Can My Floor Hold a 150g?

[Freshwater Tim]

If I'm seeing/understanding this correctly...

The tank sits on one beam as opposed to crossing multiple beams, which is less than ideal but not a 'deal breaker'...

And the beam it is sitting on has a structural support at one end and meets the foundation of the house on the other end... both within a couple feet of where the tank ends...

If the above is correct Then unless your floor joists are rotten, you're fine...


If the joist it is sitting on is not supported by the added support, but the joist behind it is, then your probably just a safe...


If the floor was going to cave in, it would have by now since the tank has been there 3 months. It is possible the floor can start to sag, then eventually cave in.

To monitor if this is happening, measure the exact distance from the ceiling to the floor. If this distance is increasing, the floor is sagging... If you are wondering if it has already sagged, drain the tank and measure the distance and compare that to the distance with the tank full...


It's much better to do a little research to see if there is a problem... before running blind into trying to fix a problem that may not even exist.

Agreed

If it is stressing you out....do a bit of investigating to find out where you are at!

If nothing else, it will give you piece of mind.

 

[FishNCash]

If I'm seeing/understanding this correctly...

The tank sits on one beam as opposed to crossing multiple beams, which is less than ideal but not a 'deal breaker'...

And the beam it is sitting on has a structural support at one end and meets the foundation of the house on the other end... both within a couple feet of where the tank ends...

If the above is correct Then unless your floor joists are rotten, you're fine...

Yes, this is correct. The tank sits parallel to the joist that has support from the floor to the house. I don't know if the joist has support on the other side. This is where I want to find out so I could put a 2 tons car jack underneath. Do you see the wall in the flooring picture? This used to be where the back wall of the house is before the remodel. All these joists you see in the picture were not from 1940's. There were an add on to the house during the remodel. I don't know when the remodel was done but this was the newly added section of the house.

If the joist it is sitting on is not supported by the added support, but the joist behind it is, then your probably just a safe...


If the floor was going to cave in, it would have by now since the tank has been there 3 months. It is possible the floor can start to sag, then eventually cave in.

To monitor if this is happening, measure the exact distance from the ceiling to the floor. If this distance is increasing, the floor is sagging... If you are wondering if it has already sagged, drain the tank and measure the distance and compare that to the distance with the tank full...

It's much better to do a little research to see if there is a problem... before running blind into trying to fix a problem that may not even exist.

Do you see the cut out on the wall? I am not 100% sure where this joist go. Thanks for the tips. I'll go do some research. BTW, what would have been the ideal way to place the tank based on the floor pic? Shoud I have place the tank against the wall?

 

[Toby_H]

“ideally” you want the tank to cross, or be resting on, as many floor joists as possible. So you want the tank’s length to run the opposite direction as the floor joists.

If you had a 500 gallon tank, I would say this is critical, with a 150 gal tank sitting on a well supported floor joist or two, it would be nice, but isn’t critical.

Personally, I would put the tank where I liked it best, and if I needed to put in an additional support, I would… But I’m the type to accept a challenge before I accept a limitation…

But before I went out spending money on jacks and crawling around under the house… I would measure floor to ceiling in a few ways to decide if I felt it was necessary. I suspect it is not necessary, but encourage you to prove that to yourself instead of trusting my word after looking at 3 pictures on the computer…

But all in all… it’s either going to make major damage in the first 24 hours… or slowly degrade until a breaking point. It’s been there 3 months with no issues… and you haven’t noticed any degradation. So make your measurements and measure a few times a year to make sure it’s not going bad.

One way to constantly monitor it would be to hang a weight from a piece of *fishing line. Make the weight hang exactly a certain distance from the floor. Measure as often as you like. If the string is in an inconvenient place, put a hook on the wall and swing it out of the way and hook it up. Only let it hang when measuring.
*Note: Do not use a string that can stretch, as this will convince you that the floor is rising which will make no sense at all