75 gallon upstairs in old house?

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Pile_O_Rocks

Pile_O_Rocks

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Jun 9, 2019
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I’m thinking about a 75 gallon
30”x24”x24” tank (odd dimensions I know) for my bedroom upstairs. I live in a house that’s I know for certain is Pre-1912 but no older than 1895. It’s in Scotland. I have one load bearing is around 4.5 foot long and it has been holding a 7 ft tall solid oak cupboard for a decade. Would it hold a tank of this weight?
 
Not as old as yours, prob 1996 but 75 gallons is nothing around 600lbs I have a friend that has a 180 upstairs and his house is older than mine
 
My house in Wisconsin was built in the late 1870s, and had 2 x 12 beams, every 18" or so (they overbuilt back then (lots of trees)) I had about 1000 gallons on tanks on that floor.


The weight didn't bother anything, but the humidity made it necessary to remediate the entire house, and replace some damaged floors before it was sold.
And I did have some floor jacks underneath, just for piece of mind.
 
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Pile_O_Rocks said:
I’m thinking about a 75 gallon
30”x24”x24” tank (odd dimensions I know) for my bedroom upstairs. I live in a house that’s I know for certain is Pre-1912 but no older than 1895. It’s in Scotland. I have one load bearing is around 4.5 foot long and it has been holding a 7 ft tall solid oak cupboard for a decade. Would it hold a tank of this weight?
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You could be fine and you could cause a problem. Nobody can really tell you from here. To be certain beforehand, you need a fellow with structural experience to look at your situation exactly.

It's true that a 600~800 lb tank on 5 sq ft is only 160 psf or about 1.1 psi & that is normally easy to accommodate.
But it's likely twice the weight of the oak cupboard. The footprint is surely different.

IMO, you need to look at the structure and the stand together. It's common for a tank on the 2nd floor to start leaning once you fill it. Sometimes a compromise in the stand design can compensate. By making it larger and stiffer than necessary, you further distribute the weight on a dodgy floor.
 
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tcav88 said:
Not as old as yours, prob 1996 but 75 gallons is nothing around 600lbs I have a friend that has a 180 upstairs and his house is older than mine
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Hello; I saw in another thread a very similar post. I get what you are saying but do think an important set of information is missing. For example how many windows does the OP's house have. Does the roof leak? For sure I do not know these things based on the information thus far posted. Houses are not all the same. Some are old and strong. Some are old and damaged.

A fellow down at the gym I go to can bench over 300 pounds pretty easy. Does that mean I can?

The OP wants a tank on the second floor. Maybe the home owner wishes to be convinced if he/she is not the OP. I do not know the strength nor the condition of the house. I personally would not put a 120 gallon on a second story unless I knew for sure about the structure. That your friend is getting away with it does not mean others will be so lucky.
 
skjl47 said:
Hello; I saw in another thread a very similar post. I get what you are saying but do think an important set of information is missing. For example how many windows does the OP's house have. Does the roof leak? For sure I do not know these things based on the information thus far posted. Houses are not all the same. Some are old and strong. Some are old and damaged.

A fellow down at the gym I go to can bench over 300 pounds pretty easy. Does that mean I can?

The OP wants a tank on the second floor. Maybe the home owner wishes to be convinced if he/she is not the OP. I do not know the strength nor the condition of the house. I personally would not put a 120 gallon on a second story unless I knew for sure about the structure. That your friend is getting away with it does not mean others will be so lucky.
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I get what your saying I was just stating that myself and others have tanks heavily scaped with boulders and lots of wood upstairs far exceeding 600lbs. Yes water damage could be a factor but since we weren’t provided with any structural information via damage and any further issues besides possible date of build I didn’t feel a need to mention that, I was just giving a basic answer given the info provided.
 
Hello; I usually figure a minimum estimate of ten pounds per gallon with all equipment and up to 12 pounds per gallon on the bigger tanks. So my range starts at 750 pounds. Not a big difference tho. Then there are usually to be other things in a room and the occasional person.
I also have no doubt there are structures which can carry a static load over time much greater than 750 pounds. I also bet there are some that will have damage over time with less weight. It all depends and the stuff this depends on is the crux of the matter.

Old houses can be stronger than new houses. New houses can be stronger that old. Watch some of the Canadian TV shows by Mike Holmes. He recently had to re do much structure on a house around seven years old. As far as I can tell there are a lot of houses built without using any codes at all. I have worked on a few of them.
A few years ago a man built a house on a lot next to my brother. Hard to find a decent line anywhere on the place. The lady who bought it has had a lot of trouble from the start and it will never be right. I guess he did the best that he knew how but still.
 
One of the problems we always had as Engineers is trying to rehabilitate older structures that were designed before people understood the effects of earthquakes on a building.

When you put large weights on the second floor of a building you increase the lateral forces on the floor. If those floors aren't well restrained by the walls you have potential for collapse.

The most classic case in recent history was the collapse of the towers on 9/11.

The walls pulled away from the floors as the whole thing collapsed.

There are lots of old masonry buildings in San Francisco which have new steel plates and rods holding the walls to the floors. Without them the walls would Buckle outward and those floors could pancake during an earthquake.

So gravity loads are not the only thing to be considered. These things are best located along a Shear wall. Mere partition walls aren't designed to absorb lateral loads.

Some houses do not have partition walls. Every wall is load-bearing and acts in shear to one degree or another. It varies from house to house.
 
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