1920's Bungalow and 300gal Acrylic

[Pilze]

My wife and I are buying a 1920's 2 story country bungalow on a stone foundation and crawlspace. My 300 Gal Acrylic and my fish are moving with us. The floor has deflected somewhat noticeably underneath carpet. The floor does not noticeably bounce.

This wall is load bearing and is also likely to be above a beam. The floor joists run perpendicular to this wall. This is the wall where my aquarium must go. Its the only place it fits (and doesn't block a window). We haven't had inspection yet, so I can't tell you the joists and beams dimensions. However, the dimensions of the great room are 29'x15'. The span on the floor joists is extremely likely to 15'.

Some additional structure will definitely need to be added to the house. I don't think sistering and blocking the joists would really provide the load support needed. Should I put in an additional beam down the middle of the great room? I realize I've provided little actual information and a lot of assumptions, but could any structural experts in the house give me some advice?

 

[breakspirit]

I can tell you my house is a piece of crap built in the 20s and I've got a 125 gallon tank on an outside wall perpendicular to the joists with no modification. Sure, the water vibrates when anyone walks across the room, but I'd call it perfectly safe. Long story short, your floors would have to be quite crappy to cause you to worry about the 300 gallon tank too much, assuming you'll do a little reinforcing(sistering of the joists). If you really want to feel good about it, you can put one of those jacks under the floor to give it upwards support as well as the sistered joists.

 

[Ocean Railroader]

There was one guy on this website somewhere on here who put 500 gallon tank in a small shed like room he added on to the side of his house on a cement slab and cut a viewing window in to the side of the house for the 500 gallon tank to look into to.

If I had a house like this with a lot of open land I would build a small cinder block room on to the side of the house with a cement footing and put in a small fishroom that itself would be a giant fish tank looking into the living room of the house.

 

[zebvance]

I can tell you my house is a piece of crap built in the 20s and I've got a 125 gallon tank on an outside wall perpendicular to the joists with no modification. Sure, the water vibrates when anyone walks across the room, but I'd call it perfectly safe. Long story short, your floors would have to be quite crappy to cause you to worry about the 300 gallon tank too much, assuming you'll do a little reinforcing(sistering of the joists). If you really want to feel good about it, you can put one of those jacks under the floor to give it upwards support as well as the sistered joists.

Just because you might have a house from the same time period and construction might be similar , I would say that It would still be absurd to compare the weight of your 125 on your floor, to His 300 gallon tank. Your 125 holds around 1000 pounds of water in it, his 300 gallon hold 2500 pounds of water, thats over twice of what yours weighs, not to mention how much the actual tank its self weighs and stand, ect.

So theoretically speaking would you say you would still feel confident if you stacked another 125 full and a 75 full on top of your tank and not be worried about your floor????

 

[terrors r us]

in th 1920's houses were built very strong but time has a way of changing things...
I would add a support beam or metal poles(2) just to be sure because if
a problem developes later...it's a real pain to fix....

 

[Pilze]

Done with the inspection and the sale is moving on. We are closing on the house may 9th. There is actually a support wall directly underneath the wall where the aquarium will be going. The joists are 2"x8"s (actually 2x8) and the span is just about 16 feet. The plan is to sister the joists with an additional 2x8 and cross brace with 2x4.