How strong are my floors

[Raverbaby]

Hi, I am looking to put a fish tank in my living room, not too big, just 180litres.
according to sources on the web 1litre of water is as good as 1Kg so after a few rocks, gravel the weight of tank and cabinet itself (20kg approx) the total weight will roughly be 200kg.
Then also the weight of me standing next to the tank to feed them etc the total weight at any given time could be around 275Kg.
Now my question is will upper flat built in 2000 with chipboard flooring (unsure of thickness) be able to take that weight over time.
Is there a maximum weight that "modern" houses can withstand?
I should add that the stand sits on a base that has a 1 meter bit of wood as the base so I'd presume the weight would be spread across 2 joists atleast.


http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...


this is a similar house in the same estate as mine if it helps anyone.

Thanks

Edited by Raverbaby on Thursday 4th February 20:46

[ALawson]

Well each leg (assuming 4 legs) will be taking about 55kg as a point load. This could be quite a high concentrated load you dont want the leg to punch through the chip board so probably worth while putting some 18mm plywood under each leg to spread the load about onto the chip board. If you Mrs wearing stilletos is ok the leg will probably be ok!

Your next consideration will be shear and bending in the joists, as someone with a similar sized tank a few years ago I placed it next to the wall closest to the joist support so maximum pt of shear and minimum bending mnt in the joist. If you put the tank on opposide wall i.e. parallel with the joists depending upon there span you could be loading it up quite a bit.

It will probably be ok, our house had something like 9inch deep joists 1.5 inches wide at 1 ft centres, some of the modern day houses are probably only designed for 2-3 kN/m2 loading, not sure about pt loads though. You can probably find out from building regs somewhere.

[Raverbaby]

Thanks for your reply, the tanks cabinet has a solid base so there will (hopefully) be more chance of the misses falling in to the neighbours below
I dont know what way my floor boards are running but the tank will be sitting just to the side of the upper window on the picture, against the external wall if that makes any difference.
This is the tank just to paint a picture

http://www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/rio.htm

Cheers

[mackg]

It will probably be ok, our house had something like 9inch deep joists 1.5 inches wide at 1 ft centres, some of the modern day houses are probably only designed for 2-3 kN/m2 loading, not sure about pt loads though. You can probably find out from building regs somewhere.
[/quote]

I doubt the joists were at 12" centres, more like 18" on older houses and up to 24" on modern houses, as the previous reply, if the joists run in line with the fish tank ( from front to back ) and the tank is placed near a supporting wall you should have no problems

[Spudler]

Flooring will be 22mm. Spread the load the best you can and you'll be fine, keep close to a wall where the joists are bearing then even better.No different than a person laid out in a full bath. When i used to to site work we'd load 4" concrete blocks (multiple stacks of 16)on ply on top of the joists, in all the years I've been building houses I've never had any concern about the weight.

[Raverbaby]

Thanks for all your inputs, I'm putting a new carpet down first so will hopefully be able to locate where the joists are/run before I position the tank.

Cheers

[Tiggsy]

200kg...thats me and my brother - if we were in your flat would we fall through the floor if we stood next to each other!

Floor will be fine (my tank - downstairs - was 1000 litres and i never gave it a thought)

BUT....it will flood at some point and thats your problem!

[Pickled Piper]

Yep, 200kg is two fat or large blokes. Put something under the legs(tank not fat blokes) to spread the load and you will be fine.

pp

[Tiggsy]

Raverbaby said:

Then also the weight of me standing next to the tank to feed them etc the total weight at any given time could be around 275Kg.

Just thought...if you feed them a small family car and jump up and down you may have an issue.

[Raverbaby]

cheers

[Dave Dax builder]

Pickled Piper said:

Yep, 200kg is two fat or large blokes. Put something under the legs(tank not fat blokes) to spread the load and you will be fine.

pp

Just trying (Not to) picture two large fat blokes wearing stilletos!!!! Vary scary indeed.