How much weight can garage floors hold?

[fblb]

I would get an engineer or other seasoned masonry expert to get a core sample to tell exactly what you are working with just so there are no mishaps. We can sit here all day, and throw numbers, and speculation at you, but it would be best to actually find out if you are seriously thinking of undertaking a project of that magnitude. Best of luck to you...hope everything works out as planned.

 

[dawnmarie]

BTW, how much do I love your avatar!?!

It was really tasty.
Rocky, the Maine Coon, thought so too.

 

[dawnmarie]

Wrong Button ?

 

[Wet Whiskers]

I would get an engineer or other seasoned masonry expert to get a core sample to tell exactly what you are working with just so there are no mishaps. We can sit here all day, and throw numbers, and speculation at you, but it would be best to actually find out if you are seriously thinking of undertaking a project of that magnitude. Best of luck to you...hope everything works out as planned.

I know a much more solid answer will be the only thing that allows me to sleep at night. I will have to have someone out to take a look at it and see if it will work.

 

[yogurt_21]

we certainly don't want you staying up all night worrying so you cna have your brother over ot confirm. But as a reference take a look at the indoor pond area, none of those reinforced the concrete below them and many are in your gallonage range. Nolapete's tank is also something to take a look at.

 

[The1and only]

So the car comparison is like apples to Jupiter not even in the same range of thought. It makes sense but not the way it works when crunching the numbers on something like this. Having some one X-ray your floor will tell you what is in there and the thickness.
Also if you read Pete's thread his room is a garage conversion and he poured a thick slab to bring it to floor height of the house so he has some ridiculous over enforced slab.

If you are going to put in a block tank like JohnPTC why not just break up the old slab and pour a new one you know will work. If you go this route you need to drill the slab for rebar anyways. Also if you move just break down the tank and paint an epoxy covering on so the slab looks uniform.
If you do a block tank I think a new slab under the tank would be the best way to go about it and you will have the peace of mind you are looking for.

 

[yogurt_21]

dang pay only online concrete load bearing calculators.

Jen just get your bro in law over there, i think we're just gonna keep you up at night if we keep going this route.

 

[amazonfishman]

Interesting build and you're right to be concerned with the loab bearing abilities of the slab. Something that a lot of the random people mentioning comparing cars weight to the tank weight that they clearly don't know is there is a BIG difference between dead load (aquarium) where its a continuous load and the occasional load of your car on the garage floor regardless of the surface area the load is being distributed upon. A slab that's meant to hold 5000lbs occasionally will end up breaking over time if it's forced to hold a continuous 5000lb load.

Also the other thing that's been mentioned is what's under the slab. I saw another members thread with two huge acrylic tanks where the weight of the tanks actually sank one side of the slab down and caused huge problems because the tanks became unlevel.

You should be able to find the proper 1950's building codes somewhere online that would list the minimum requirements for residential construction concrete slabs and use that as a worst case scenario for thickness/load capabilities. Standard residential slab construction is 4". Really heavy load bearing concrete slabs are recommended to be 5-6" thick.

http://concreteconstruction.net/industry-news.asp?sectionID=714&articleID=540592

Best of luck with the build, I'll be tracking this thread as I'm sure it will be epic when complete!
~Trent

 

[Ryan_310]

I know that there is a tool out there that can determine what PSI concrete can handle but I am not sure where you would find one. I used it in Iraq to determine how much PSI "T" barriers mad of concrete could handle so I imagine you could use this tool on your garage floor. Ask around at high end hardware stores around your area.

 

[Wet Whiskers]

we certainly don't want you staying up all night worrying so you cna have your brother over ot confirm. But as a reference take a look at the indoor pond area, none of those reinforced the concrete below them and many are in your gallonage range. Nolapete's tank is also something to take a look at.

He'll be the first person I talk to. He's like my husband: ridiculously intelligent, but also has engineering training. He'd be able to tell us if its time to have someone out that does this for a living.

I'll take a look at the other threads. I know this is quite a case by case basis, but it will give me some idea.

So the car comparison is like apples to Jupiter not even in the same range of thought. It makes sense but not the way it works when crunching the numbers on something like this. Having some one X-ray your floor will tell you what is in there and the thickness.
Also if you read Pete's thread his room is a garage conversion and he poured a thick slab to bring it to floor height of the house so he has some ridiculous over enforced slab.

If you are going to put in a block tank like JohnPTC why not just break up the old slab and pour a new one you know will work. If you go this route you need to drill the slab for rebar anyways. Also if you move just break down the tank and paint an epoxy covering on so the slab looks uniform.
If you do a block tank I think a new slab under the tank would be the best way to go about it and you will have the peace of mind you are looking for.

>My thoughts were very similar about the car.
>Didn't know they would x-ray a floor, but it makes sense that they can since they have a hand held x-ray machine that they use for my horses teeth.
>I'll take a look at that thread.
>If we have to pour a new slab, I think I might just break ground in the backyard and do a massive build out there. If thats the case, this particular build would be even further out. However, it would also be ideal.

dang pay only online concrete load bearing calculators.

Jen just get your bro in law over there, i think we're just gonna keep you up at night if we keep going this route.

I'll start there, and keep you guys posted.

Interesting build and you're right to be concerned with the loab bearing abilities of the slab. Something that a lot of the random people mentioning comparing cars weight to the tank weight that they clearly don't know is there is a BIG difference between dead load (aquarium) where its a continuous load and the occasional load of your car on the garage floor regardless of the surface area the load is being distributed upon. A slab that's meant to hold 5000lbs occasionally will end up breaking over time if it's forced to hold a continuous 5000lb load.

Also the other thing that's been mentioned is what's under the slab. I saw another members thread with two huge acrylic tanks where the weight of the tanks actually sank one side of the slab down and caused huge problems because the tanks became unlevel.

You should be able to find the proper 1950's building codes somewhere online that would list the minimum requirements for residential construction concrete slabs and use that as a worst case scenario for thickness/load capabilities. Standard residential slab construction is 4". Really heavy load bearing concrete slabs are recommended to be 5-6" thick.

http://concreteconstruction.net/industry-news.asp?sectionID=714&articleID=540592

Best of luck with the build, I'll be tracking this thread as I'm sure it will be epic when complete!
~Trent

Good info. The more I see, the more I think we will be involving some experts on this future build. We might have to do a build in between the final upgrade and this one in order to do everything right.

I know that there is a tool out there that can determine what PSI concrete can handle but I am not sure where you would find one. I used it in Iraq to determine how much PSI "T" barriers mad of concrete could handle so I imagine you could use this tool on your garage floor. Ask around at high end hardware stores around your area.

Cool! If you think of what this tool is called, let me know.