Weight on foundations

[flukes]

As most know i just made a 3 teir 4fter and i just realised that my house was built on wood foundations, will they be able to support this kind of weight?? The crossbeams under the house sit 22inches apart.

The stand is 55inches long and just under 22 inches wide. Should it be placed across the beams or along them??

Is there anyone i can contact to find out more info on weight limits for the foundations?

Cheers
Scott

[Pyroman]

Not sure about your local codes on building, so I won't even touch that. Regardless, you'd want to place the stand across the beams, so no one beam takes all the load.

[flukes]

who would i contact to find out info on the local codes for building?? The coucil?? i spose i could just speak to an artichect and see what he says.

Thanks Pyro.

Scott

P.S- Dont break my fingers,i been voting...

[Chris McMahon]

If you want professional advice contact a structural engineer.

Now for some half-arsed advice. Place the weight across the beams to spread the weight. Place it as close to a structural wall as possible (ie not in middle of room). You could also:
1) Place the weight on a slab of marine chipboard to help spread the weight. The thicker the better.
2) If you notice the floor sagging (use a level), you could have another stump/brick pillar built directly under the tank to take the weight. Some people have used car jacks on concrete slabs when renting for a non-permanent solution.
3) The longer you leave it, the worse the sagging will get.

[LiberalFishLover]

Yes its true a Structural engineer who loves fishkeeping has arrived to this website. Well I think the advice offered by Chris McMahon is sound. Here are some more tips

1) Place the aquariums against a wall so that only shearing stresses are produced in the floor joists.

2) Fabricate a simple baseframe that will span across say three to four floor joists. the frame can be made of three sets of 2x4 joists nailed together. Take two sheets of plywood and nail doubled joists to it using 8D nails at 6" o.c., attach the ply to the top and bott. this will create a stiff support base to spread the load across the floor joists.

3) If you can add additional floor joists from below too that would really help out but i am unsure how the floor framing is working.

the important point is to spread the weight across floor joists at the wall support and provide stiffness to minimize deflection.

hope this is helpful.
Collie

[flukes]

this has ben up for a couple of months now and every thing is fine. I did i t in a corner giving it extra support from the walls and i also put a plywood board underneath to spread the weight over 3-4 crossbeams.
No troubles yet..

[LiberalFishLover]

all is well and good
..goes to show you that structural engineers tend to ere on the conservative side.

[lood83]

yeep,

its all about weight distribution, for ex. water beds should be at least 100 gallons but they are spread over a wide area. just get it across as many support beams as possible and watch for sag. I have a 140 gallon upstairs with no problems so far, but the beams are only 16 inch apart.

[weird]

You have me paranoid now, as I live in an old house and the a corner gap is now visible between the floor and the wall where my 3 ft tank is ... and I am thinking of using that spot for my new 4ft as the stand is big enough for it.

Before we moved in to the house, the ceiling had to be fixed and painted as the hot water unit apparently fell thru ... I am so paranoid now.

[flukes]

Best chance you have is putting it in a corner, of two walls. Walls are where the support is, of course you can go under yourself and make some more supports underneath the tank. Iam getting a carpenter to put some in where i want to put a 6x2x2. I didnt fill those tanks for 2 months because i was paranoid but it seems to be ok now.