Q: Can my wood floor handle this weight?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
the tank you could probably work out the approximate weight if you knew all the glass thickness and dimensions…

then the stand would be a similar process asking whoever is making / manufactures it to tell you or finding out the weight of raw material used…

then it would come down to the rest of the stuff going in (such as sand / decor) which maybe a bit of guess work unless you already own it, in which case you could possibly throw them on a scales and weigh it out…

but most important will be to know whats under the floor boards? Also is this tank going to be on the ground floor / basement or is it going to be on say something like the 2nd floor of your house?

if its in the basement i would guess and i emphasize GUESS you may have a lot more load bearing weight vs something that is on the 2nd floor…

coz right now with the weight you are estimating will be placed there is quite heavy, so its best to make sure that wherever you place said tank can support a dead weight of close to 1 Ton / 2000 pounds long term or you may find your floor sagging over time which could eventually lead to a real disaster…

thats also why normally when people here are doing large tanks tend to do them in a basement or make sure they have enough reinforcements under their tanks to support the weight they need…
It actually is a reptile enclosure. No water. But yes the weight is mostly from the substrate which as I previously mentioned is going to be a mix of topsoil, coconut fiber, cypress mulch, sphagnum moss. I actually found stuff online mentioning how much certain things weigh. Like the coconut fiber is about 15 or more lbs per block once its hydrated. There's 5 bags of top soil which is 40 lbs per bag. The cypress mulch is in 2 cubic feet bags. and the sphagnum moss.

The enclosure will be made of 3/4 inch thick melamine panels. Then there's the floor joists which will be part of the bottom of the enclosure.

One of the hides will be around 17 lbs or so, the other will be made 20-35lbs? maybe less- just guessing.

The animal itself can max out at 30lbs.

There will be a lot of lights inside the enclosure for heating, uvb distribution and visual lights. There will be a relatively large waterbowl.

I mentioned that I had kept 2 aquariums on top of a husky workbench. The overall weight of the two aquariums were around 1,000lbs? So i wasnt sure if an extra 1,000lbs would be bad.

Here I will post what I am keeping.

He is currently in a 4x2x2 enclosure which I was planning on upgrading.

The enclosure I want to build only has 2 front sliding doors which will be around 7ft long x 3ft tall, tempered glass and 1/2 inch thick.

20211115_184044.gif

20211115_183953.gif

20211113_214732.gif
 
Nice lizard.

A structural engineer named Kevin Bauman wrote what I think is the definitive article on this question. It was called "Residential Wood Framed Floors and Aquarium Weights". If you search for his name on this forum, you'll find some previous discussions. His original article goes back to 2004, but he continued to revise it over the years. It won't give you a definitive answer, of course, but it will give you an idea of what factors to consider.

The site he posted it on seems to have fallen off the internet, but you can find it in wayback machine. Here's a link to the most recent version I could find, from February 2021.
 
Nice lizard.

A structural engineer named Kevin Bauman wrote what I think is the definitive article on this question. It was called "Residential Wood Framed Floors and Aquarium Weights". If you search for his name on this forum, you'll find some previous discussions. His original article goes back to 2004, but he continued to revise it over the years. It won't give you a definitive answer, of course, but it will give you an idea of what factors to consider.

The site he posted it on seems to have fallen off the internet, but you can find it in wayback machine. Here's a link to the most recent version I could find, from February 2021.
thank you so much
 
  • Like
Reactions: tlindsey
Nice lizard.

A structural engineer named Kevin Bauman wrote what I think is the definitive article on this question. It was called "Residential Wood Framed Floors and Aquarium Weights". If you search for his name on this forum, you'll find some previous discussions. His original article goes back to 2004, but he continued to revise it over the years. It won't give you a definitive answer, of course, but it will give you an idea of what factors to consider.

The site he posted it on seems to have fallen off the internet, but you can find it in wayback machine. Here's a link to the most recent version I could find, from February 2021.
Anyway to get a hold of him?
 
Anyway to get a hold of him?
Scroll down to the bottom of the page I linked and you'll see his email address (it's slightly cryptic to foil the bots). It's an att.net address. It sounds like he does respond to emails (or did, anyway), but the accompanying blurb indicates that he's reluctant to give specific advice for legal reasons. I've never contacted him, but you can try your luck.
 
Scroll down to the bottom of the page I linked and you'll see his email address (it's slightly cryptic to foil the bots). It's an att.net address. It sounds like he does respond to emails (or did, anyway), but the accompanying blurb indicates that he's reluctant to give specific advice for legal reasons. I've never contacted him, but you can try your luck.
Thank you. I wonder if there is ways to reinforce the floor for better distribution but from above
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com