Floor Load

[ruck'n'reefer]

Does anyone know where I can find out how much weight a floor will hold.

I am planning a new tank. i am on the third floor of an appt. building.
I have a 150 with 90 gal sump, they are offset so the weight is distributed. My new tank will have the sump underneath, and the main tank will have a wider/ shorter base.

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Thanx in advance

[Namscam]

Every house is built differently. The only way to find out is to go to city hall and get the plans for your house or find the contractor/artictect who made your house. That is the only way to find out how much your house can hold. If it cant hold that much you can always hire someone to build support beams to hold that weight or just put the tank in the basement/ground suite

[LostMind]

Get a professional to come in if you are worried. Structural engineers or someone along that line of work should answer your question...

[BCOrchidGuy]

You can call a contractors office, floors as well as walls have to be built to standards, if you know what year your house was built a contractor can tell you how much load your floor will hold/sqft.

Think about it this way, would 8 adult men be able to stand in the same area of floor as you're going to have the 150? just make sure the weight is distributed well rather than on a couple spindly little legs.

Doug

[LostMind]

Doug, Dont you have to take into account static and dynamic loads? hmmm.

I called a friend who is a structural engineer. That was my reassurance for having my 120g tank upstairs with a 70g sump in the stand...

[Skimmerking]

i have a question in REF to a place that i'm, living in I 'm not sure where and how the floor planks are laiding in ref to the room.

P.S Can you tell by where the main window is located in the room.

[ruck'n'reefer]

Thanx for the tips and advice. I will do further reseach ie. talk to an engineer.

Asmodeus: if the window question was for me then: there is a sliding door/ window at the opposite end of the room. the room is about 20 feet .
the wall i plan to put the aquarium against is a bearing wall. The wall run parallel to the main building hallway.

Hope I explained that well enough

[MitchM]

If you want to determine which way floor joists are running, you can get a pretty good indication by taking off a cold air return cover and spotting the joists from there. (the direction can change around stairways, though)

Determining wood floors, bearing walls, joist direction, ect . is extremely important and should not be left to "best guess" :smile: .
Find or make a "friend" that can visit your place on site and do some poking around.
Getting a look at the existing drawings is best and having the landlords' permission is a necessity....IMO.

Mitch :smile:

[Rus]

Posted: 11 Feb 2004 23:01 Post subject: here is a question

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i have a question in REF to a place that i'm, living in I 'm not sure where and how the floor planks are laiding in ref to the room.

P.S Can you tell by where the main window is located in the room.


the windows will not tell you anything . checking the register is probably the easiest way with out seeing the drawings, also check spans of the room chances are if the area is over 16' or so the joist are running the opposite direction

hth -Russ [ by the way if you are sitting your tank near a bearing wall with joist running the opposite way the tank is you will have no problem with your tank or a much larger one for that matter. ]

[BCOrchidGuy]

Guess I'm lucky to have hard wood floors in all but one room.. just follow the nails.

Lost, geez I haven't got a clue about that stuff, I do know (understand) that the more a load is spread out over an area the lower the weight/sqin is. IE, put a two hundred pound woman in stilletos and let her stand on your toe and that means mojo owie but put her in moon shoes and let her stand on your toe and it means uncomfortable (like my idea of physics?)

Doug

[ruck'n'reefer]

Hey Doug, just curious! The woman in the stilletos, what is she wearing? :lol:

[IslandReefer]

just wanted to say that in our modern world it is not as important whether the floor will hold the load, as much as, will the insurance pay if it doesn't.
That is get a sealed(enbossed) letter from a engineer with all the criteria the landlords insurance company requires....then buy a 400gal..with diving board LoL

[LostMind]

Hey Doug, just curious! The woman in the stilletos, what is she wearing? :lol:

He said 200 pound woman! :P

[Namscam]

Hey Doug, just curious! The woman in the stilletos, what is she wearing? :lol:

He said 200 pound woman! :P


he likes them large and in charge :lol:

[ruck'n'reefer]

Lostmind: Ya but what is she wearing!! :eek:

[Skimmerking]

Its in the single qurters and they have the rad heat . the hot water ones

[ruck'n'reefer]

Okay here is an update. My floor joists (2x10's) are on 16" centers. My tank will run perpendicular to them.

The floor make-up: carpet, 1/2" underlay, 1 1/2" concrete, 1/2 ply, 2x10.

The legs of the stand won't be on top of a joist but I was thinking about having the stand on plywood.

Ideas, suggestions?