We are moving to a new place and its built to hurricane strength zoning. I'm looking at placing a 180-250 gallon tank on a second floor. The location I've picked out for the tank would be right along the primary load bearing wall. I have a 12 foot wall I'm looking at placing it on and with that anything 72" or longer would hit at least 5 floor joyces plus the construction of the flooring has cement filled between the floor joyces. So my question is am I safe to try this or will I just be creating an awesome disaster!?!
MAX Tank Size on a second floor?
- Thread starter deepfathom
- Start date
You have many hurricanes in Cleveland?
Sounds as if any length tank by 24" wide and 24" tall would be fine as you are perpendicular to floor joists. I highly recommend doing more research and not just taking someones opinion on this.
Sounds as if any length tank by 24" wide and 24" tall would be fine as you are perpendicular to floor joists. I highly recommend doing more research and not just taking someones opinion on this.
Hello; (OLD RECYCLEDPOST some words will run together, this happens when I copy and paste to the forum)) Here are some web addresses about floor capacity. The first address is a new one from a post by another Monster Fish forum member a while back. Here are the addresses again with the first being new to the list. Floor capacity depends on a lot of criteria, there is not a simple answer to the question.
This web address is added to the list http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php It is perhaps the easiest to follow.
http://www.ehow.com/how_7485788_calculate-floor-load-capacity.html
The web address above is a site about calculating load capacities of floor joists. They use a formula for the strength of a beam: maximum load in pounds = FBd^2 / 9L.
The width of the wood joist in inches is B (1.5 inches for standard 2 by dimensional lumber.)
The depth in inches is d (7.25 in for a standard 2x8.)(9.25 in for a 2x10)
The distance (span) in feet is L (Unsupported distance)
F is something called the fiber stress when wood bends. It varies with the type of wood but graded lumber will be at least a 1,000 number, some are higher.
They use an example of 2x10 floor joists with a span of 14 feet on 16 inch centers and come up with 1,019 pd for each joist. They figure the area supported by each joist as 18.7 sq ft. They get 54.5 pd per square foot of floor area. I think this includes the weight of the flooring and anything else that is supported by the joists.
I looked at some other sites (Addresses listed below) and found a discussion of static loads and live loads. Two sites describe how to measure the deflection of flooring due to weight loads.
http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/deflecto.pl
http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/calc/timbercalcstyle.asp?species=Douglas+Fir-South&size=2x8&grade=Select+Structural&member=Floor+Joists&deflectionlimit=L%2F480&spacing=16&wet=No&incised=No&liveload=80&snowload=-1&deadload=10&submit=Calculate+Maximum+Horizontal+Span
I found these sites interesting but hard to pin down for a general rule of thumb. Too many variables involved; Type of wood, condition of wood, dimensional lumber or engineered truss, age of wood and on and on.
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=62845&page=10
This web address is added to the list http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php It is perhaps the easiest to follow.
http://www.ehow.com/how_7485788_calculate-floor-load-capacity.html
The web address above is a site about calculating load capacities of floor joists. They use a formula for the strength of a beam: maximum load in pounds = FBd^2 / 9L.
The width of the wood joist in inches is B (1.5 inches for standard 2 by dimensional lumber.)
The depth in inches is d (7.25 in for a standard 2x8.)(9.25 in for a 2x10)
The distance (span) in feet is L (Unsupported distance)
F is something called the fiber stress when wood bends. It varies with the type of wood but graded lumber will be at least a 1,000 number, some are higher.
They use an example of 2x10 floor joists with a span of 14 feet on 16 inch centers and come up with 1,019 pd for each joist. They figure the area supported by each joist as 18.7 sq ft. They get 54.5 pd per square foot of floor area. I think this includes the weight of the flooring and anything else that is supported by the joists.
I looked at some other sites (Addresses listed below) and found a discussion of static loads and live loads. Two sites describe how to measure the deflection of flooring due to weight loads.
http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/deflecto.pl
http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/calc/timbercalcstyle.asp?species=Douglas+Fir-South&size=2x8&grade=Select+Structural&member=Floor+Joists&deflectionlimit=L%2F480&spacing=16&wet=No&incised=No&liveload=80&snowload=-1&deadload=10&submit=Calculate+Maximum+Horizontal+Span
I found these sites interesting but hard to pin down for a general rule of thumb. Too many variables involved; Type of wood, condition of wood, dimensional lumber or engineered truss, age of wood and on and on.
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=62845&page=10
Not many hurricanes up here but being active duty they like to move me alot and I'm about to be calling Galveston/Houston TX home. Also I figured this topic had been beat to death but I couldn't find it on here.
Ago of the construction would be helpful Concrete between the joists does nothing for loadbearing and adds to the Dead load on the bearing wall.
Type of Joist + Size of Joist + Type of load bearing wall+ Type of Joist Load bearing wall is on + Span for second floor + Span for First Floor
It gets really complicated and when in doubt get an engineer to come over and not a Army Engineer, Airforce Civil Engeer, or Seabee. Go with someone who has to do well to make money Not someone that just has to get half decent evals.
Type of Joist + Size of Joist + Type of load bearing wall+ Type of Joist Load bearing wall is on + Span for second floor + Span for First Floor
It gets really complicated and when in doubt get an engineer to come over and not a Army Engineer, Airforce Civil Engeer, or Seabee. Go with someone who has to do well to make money Not someone that just has to get half decent evals.
Hello; There have been several threads on the subject in the last few months, a search should find them. It seems that many want to push the limits of floor capacity in order to have the biggest tanks possible in structures built as an ordinary residence. I understand the desire to have big tanks. Folks willing to chance them in homes that they own is fair as they will own the results as well. Doing so in someone else's property should be done with a lot of due dilligence and with the owner's permission. Some sort of renters insurance should probably be a part of the deal as well. There can be dozens of factors that influence the strength of a structure. I rented for most of my adult life and restricted the size of tanks kept on upper floors. I had a large tank in a ground floor garage in a rental for a time. It took untill I was 62 years old to have a place of my own. Now I can overload my floors if I wish, but will be adding some extra structure as a just in case.