at the knees, but at the same time they require cladding that is weather tight at these low pitches.

UB Portal frames have the abilty to span 15-45 metres without coloumns, but as the Bunnings Warehouse at Waurn Ponds spans beyond these dimensions additional vertical supports must be implemented to share the loads of the structure. Above is a basic stanchion that is supported by two vertical columns (one at each end) that interesct with the long spanning rafters at their weakest point being the ridge or apex.

The rafter appear to be bolted into the stranchions through it's flange, also just the shear weight of the rafter will help bond them together. As you can see the coloumn is very close to where the UB's intersect, immediatly taking the loads down into the footings, as the concrete slab does not provide any structural assistance.
As you can see there are only two small bolts through the flange, but there are other fixings whereby fly bracing to a standard punching. This allows for the exterior flanges to be adaquately braced laterally.