Floor weight distribution

[Zbutcher]

Hey everyone.

I have a question regarding the weight of how much a second floor can hold which I know everyone has probably asked about. But let me explain.

So I have just upgraded my tank and moved it to a bigger bedroom on my second floor of my house. I have a renter in my basement who of course has a bedroom right below that room. Without it crossing my mind I've set up the tank and moved everything into the room. On-top of that it's also my office where I have my PC. And a corner cabinet and work table as the tank is designed for aquaculture.

So essentially is an 11x12 foot room and the tank is 5x2 and 16 inches tall with a 25 gallon sump. So it's running about 125 gallons of water. I have about 70 lbs of liverock is say.

Now the tank is in the top left corner of the room if you are walking into the room so left and back side of the tank is next to a wall. To the right of the tank is my computer desk and PC etc. Behind me is the corner shelf and work table.

Everything is running perpendicular to the floor joists as well. Do you think I need to worry here or am I over reacting? Everything is set up ATM and nothing had happened.

Thanks.

 

[Sailfin11]

How big is the tank? In general, if it was set perpendicular to the joists and near a wall it should be fine as the weight is more spread out, but it really depends on your particular house and size of the tank.

 

[Zbutcher]

How big is the tank? In general, if it was set perpendicular to the joists and near a wall it should be fine as the weight is more spread out, but it really depends on your particular house and size of the tank.

Sorry I accidentally posted the thread before I finished lol. If you check it out now it should answer those questions. But please let me know what you think.

It's kind of stupid i keep looking online and everywhere says industry standard is either 30 or 40 lbs per sq foot, which by that logic my tank area that it's sitting on should only be able to hold like 300 or 400 lbs and I'm sure the tank is easily pushing 1700 lbs with stand etc included. So if that's the tank case why has it now come crashing through the floor

 

[Sailfin11]

Sorry I accidentally posted the thread before I finished lol. If you check it out now it should answer those questions. But please let me know what you think.

It's kind of stupid i keep looking online and everywhere says industry standard is either 30 or 40 lbs per sq foot, which by that logic my tank area that it's sitting on should only be able to hold like 300 or 400 lbs and I'm sure the tank is easily pushing 1700 lbs with stand etc included. So if that's the tank case why has it now come crashing through the floor

IMO, I think you should be okay. A 125 is long and skinny tank, so the weight is going to be more distributed. I have a 75 gallon over joists and haven't had any issues. Since we don't put our tanks in the middle of the room, most of the weight sits on the weight bearing beams anyway. At the end of the day though if you're losing sleep over it, a structural assessment probably wouldn't cost more than $100.

 

[Zbutcher]

IMO, I think you should be okay. A 125 is long and skinny tank, so the weight is going to be more distributed. I have a 75 gallon over joists and haven't had any issues. Since we don't put our tanks in the middle of the room, most of the weight sits on the weight bearing beams anyway. At the end of the day though if you're losing sleep over it, a structural assessment probably wouldn't cost more than $100.

Yeah it's actually a bit bigger in measurements then a 125 as it's 5x2 and 16 high. It's just probably 125 gallon of water. Just on the other side of the left wall that is where the tank was before except it was a 75 gallon. I was a little less worried in that room though as there was no human underneath it lol it was just just a machine room underneath.

 

[KrisReef]

30 to 40 lbs/sq foot sounds low to me? I've got some big friends that have to be putting more lbs/sq' than what you are talking about. If they could go through our standard homes I think we'd have heard about it more often?

That aside, If it hasn't gone through yet you probably should have gone bigger!

Anyway, I am not an engineer but I think I could drive a train, so that's where I'd stand.

Hopefully, a real expert will chime in to calm your nerves more than I have?

 

[Zbutcher]

30 to 40 lbs/sq foot sounds low to me? I've got some big friends that have to be putting more lbs/sq' than what you are talking about. If they could go through our standard homes I think we'd have heard about it more often?

That aside, If it hasn't gone through yet you probably should have gone bigger!

Anyway, I am not an engineer but I think I could drive a train, so that's where I'd stand.

