Will My Floor Hold?

[BluePhantom]

The 4x4's going into the ground are meant to carry the weight of the whole house. If your tank is going to partly over the concrete and have some weight on a 4x4 I think you should be fine.

BTW water weighs 8.35 pounds per gallon, so you are looking at 1503 lbs for the water.

yeah im just cant quite tell if the 4x4 will run under it enough and same with the concrete? but thats just the water right? so a whole tnk set up would be like 2000-2300 lbs? I was thinking hat if I got a big hardwood table and put it on the table to spread the weight more?

 

[Randi]

That would definitely spread the weight and should help. I was thinking, you should check your house. Crack going up the walls over window or door frames indicate that your foundation is having trouble supporting weight. Sadly, older homes are much more equipt for this. You have to remember that at one point in time all bathtubs were made of cast iron and weighed well over 1000 pounds when full. Yes, that weight is just the water. Not sure how much your set up will weigh but the water will be the heaviest part.

 

[BluePhantom]

That would definitely spread the weight and should help. I was thinking, you should check your house. Crack going up the walls over window or door frames indicate that your foundation is having trouble supporting weight. Sadly, older homes are much more equipt for this. You have to remember that at one point in time all bathtubs were made of cast iron and weighed well over 1000 pounds when full. Yes, that weight is just the water. Not sure how much your set up will weigh but the water will be the heaviest part.

yeah i was thinking of the table then maybe getting a big piece of plywood to lay down ad put a rug or something to cover it and help as well. There are no cracks in the walls anywhere. I think think th house is like 20-0 yrs not toooo old. but im not sure really. i need to figure this out soon!

 

[StandbySetting]

Are you in the UK? The standard regs for UK buildings are 1.5KN m[sup]-2[/sup] on upper floors, so that is approximately 152Kg per M[sup]2[/sup], A tank of volume 180*60*60Cm has a water volume of 648L, this has a mass of 648Kg, the tank alone will have a mass in the region of 50-150Kg, I'll use the upper value for safety purposes, so already this is 798Kg, with substrate it'll probably be about 850Kg and the unit supporting it will probably have a mass of 50Kg bringing the total to about 900Kg, providing that the unit is has the same base area as the tank it will have an area of 1.08M[sup]2[/sup].

The Force your tank will be exerting on the floor will be 8829N or 8.829KN, over an area of 1.08m[sup]-2[/sup].

That means that you have 8.175KN per Metre squared, as you can see that is over 5 times the Force that the floor is designed to take.

Re-enforce the floor and get a structural engineer in.

 

[BluePhantom]

Sounds like that's what I have to do.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Those are some impressive figures. I'll have to remember those haha! I wish lmao. I know if I decide to get a big tank then it will have to go on the ground floor

 

[colleen0309]

That's why my husband won't let me have any tank over 55 gallons. I know the floor will hold more, but he isn't sure so he says no.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

I have read that plywood does not work as it will bend and the stand will still end up putting pressure on the floor below, also in reference to baths, most builders will take into consideration where a bath is going to be and put the neccessary support underneath. Unlike a randomly placed 6x2x2 tank lol

 

[jkilby]

It isn't the weight you really have to worry about as such, more how it is distributed over it's points of contact. I have a solid oak super king sized bed that it takes three people to lift and when I lie on that I am not exactly worrying that i will drop through the ceiling. Yes you have to be careful with a tank, but it is more about weight distribution, a bit of planned and clever use of physics will win out. I use the old adage from my carpenter friend, measure twice, cut once. Planning is everything, don't rush it, investigate all your options.

 

[BluePhantom]

Yeah I was just thinking of gettin my cuz to put in support since he builds houses and does construction he souls help. Thanks for all the I do guys

 

[LoriF]

Wow I never thought about this but my buddy said to make sure it could hold the weight. So estimated 2 500 lbs just to be safe and I have been up all night researching and I feel like I don't think it would hold. Im gonna have my cousin who does construction take a look but for now does anyone know what a tank this size will actually weigh and how do I know its safe!??? I didn't think this tank would cause so much concern on diff aspects. Help!

Oh its a 180 gallon 6ft L 2ft W and 2ft high.

 

[LoriF]

I was just having the same concerns. I put my tank up against the wall where I wanted it. Unfortunately it is running along the joists as opposed to going across several. I filled it up with water and about two o'clock in the morning I woke up and started getting scared thinking about that tank going through the floor. I have a 75 gallon and I estimate it to be about a thousand pounds. Needless to say at 2:30 in the morning I emptied it. The next day I put it on another wall where it would be running across several joists and I didn't like it there. I put it back to its original spot got some concrete blocks and made pillars underneath that joist under the house. The back of the tank is against a supporting wall so there are pillars holding that joist up as well. I have a house that is 100 years old and made of old cypress and is solid as a rock and I still didn't trust all of that weight. Another thing is you are better off with a stand that has a flat bottom surface as opposed to legs to space out the weight and make sure its level. A small gradual slope is not a big deal but I know some one who's tank stand was sitting on the floor where there was a very small hump in the middle and after only a couple of months the tank developed a leak from the corners being pushed down by the weight. Good luck with your tank. I'm sure you will get it worked out.

 

[BluePhantom]

Yeah see that's how I feel all paranoid but the hous was built in the 70s and my cousin ansome other construction worker I know said it should be fine not I still want to put more support. So I guess better safe then sorry. It should all be good!