So the good news is I was able to move into a studio apartment on the ground floor with up to 2 fish tanks allowed in the lease, no gallon or size limit specified. I don't want to be a jerk and ruin the floor though. How do I figure out what size tank I can safely keep? I'm hoping to put a 75 gallon in. I will try to measure the floor joists for a PSF calculationand figure out the joist orientation with a stud finder as wel, but I don't know how to factor in the age of the building. It's a 1920s Victorian style house subdivided into apartments. Can anyone give me some tips? I've never lived in an older building before and don't know what to watch out for. Thanks in advance!
larger tank in an older house?
- Thread starter Dapper
- Start date
The house I lived in, in Wisconsin was built in the mis 1800s.
I had over 1,000 gallons of tanks on the first floor, one tank over 400 gallons, most in the 100 to 150 gallon range.
I did add a few floor jacks in the basement, just to be safe, and never had a buckling problem.
There was no shortage of old growth timber back then, and they built them very solid, the beams were 16"x 2".
I had over 1,000 gallons of tanks on the first floor, one tank over 400 gallons, most in the 100 to 150 gallon range.
I did add a few floor jacks in the basement, just to be safe, and never had a buckling problem.
There was no shortage of old growth timber back then, and they built them very solid, the beams were 16"x 2".
you could always buy one box of engineered hardwood flooring from lowes or homedepot and put the tank on that ontop of the floor...
that would spread the load out a little and also protect the floor a little.
as far as bracing the floor, you should be ok as long as the tank is perpendicular to the floor joists and its against an outside wall.
if you know where a load bearing wall is, you can put it up against that as well. They usually have lally columns directly under then in the basement.
i am not a contractor or in construction, so take my advice as you will.
that would spread the load out a little and also protect the floor a little.
as far as bracing the floor, you should be ok as long as the tank is perpendicular to the floor joists and its against an outside wall.
if you know where a load bearing wall is, you can put it up against that as well. They usually have lally columns directly under then in the basement.
i am not a contractor or in construction, so take my advice as you will.
As others have said building codes have drastically changed over the years. What you need to do is find out what you have then place your tanks accordingly. Normally there should be in a closet access to the crawl space. You can use this or look thru the foundation vents to see the orientation and size of joist. Also location of the footings.
Back in the late 80's when I was in high school I took an architect drafting class for four years. Code for floor joist in my area at that time was 2x6 beans 16in on center.
Currently I live in "duplex apartment" that were built in 66. The code for floor joist was way different. In this pic you can see they used 4x8 beans 4ft on center.
So in my case I set my 6ft tanks up so they span across two floor joist with a foot of overhang on either side. My 4ft 55 is centered to sit on two joist. The 6ft in the living room is on an exterior wall. The 6ft tank in my room sits right on top of footings that transfer the weight right to the ground.
Make sure you get your renters insurance first tho. Mine is $25 bucks a month. Specifically says multiple large tanks.
Back in the late 80's when I was in high school I took an architect drafting class for four years. Code for floor joist in my area at that time was 2x6 beans 16in on center.
Currently I live in "duplex apartment" that were built in 66. The code for floor joist was way different. In this pic you can see they used 4x8 beans 4ft on center.
So in my case I set my 6ft tanks up so they span across two floor joist with a foot of overhang on either side. My 4ft 55 is centered to sit on two joist. The 6ft in the living room is on an exterior wall. The 6ft tank in my room sits right on top of footings that transfer the weight right to the ground.
Make sure you get your renters insurance first tho. Mine is $25 bucks a month. Specifically says multiple large tanks.
Thank you for the replies. I'd like to reiterate that this is an apartment, so I am renting, and I don't have access to any other part of the property. Inspecting the basement is not an option, nor is installing any additional braces, joists, flooring, etc. It's a hardwood floor.