Hopefully, a real expert will chime in to calm your nerves more than I have?

Lol don't tempt me into a bigger tank. But I feel yeah. It's just one of those things I'd like to be sure about because last thing I need is a disaster like that happening.

Yeah i hope so too man it's a bit of a nerve wracking thing for me

 

[Soryu]

I don't know if we can post links to other sites but this read will tell you a lot. http://www.african-cichlid.com/Structure.htm
The reality is a 125 gallon tank perpendicular to joists near a load bearing part of the structure (doing your best to spread the load across as many joists as possible) will probably be just fine but do not take my word for it. But then think of your bathtub and how much a 300lb person and water would weigh. Then check the joists under your tub, there should be extra joists there to support it, I know there are in my house. You should consider reinforcing the floor at that size tank or calling a structural engineer to get an assessment.

Edit: I personally am not considering anything larger than my 65+sump on my main floor unless I get motivated and decide to add extra joists.

 

[Hugh Mann]

I would guess a big part of it comes down to how well your house was built and to what building codes. Odds are it will be fine, as those numbers I'd be willing to bet factor in a huge safety margin.

However, when it doubt, I would consult a proper engineer or other some such person.

 

[KrisReef]

I feel it deep in my bones that you have homeowners insurance. I also feel the sweat on the fish and coral who are now wondering if they might have to move downstairs suddenly?

Try to relax and let it go. No need to set the alarm to check every couple of hours. It if goes south the cracking timbers will wake you up soon enough.

Call the insurance company in the morning and you will get a new floor and tank for Xmas!

Your gonna be alright! The building code is your friend and that room should hold the weight of the entire LA Dodgers team and their friends partying after the WS game. Throw out the Dodgers, and your nagging thoughts and be a winner like the Dodgers and trust the floor to do it's job. If the worry would help, I would help you worry more.

I put a pond over joist supported flooring in a rental when I was younger. I made the pond out of 3 4'X8' sheets of plywood for walls with another piece cut in half to make the end of the box. I put a pvc pond liner in it and the neighbors would come knocking to ask if they could show their friends the Koi pond I built in the living room. Eventually the landlord came by. He said; "Oh," or something like that. I took it down when I moved. We had a 125 gallon on another wall on the same floor in another room. Nothing bad happened, we didn't get evicted. Come to thing of it, the owner, ED, was an aircraft engineer, and he did seem to be concerned once it was in place and not moving, deforming the floor, settling, or any other problem that might develop if it was slowly failing. That pond was probably2-3 times the tonnage of your tank.

Hth.

 

[Zbutcher]

I would guess a big part of it comes down to how well your house was built and to what building codes. Odds are it will be fine, as those numbers I'd be willing to bet factor in a huge safety margin.

However, when it doubt, I would consult a proper engineer or other some such person.

Was talking to my gf and I'm thinking it might be best to move my computer back to the old room and leave the tank in that room.

That way it should alleviate weight off the floor

 

[Zbutcher]

I feel it deep in my bones that you have homeowners insurance. I also feel the sweat on the fish and coral who are now wondering if they might have to move downstairs suddenly?

Try to relax and let it go. No need to set the alarm to check every couple of hours. It if goes south the cracking timbers will wake you up soon enough.

Call the insurance company in the morning and you will get a new floor and tank for Xmas!

Your gonna be alright! The building code is your friend and that room should hold the weight of the entire LA Dodgers team and their friends partying after the WS game. Throw out the Dodgers, and your nagging thoughts and be a winner like the Dodgers and trust the floor to do it's job. If the worry would help, I would help you worry more.

I put a pond over joist supported flooring in a rental when I was younger. I made the pond out of 3 4'X8' sheets of plywood for walls with another piece cut in half to make the end of the box. I put a pvc pond liner in it and the neighbors would come knocking to ask if they could show their friends the Koi pond I built in the living room. Eventually the landlord came by. He said; "Oh," or something like that. I took it down when I moved. We had a 125 gallon on another wall on the same floor in another room. Nothing bad happened, we didn't get evicted. Come to thing of it, the owner, ED, was an aircraft engineer, and he did seem to be concerned once it was in place and not moving, deforming the floor, settling, or any other problem that might develop if it was slowly failing. That pond was probably2-3 times the tonnage of your tank.

