Re: Floor load capacities

["Andrew Faust" <andrewfaust@alum.mit.edu>]

i was going to get all technical and pull out my structures textbooks, start
typing in equations and stuff, but i'm too tired. i think, though, that you
shouldn't go by the building codes as a reference. first of all, they're
_very_ conservative; secondly, they apply to the general floor area, not to
the space right beside a vertical support (like i assume your tanks are
placed). I think 120 p.s.f. is probably reasonable, but this is not my
considered professional opinion, just a quick first impression.
    DBarry is right - it's best if you spread the load across as many joists
as you can. One thing you (and everyone else who has their tanks on a wood
floor) should do is don't use a stand with small 'feet' - if you can anchor
it on top of a sheet of plywood or some 2x4's you'll spread the load much
better. if you've got a stand with 4 legs and they are 2x4's going straight
to the floor, you've got 4*(1.5)*(3.5) = 21 sq. in. of area. Divide that
into 250+ lbs (just a single 25gal tank) and you've got 142 p.s.f. at each
foot. Something to think about.

cheers, and goodnight.
andrew (also an architect)


-----Original Message-----
From: Barry, Don <DBarry@demattia.com>
To: 'apisto@majordomo.pobox.com' <apisto@admin.listbox.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 8:16 AM
Subject: RE: Floor load capacities
....
>    You can see that you are well over
>what the floor was designed for.  You should probably distribute the load
>over a larger area than you've described.
>
>The most important thing to consider in your case isn't  just that the
tanks
>are against a wall but which direction the floor joists are running.  If
the
>joists are perpendicular to the wall, you are in much better shape than if
>the are parallel to it.  The idea is to spread the load across as many of
>the floor joists as possible and to keep the load away from the middle of
>the joist span.  You may want to consult someone with some
>architectural/construction experience to determine which way your joists
run
>if it's not apparent to you.
....



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