putting large tank (180 gallons) on first floor, need help

[CoralWealth]

So I will be moving in the next month, right now my tank is in a basement.

In my new house, that isn't new (built is 1950) I want the tank to be in the corner of my living room which happens to be in the corner of the house so it will have the most support. However, I still do not feel comfortable putting a 180 gallon fish tank there without additional support in the basement. This side of the house is luckily on the same side of the basement that is not finished and you can easily see the support beams.

I am wondering what some other reefers have done in this circumstance. Like who did you have come out and take a look, what kind of contractor did you hire to add support and how much do you guys think this would cost?

I was thinking around $1000? Am I on the low end?

 

[frankragghianti]

Same set up at my house, used six floor Jack and 2×6 lumber from Lowe's under $200.00
P.S. my tank 125 gal. With 60 gal. Sump

 

[CoralWealth]

Same set up at my house, used six floor Jack and 2×6 lumber from Lowe's under $200.00
P.S. my tank 125 gal. With 60 gal. Sump

awesome! Thanks for the reply, unfortunately I am about as unhandy as anyone can get and will most likely have to hire someone to do this. Anyone else have any opinions or suggestions?

 

[Lenny_S]

I placed my 160 gallon on my first floor on an outside wall. However it was built in 2008 and used engineered floor joists. The outside wall I put it on had the joists running perpendicular to the tank, being 5' wide it rested on top of 4 different joists and the left and right sides were between joists. So first most important thing is that your tank runs perpendicular to the joists, not parallel. And even though I was spanning a number of joists, I still was not comfortable that I wouldn't get some kind of deflection in the floor over time. So in the basement, under what would be the front edge of the tank above, I built a load bearing wall across all 6 joists involved in carrying the load of the tank. I'm happy to say that the tank has been setup for over a year now, and there is no deflection in the floor and no issue with the load bearing wall.

Some additional notes: Most modern homes (1980 and up) are built to a 40lb per square foot live load standard on a main living floor. Meaning that in any given area from one load bearing support to another, the maximum rated amount of weight put in a room is 40 lbs per square foot in that area. A common example would be a 20'x30' house where the main center support is in the middle of the house running in the long dimension. That essentially creates 2 different 10'x30' areas surrounded by load bearing structure. So in one of those areas you should be able to distribute roughly 12,000 pounds of live load (furniture, appliances, piano, etc...). But this is really only a rule of thumb, and depends on a somewhat uniform distribution of all that load. If you were to consolidate that load or a large portion of it over a much smaller area (like a 180 gallon fish tank), then you are probably going to exceed the tolerances of the structure. Typically this is quantified by having a "max concentrated load" which is usually about 300 lbs on main living floors. The results of a structural failure are not necessarily instant. There have been many cases where the load tolerance was exceeded and there was a gradual failure of the structure. This is why over the course of the first year, I periodically check the floor for any kind of deflection that would indicate a gradual failure.

In your case with a much older house, it could be worse or it could be better, construction tolerances were much less regulated back then, and it is hit or miss. Some houses were built like tanks, while others were not. And the condition of the joists and sub flooring will play into it as well. I would bet you will have to add more support. A couple of lolly columns and a tripled up 2x10 micro-lam beam (glued and nailed together) under where the front edge of the tank would likely do the trick. But if you want to be really sure, you'll need to get an engineer out there to have a look and make a recommendation.

 

[CoralWealth]

I placed my 160 gallon on my first floor on an outside wall. However it was built in 2008 and used engineered floor joists. The outside wall I put it on had the joists running perpendicular to the tank, being 5' wide it rested on top of 4 different joists and the left and right sides were between joists. So first most important thing is that your tank runs perpendicular to the joists, not parallel. And even though I was spanning a number of joists, I still was not comfortable that I wouldn't get some kind of deflection in the floor over time. So in the basement, under what would be the front edge of the tank above, I built a load bearing wall across all 6 joists involved in carrying the load of the tank. I'm happy to say that the tank has been setup for over a year now, and there is no deflection in the floor and no issue with the load bearing wall.

Some additional notes: Most modern homes (1980 and up) are built to a 40lb per square foot live load standard on a main living floor. Meaning that in any given area from one load bearing support to another, the maximum rated amount of weight put in a room is 40 lbs per square foot in that area. A common example would be a 20'x30' house where the main center support is in the middle of the house running in the long dimension. That essentially creates 2 different 10'x30' areas surrounded by load bearing structure. So in one of those areas you should be able to distribute roughly 12,000 pounds of live load (furniture, appliances, piano, etc...). But this is really only a rule of thumb, and depends on a somewhat uniform distribution of all that load. If you were to consolidate that load or a large portion of it over a much smaller area (like a 180 gallon fish tank), then you are probably going to exceed the tolerances of the structure. Typically this is quantified by having a "max concentrated load" which is usually about 300 lbs on main living floors. The results of a structural failure are not necessarily instant. There have been many cases where the load tolerance was exceeded and there was a gradual failure of the structure. This is why over the course of the first year, I periodically check the floor for any kind of deflection that would indicate a gradual failure.

In your case with a much older house, it could be worse or it could be better, construction tolerances were much less regulated back then, and it is hit or miss. Some houses were built like tanks, while others were not. And the condition of the joists and sub flooring will play into it as well. I would bet you will have to add more support. A couple of lolly columns and a tripled up 2x10 micro-lam beam (glued and nailed together) under where the front edge of the tank would likely do the trick. But if you want to be really sure, you'll need to get an engineer out there to have a look and make a recommendation.

Thanks a lot for all of this, I greatly appreciate it. I have contacted some engineers but all of them said it would cost around $750 for them to draft up what I needed done and then on top of that I would have to pay a contractor to actually do the work. I was hoping there was a cheaper method to go around, but its not starting to look like that.

 

[Lenny_S]

For $750 you can probably just over-engineer it... ask a contractor what it would cost to sister the joists under where the tank would be and add a support beam at the front of where the tank would be. It's hard to imagine that would be more than $300 in material and $500 in labore... like a 1/2 day job.

 

[CoralWealth]

For $750 you can probably just over-engineer it... ask a contractor what it would cost to sister the joists under where the tank would be and add a support beam at the front of where the tank would be. It's hard to imagine that would be more than $300 in material and $500 in labore... like a 1/2 day job.

I was thinking something similar. I just did not even know how to begin to tell them where to build the beams or if I should assume that most contractors would know how to do this.