Fear of falling through floor! Real or Not? - Page 2

Tarolisol · #1 10-20-2005, 07:11 PM

Come on people you seriously think a house floor cant take at least 3000 pounds with proper placement. My jacuzzi tub is 200g and does not have any extra support its sitting overtop of my dining room.

Quote:

Bathtubs are placed over additional support when built, so they can easily take the 400-600 pounds of weight. From what I've read, the limit for "anywhere" placement is a 55 gallon tank. Anything above that needs to be either placed against a retaining wall, or have additional support added. Personally, I'd call in a structural engineer if I was going to put a 180 gallon tank on a non-main floor.

This is a rediculus statment. A 55 gallon tank, ive had people who weight more then a 55 gallon tank walk all over my house. I bet you could park a car on the second floor of almost any new home.

A water bed can have 360g of water a grand piano can weight over 1000lbs and it sit on 3 tiny wooden legs.

adidas · #2 10-20-2005, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarolisol

Come on people you seriously think a house floor cant take at least 3000 pounds with proper placement. My jacuzzi tub is 200g and does not have any extra support its sitting overtop of my dining room.

Quote:

Bathtubs are placed over additional support when built, so they can easily take the 400-600 pounds of weight. From what I've read, the limit for "anywhere" placement is a 55 gallon tank. Anything above that needs to be either placed against a retaining wall, or have additional support added. Personally, I'd call in a structural engineer if I was going to put a 180 gallon tank on a non-main floor.

This is a rediculus statment. A 55 gallon tank, ive had people who weight more then a 55 gallon tank walk all over my house. I bet you could park a car on the second floor of almost any new home.

A water bed can have 360g of water a grand piano can weight over 1000lbs and it sit on 3 tiny wooden legs.

It's all how the weight is distributed. I don't think it will go through the floor, but there is nothing wrong with over-engineering it for a piece of mind.
I'm pretty sure you understand how serious that could be if it went through a floor.. potentially take lives, bring the whole house down, break a gas line causeing explosion, water mixing with electricity burning your house down.

I think i'd rather pay the $60 for a couple supports.

Invigor · #3 10-20-2005, 08:04 PM

If your floor fails with 2000lbs over 12sqft.. I'd be finding a new place to live.

Tarolisol · #4 10-20-2005, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Invigor

If your floor fails with 2000lbs over 12sqft.. I'd be finding a new place to live.

Id be having a word with the builder as well. If you can add supports it wont hurt but for some people its unpraticle to have big metal poles in the middle of your developed basement or the middle of your living room.

Reefmaster · #5 10-20-2005, 11:23 PM

my discipline of engineering is not structural but i would strongly suggest that most floors could not safely accommodate a 2000 lb load over 12 sq feet. i think you'll find the bc. building code uses 40 pounds per square foot for liveload - we are talking about exceeding this by over 4 times! it may support it short term and maybe even long term, but you risk sagging the floor, cracking drywall, and what happens in an earthquake?

this is not pullin a straw out of the air and sayin ya it should be ok. my opinion, if you are puttin in a big system on a second level, apartment, condo etc, you would be wise to talk to someone who knows a bit about construction, look at joist type, dimenion, spacing, span, loads etc.

do a search on the net using the words floor joist live load and get a sense to what goes on. houses are not designed with us freaky big tank keepers in mind.

deep6er · #6 10-23-2005, 06:32 AM

I have a 80 year old house and a 108 gal full of water in my computer room. I have an open ceiling down stairs so i am able to look at the joists. I went to go check to see if the floor has bent at all and it looks like its strait.
So for the guy with the 180 I think you have nothing to worry about.

Good luck

Chin_Lee · #7 10-23-2005, 07:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deep6er

I have a 80 year old house and a 108 gal full of water in my computer room. I have an open ceiling down stairs so i am able to look at the joists. I went to go check to see if the floor has bent at all and it looks like its strait.
So for the guy with the 180 I think you have nothing to worry about.

Good luck

deep6er
i've seen some older 80 year old houses built better that some 20-30 year old houses. There was a period in the early 80s (when the interests were very high) where it seemed like the building codes were thrown out of the window.

reefburnaby · #8 10-23-2005, 08:01 AM

Hi,

I have done some structural and mechanical engineering in my lifetime. So, I'll chime in a bit. I am not a professional engineer in this area - so take this as a footnote rather than an authoritive answer.

Engineering is about dummy proofing and designing for worst case scenario (with a safety factor that ranges from 3x to 10x). In the worst case scenario (ie you place your tank in the weakest part of your house under the worst temperature, humity...blah blah blah...worst case scenario) I would say it is not going to work over the long term. Essentially....your ceiling will sag.

You can make it safe by you placing your tank in the strongest areas of your house. These areas are near supporting walls (i.e. walls that extend down to the lower level). The best area is the corner of two support walls. These areas are easily 5x to 20x strong than your weakest areas.

So if you plan to place your tank in the middle of a fairly large room, I won't recommend it. But if you place it near a support wall, then I think it will be just fine. BTW, are you adding a big sump too? That can easily make it 3000lb in the same area.

- Victor.

hawk · #9 10-25-2005, 05:13 PM

Out of all the "tank too heavy for floor " threads on the different boards has anyone ever heard of it actually being a problem? I never have. I would be much more concerned how the stand was built. Take a look at very large entertainment units loaded with big screens, books, china etc these could easily be more than 1800lbs. never heard of these falling through the floor either.

Psyire · #10 10-25-2005, 06:46 PM

I was worried about this as well when I put my 180g + sump on the second floor of my place.

I have about 220g of water on the second floor, without any additional bracing. However I do have it near a support wall and perpendicular to the floor joists. I routinely check it for level and check the floors and wall seams fairly often as it is a concern.

On that note, I haven't seen it move at all and it's been up and running for 3 months now. This kind of question is always situational though, as every house and tank is different.