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Tank Weight


DanceswithDingoes

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Any structural engineers out there that can tell me whether my wood floor will support a double 4x2 rack? All I can tell you are there 30 years old in good nick and I have no idea where the supports/joists are. It will be situated against an outside wall (brick) and near a corner. Any help appreciated. clap.gif

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Either way, id have it looked at by a proffesional.

Better to spend the dollars in the beginning than having to spend them on the clean up. Would be very very messy and expensive if the floor did give way under the weight.

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A structural engineer (if there is such a thing laugh.gif )

Basically the engineer that gives the yes.gif or no.gif when you submit building plans to the council wink2.gif

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Hi Jason,

A professional structural engineer, you should be able to find one in the yellow pages. You're probably looking at somewhere around $100 minimum per hour, so I'd budget for up to $500 to engage a qualified structural engineer to design you a solution.

One 4 x 2 x 2 will hold around 420 litres of water = 420Kg

Two tanks, with gravel, rocks, stands, filters etc and you could say 900Kg but lets round that up to 1000Kg to be on the safe side.

A professional structural engineer will probably apply a safety factor of 3 (or greater) and assess the load bearing capacity of your floor based on a load of 3000Kg.

The floor could fail in two ways; the legs could just punch straight through the floor or, the most likely scenario, the floor would sag.

Firstly, the engineer would look at the nature of the loading. Four legs = four load points @ 750Kg each. But if you were able to distribute the load over an effective base you would virtually eliminate the chance of the legs punching through the floor whilst also reducing the risk of the floor sagging.

I'm assuming we're talking about a ground floor? If so, the engineer would have to get under the floor to determine where the footings, bearers and joists are relative to your load points. If everything lines up OK you probably won't have to modify any of your underfloor structure. However, if things don't line up.....

You could probably do a satisfactory job yourself of assessing where the supports are and just 'chocking-up' any unsupported areas.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Lee.

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itll weigh well over a ton ,a4x2x2 is about 75kg empty,do a google search on pool tables on timber floors and youll get some info .the joists uder your floor should have around 750mm centres,if you can identify the floorboard timber a call to a timber yard will give you the structural strength of your floor in kg per square metre,you can exceed this IF you spread the weight with big feet on the legs ie: 19mm ply 30x30cm under each leg of which there should be at least 6,finally if it is against a wall dynabolt the stand to the tiber in the wall,also while youre googling put in "joist sistering" this will give you imformation on a simple way to strengthen your floor

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Yeah its a dangerous thing if the floor sags so i would get it checked out too, is it possible to maybe just house 1 of the 4x2x2 or just 2 smaller tanks?

Im so glad i have a whole room with a concrete floor at my dispense tongue.gif

Edit: Wrong Smilie bigsmile.gif

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Danceswith Dingoes, I am a carpenter builder, maybe I can help too. Lee and reddevil are all over it. Does the stand have feet or is it cabinet style at the base? If you have access to the underside, it would be good to know the size of the joists. ie; the members the flooring is nailed too. Timber frame can safely support these weights, but but its good to have some info as some floors really arent up to it, especially some non-hardwood ones. I would seriously think twice about a tier set up. It will get up quite a sway on a timber floor if near a spot where people walk alot. I think they are better off side by side personally. A corner is good, or along a loadbearing wall above a bearer is good too. Sometimes it is also viable to prop the floor. I have done this in an 80 year old queenslander for an 8x2x2.

HTH

Cheers,

Jason

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Thanks very much guys, the very idea of me crawling under the house will have some that know me in fits of laughter LOL.gif Ive got a mate whose a builder so I'll give him a yell and get him to look. Thanks again folks I was a bit nervous as Im renting and my previous 'fish house' was on a slab. clap.gif

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