Determining floor/joist weight capacity

[hummer]

Originally Posted by sphelps

There's no doubt the floor will hold but what happens when you have a party and all your guests crowd around the one side?

My builder told me the floor is suppose to support a heavy load. But I got them to reenforce the joists under the tank just to be extra safe.
I have a 90Gal on Hardwood floors. I had a party last week and people were jumping around the tank. Playing some sort of pictionary type game. I saw the tank swaying. I had to stop them from jumping close to the tank cuz it probably would have tipped.

[newreefer_59]

I am getting some great responses here. To answer Triggerman: The actual tank is 60X24X24, so without anything but water, it is 148 gallon PLUS a 56 gallon sump under it that would be half full I imagine at any given time. There is already a 3/4 " sheet of plywood under it and the joists are 12" I-Beams. There would not be any major partying around it as it is in a library type room and against one wall as well. I will attach a drawing.

[sphelps]

Your 12" I-Beams, is that a steel beam I-beam or just a wood beam? If it's an I-beam do you know the designation? Same question for the "load bearing beam". For example W12x40.

I don't like the way it sits, I guess you can't have the tank sit centered over the two "I-joists"? As it stands you may get a titer-totter effect.

I'm not a structural engineer and I don't have the full picture but your floor support looks really strange to me, does that pass inspection these days?

[newreefer_59]

The drawing I made is to scale, and no, I cannot move the tank any further so that the double joist is in the middle

What the drawing does not show is the 2 joists drawn that sit on the outside concrete wall actually extend about 2 feet farther out as the house juts out there - originally intended for a dining room.

The beams are wood and unsure of the designation, but could check.

[mark]

and a additional comment, during house construction often see about 4 foot stack of drywall or sheeting sitting in the middle of the house. It's got to weight a few pounds and can't say I've seen any lifts ending up in the basement from the floor collapsing.

[Lance]

Floors collapsing under large loads are not very common. It is the sagging of the joists under the prolonged weight that is usually the problem.

[scorpio73]

does the stand have a flat base or just edge base hollow in center
because the weight is min if its a flat base not hollow . i have a 180 with a 90 gal fuge and no problems over 5 joists and its about 200 pounds per sqaure foot so i figure i am over 200lbs and the floor hold s me