Hth.

Wow really that's interesting to note. Honestly my main worry isn't so much the insurance because I do have that. It's just that my renter is below and I don't want him to be injured or me to be dealing with a potential lawsuit

 

[KrisReef]

Wow really that's interesting to note. Honestly my main worry isn't so much the insurance because I do have that. It's just that my renter is below and I don't want him to be injured or me to be dealing with a potential lawsuit

You are kind to think about your renter (I'd call them my neighbor myself), but what if they plug in a battery charger down there in your basement, and that piece of equipment shorts out and fire breaks out that causes the floor to fail and it kills your fish and coral? Are you going to be angry with your neighbor, (or maybe even hate that person) because they caused your floor and tank to fail, presumably on accident?

Sunday I was sitting with friends outside eating Mexican food when two automobiles entered the intersection at the same time. After the crash, the damaged cars pulled into the strip mall right next to where we were eating. The plastic bumper from the one car was deeply embedded in a new custom wrinkle on the passengers' door of the other gentleman's car. It was very impressive! The cops came, no one seemed injured (outside of property & time lost) and things went forward. Heres the thinking thing: "none of this would have happened if;" we had not been sitting there eating and looking at the traffic? I'm worried you are worried about things you cannot change. That can drive a person crazy. Don't ask me how I know this.

Fix what you can, don't sweat the rest. You really are kind to be thinking about the safety of your renter. If you can't sleep worrying over potential legal jeopardy then get rid of your neighbor and keep the tank. (We are on Reef2Reef!)

I paid a guy a lot of money to tell me stuff like this. I'm glad to share it freely here. Be kind to yourself and your neighbor. Be kind to yourself.

 

[ca1ore]

Worst case tank is catching three joists .... best case four. Whole thing probably weighs around 1,200 pounds so that's 300-400 per joist. Not an engineer, but that seems like no big deal to me.

 

[Zbutcher]

Worst case tank is catching three joists .... best case four. Whole thing probably weighs around 1,200 pounds so that's 300-400 per joist. Not an engineer, but that seems like no big deal to me.

I can tell you exactly how many joists when I get home. There is an access panel I can measure the distance between but I'd say 4 or 5

 

[Zbutcher]

Worst case tank is catching three joists .... best case four. Whole thing probably weighs around 1,200 pounds so that's 300-400 per joist. Not an engineer, but that seems like no big deal to me.

Actually tbh it might even be more then 5 given that if they are 1 foot across the 2 joists make 1 ft so maybe 6 or 7

 

[Max_nano]

I saw this in another similar thread so it may not be correct. But I believe that 40lb/sq needs to be spread across the whole floor being covered by the joists and the tank. so if the tank is over 5 joists you get the width of those joists and multiply it by the length of the room then multiply that square foot measure by 40 to get the maximum load.

So let’s say you’re room is 20’x20’ and the tank is up against the wall, and you have it sitting perpendicular on the joists. You multiply the 5’ of floor and joists the tank covers of width by the 20’ of room length to get 100sqft then multiply that by 30-40lb/sqft for a supporting weight of 3000-4000 lbs. If I’m remembering that calculation correctly I believe you are okay. But I’m no engineer.

 

[ca1ore]

Joists are usually 16” on center. With a 60” tank, best you can do is four ..... unless they’re closer together.

 

[Zbutcher]

Joists are usually 16” on center. With a 60” tank, best you can do is four ..... unless they’re closer together.

Well if they are closer together that's better I'd assume. But I'll verify.

 

[Zbutcher]

Joists are usually 16” on center. With a 60” tank, best you can do is four ..... unless they’re closer together.

Sorry it took a couple days was busy. But I checked and 18 inches from outside of joist to outside of joist so my tank stand measures 61 inch so I just added 18 which equals 2 joists then 16 from there on out which makes 1 joist. So I am pretty sure it's sitting over 5 or 6 joists. Does that sound right? And is that good?