GrantyBoy

Hi

Bought a new town house and will be putting my fish tank in the living room on the first floor. The tank will weigh 700kg when set up. So the question is will the floor take the weight or am I asking too much of the floor? Will be putting the tank up against a load bearing wall and perpendicular to the joist to help spread the weight. Foot print of the tank is 4 foot by 2 foot. The house is a new build so I've got the builders coming back with an offical answer, but just wanting more opinions as I'm nervious about turning my new house into a scene from Atlantis.
Cheers

Grant

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

Wouldnt have thought it would be a problem, IIRC a cubic metre of water weighs approx 1 ton, so a fairly full bath probably weighs a couple once you get a person in it. Should be OK as long as the weight is spread across more than one beam.

Saying that, its a new build house, so it will probably go straight through the floor, taking out any neighbouring properties with it

Chip

Wait for the builders reply. Dont see a problem though really.

Chip

Chip

Mike,
You must have a bloody big bath in your house then

Chip

Account deleted by request

Just done some quick calcs and that will be fine. For peace of mind I would spread over 2 beams.

chop

GrantyBoy

cheers for the replies guys

Brendan Hughes

Do you mind if I examine your calculations more closely???

Your average bath is vaguely 1.7m x 0.5m, and probably filled with 30cm of water (much more and it sloshes out the overflow when you get in). I make that 0.255 cubic metres, or 255kg.

A generous adult man is perhaps 90 or 100kg but not a ton as you imply And yes you can have two people in the bath having a nice time, but then there's hardly any room for the water

Modern acrylic baths are liftable by one person - 20kg or less. Old cast iron ones are, I dunno, 100kg.

Happy for anyone to correct my calcs, but I think that's still considerably lighter than the 700kg of the OP.

speedking

700kg represents a metre deep of water which seems quite a lot for that footprint?

Equates to 9.3kN/m² which is a pretty high load. Domestic property designed for 1.5kN/m², so definitely worth being cautious. Although the scenario you describe should be OK.

Also ensure that the load is spread and that you are not standing the tank on something with four small legs in which case they could punch through the floor.

p1mark

No structural engineer, but just having an extension built at the minute.

We have a water bed and the joists have had to be uprated from C16's to C24 which apparently are just better quality with less knots.

The bed does have its wieght spread evenly over a number of points.

May be of no help whatsoever but i was not even aware of uprated joists!

GrantyBoy

The exact measurments of the tank are 4'4" by 2' by 2'. This means there should be approx 500 liters. I've been informed one liter is equal to approx 1kg. So with the tank weighing 100kg approx and the stand 75kg I reckon 700kg should be about right for the total weight of the tank setup.
Have I gone wrong in my sums???

Chip Sengravy

whats in the room below?

GrantyBoy

utility room, so there is an internal wall the runs under the center of the lounge floor in line with the joists. But as this is an internal wall I doubt it would take much weight

Jaydee5

Sorry for the totally irrelevant statement...............but whenever I hear the words "structural engineer" the only image I have in my head is Wentworth Miller


I'm sure he could fix a fish tank

keap_scooby

hi there,
do you have the builders drawings showing what the internal wall (partitions) are made off. they should state that they are load bearing or not.
with it being a new build - more often or not it will be a timber frame and not blockwork.
i know from the past if you were having to put a grand piano, etc in a room you do have to get the loadings checked - you dont want it going through the floor / ceiling.
you might have to find another place to put the fish tank if they come back with the answer you dont want. As soneone has said the better the classification of joist the better for loadings but i would say if you were puting something with 4 point loads and not a flat base there would be more of a risk in it failing. one solution would be steel plate on the floor but you would also have to double up the joists below.

hope this helps but take heed of comments back from your house builder.

speedking

500kg of water in a 100kg tank is about right

Brendan Hughes

You'll be pleased to hear that one litre of water is equal to PRECISELY 1kg, assuming it's fresh and at a certain temp - that's how the metric system works