anyone have to brace their floor???

Capt_Cully

Capt_Cully

New member
I'm putting in a 180 on first floor of house w/basement below. the tank position will not be over support beams. joists are 8 and 10 inches in spots.

How and where should I brace the floor to handle the ton+ weight that the tank will weigh???

thanks
 
Hi,

Maybe place 2x blocking on the joists to keep them from flexing. I would also place an adjustable metal post under one of them; the subfloor should distribute the support evenly. Place the tank next to a support beam if possible.


Paul
 
I was planning on placing a piece of 4x4 under 2 or 3 joists and then supporting that with a metal post. Tank is 6 feet long. I'd like to do this evenly spaced under the tank's center mass(@2ft and 4ft) will this be adequate?
 
so is your basement not finished, if not and your not worried about the looks u can just get 2 floor joist poles and they have adjustments on the bottom to crank it up or down, u can pick them up at a lumber yard, pretty easy to use
 
I built a load bearing wall under my 500g display.... blocked up to the floor between the joists and dubled up on all the vertical 2x4's. Most homes support 40lbs/sq inch per code. On a 180 in a newer home you may not need much in the way of support.

I consulted a structural engineer when building my system. I was planning on the same thing you are thinking about. He informed me that when you do that you transfer ALL the weight to the poles, they then transfer it to your basement floor.

Since the middle of the floor typcially does not have footers you are transferring all the weight to a small area of 3" concrete.

EXPECT stress cracks! They will probably happen. At least that was what was told to me (keep in mind bigger tank)

To keep from having the cracks he told me to get a 6x6 green (treated) piece of lumber and put it on the floor and put the jacks on the 6x6 and to use 4x4 under the joists.

Or

Build a 2x4 wall with doubled up vertical 2x4's to creat 4x4's. And to block up the area between the top of the wall and the bottom of the floor.

He also recommended that if I did the jacks and 4x4's instead of the wall that it may be benificial to sure up the joists with microlam (engineered lumber that is stonger than 2x10's)

He said that my floor would not buckle without any of the support but over time it would sag. He said that the load bearing wall is definately the better choice since it would disperce the weight over a greater area.

make sure you use treated lumber on the concrete.

I chose the wall since I plan on finishing the basement. I placed the wall where I could use it as an interior wall once the basement is being finished.

Good luck and hope this helps.
 
my house was built in the 30's. it does have some cracks in the walls, just plaster from years of settling out. I think the plan will be to go with the 6x6's and 4x4's.

What did you mean by "suring up" the joists with microlam?

Thanks
 
actually just checked my joists and they are 9.5 inches. the left side of the tank will sit about 6-12inches to the left of the main center support beam of the entire house. i can take a pic if it helps.

Or should i just get a structural engineer (not sure where i'd find one) to look it over?
 
I would recommend bringing in a structural engineer. I'm starting a 225 and it will be on the first floor. I brought an engineer in and he had my head spinning with all of his calculations. Spending a few hundred bucks to bring in a professional will give you piece of mind. You don't want to mess with the structural integrity of your house.
 
I have 4 of them under my tank with no problems...I was able to get the shorter version since I have a solid wall half way up where the tank sets,and didn`t need really tall jacks

so I got away with a round 100.00,but those are what I used worked really nice and you know they will support the weight
 
The structural engineer I spoke with said you could just use 2 of the jacks with the 4x4 at the top and the 6x6 at the bottom. He recommended adding mircrolam sheets along side the existing joists (suring them up). But said that if I didnt do that to just box inbetween the joists. Basically he wanted to take the load from the edge of the joists and distributed it all along the 4x4 then transfer it down via 2 jacks to the 6x6 thus transferring all the weight of the tank along the floor in a 6"x6"x8' beam.

The advantage I had was that the back of my tank hit a Steel beam. Since your's does not I would recommend putting 2 of these systems.... 1 at each end of the tank.

The engineer I spoke to was very cost effective (free since I had just built the house and he designed it) But it would have been worth his input for the peace of mind for much more.

Worst things can and usually do happen in this hobby... and a tank crashing through to the basement would be terrible.
 
Worst things can and usually do happen in this hobby... and a tank crashing through to the basement would be terrible.

I forgot about THAT. Mine would crash 2 feet through the subfloor only.

Paul
 
I spoke to a contractor and he suggested this:

place 2 2x12's side by side in ~4ft sections running perpendicular to the joists at 2 foot intervals. Then put a support post (J-100's above) at either end.

So I'll have 6 posts and 3 of the doubled up 2x12's running between them. This will more evenly distrubute the load across the joists and the beams instead of creating 6 individual pressure points on the floor.

He also recommended the pressure treated 6x6's under the foot of each post as above mentioned. This will take the pressure off of the concrete floor and reduce likelihood of floor cracks.

Thanks for all the help.
 
you are taking a risk by just following advice from a contractor. the engineer is the expert. they draw up a blueprint of what should be done and a contractor follows that blueprint.
 
...no.. but I really need to. I tried to find the crawl space over the summer but couldn't locate it I'm on the ground floor of a due plex and man.. if you walk heavy (stomp around) the right side of my tank.. you get your self a bit oh rocking.. I tried to push my tank as much over a beam that is on the left side as possible (if you jump up and down there it's SOLID, if you do the same on the right side of the tank it SWAYS)...

My plan was to just get some Sissor car jacks, and some big blocks and wedge em up under the tank.. We pulled of some panels in the garage to see if there was a crawl space.. no luck..

I was worried until I went to my buddies house the down the road..and stepped around his 190.. wooo.. .that was some sway and it's been setup for quite some time..

I still would feel ALOT better if i could find my way under there but I have a feeling I need to pull my sump out of the garage, and rip out some dry wall to find away... and that can't happen until summer.
 
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