Looking for a structural engineer to ***** a floor

mrsaltwatertank · Feb 14, 2012

Any club members a structural engineer? I need an engineer to checkout the flooring of our rental house to make sure it will hold up my new tank (235g).

I realize I could just wing it but I'm not going to risk it with my tank or someone else's house.

If there are no club members who are structural engineers, I'm open to people who have engineering contacts as well!

Thanks!

ToXIc · Feb 14, 2012

to what the floor?

LeoLionFish · Feb 14, 2012

If you have pier and beam flooring, which most likely you do, then you are definitely going to need to brace it underneath. And, since you are renting I would recommend you GOOGLE for structural engineer or flooring specialist who is bonded and insured and can also give you a guarantee on the support structure. JMO.

Travis D.
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angrycubano · Feb 14, 2012

Wolfpack

KJAG · Feb 14, 2012

ToXIc said:
to what the floor?

Lol. +1

poolkeeper1 · Feb 14, 2012

If the House is on a Crawlspace, Go under and look to see what size Joice are there and what way they are running? Then If you are putting the Tank against a wall on the outside of the house and the joice are positioned to where the tank spans several of the joice you can be extra secure with a cross beam supported by 2 Hydrylic Jacks pumped up before the tank is filled with water to secure them from the extra weight causing them to sag.
We did Mel's 300 Gal tank this way and NO Problems in a much older house. You will need to put some concrete pads for the jacks to sit on and you will be fine!
Bill

mrsaltwatertank · Feb 15, 2012

I have no idea why the title got picked up by the bad word filter!

The tank will go against 2 outside walls but I'm not sure if I can reach it via the crawlspace as the place where the tank is going is on a new addition to the house. That new addition was built outside of the old exterior walls of the house so I'm not sure they knocked out a in the old foundation to access the new addition.

All that being said, the tank is going to sit in a corner against 2 outside walls so there is plenty of load bearing capability right there.

I also might relocated the tank to the front of the house directly above the crawl space door so I can:

- easily see the joists under the tank
- not have to crawl very far to get access to the floor joists

If I put the tank where I currently want to put it, I have to crawl diagonally the length of the house to get to the floor under the tank. That means exposed time to things that live in crawl spaces that could eat me ! :neutral:

Gitsoe · Feb 15, 2012

my imagination went somewhere dark reading the title lol

mrsaltwatertank · Feb 15, 2012

In doing some repairs with the landlord today we discovered:

- there is no crawl space access for the area under the house where the tank will go
- joists are in great shape and both ends terminate on load bearing walls. We found this out while repairing some of the outer boards of the house (don't know the name) and were able to remove some wood and see the joists.

Dowtish · Feb 15, 2012

Mark you need to hire someone to get supports where you need them and to crawl in there where the creepy crawlies are, and put the tank where you want it....you'll regret it, if you don't.

p woodard · Feb 15, 2012

Told you so I guess watching the Diy channel pays off sometime and the pump is working great after I figured out how to reprogram off your settings

greg0385 · Feb 16, 2012

I crawl under houses on a daily base for almost 4years and i still believe there is creepy crawly things under each one. Knock on wood i havent seen a snake under one yet, many snake skins but the day i see a live one is the day i find another job-i hate snakes!! On a serious note if you need some help i could help you out just let me know.