Experience in weight distribution/location of tank?

[Tenshoa]

So we are considering putting an offer in on a house that we found that so far, we like.

My main display tank would undoubtedly go in one of the living rooms on the bottom floor.

However, the house is 2 stories and on the top floor, above the garage, there is a bonus room/man cave. The room is 20' x 30' and the floor is marble. But I suspect that the sub flooring and floor joists are wood. Given the size of this room, I don't know what the hell I would do with it, except... wait for it... turn it into my hobby room.

Does anyone have any experience or ideas as to how much weight a floor like this can carry? The main construction of the house is block and it was built in 1998.

 

[KnownStrangeR]

hire an engineer to come take a look, maybe put a load bearing support under the are the tank would sit. Sounds like the perfect spot for a 1200 gal beast. only how would you get it upstairs?

 

[Tenshoa]

hire an engineer to come take a look, maybe put a load bearing support under the are the tank would sit. Sounds like the perfect spot for a 1200 gal beast. only how would you get it upstairs?

lol. Good point. It IS above the garage so I would imagine reinforcing it wouldn't be too much of a problem. No idea how you'd get a tank that size up there though. The windows are rather large, but still..

I was thinking more along the lines of multiple tanks maybe? I dunno.

 

[eg8r210]

I don't care if we have to rip the side of the house off above the garage. We can get the 1200 gallon tank in there.

 

[Tenshoa]

I don't care if we have to rip the side of the house off above the garage. We can get the 1200 gallon tank in there.

Haha.

I was just telling Matt, the reason why I love my fiance is that when I told her about Matt's idea, she responded with "or maybe an indoor pool where we can swim with sharks and rays!"

The front door is a double doorway and the windows on the house are about the same size as the entrance. lol

 

[Swirlygig]

I cringe at the thought of a flood on a second floor....

 

[eg8r210]

There will never be a flood. Let's start pulling off the stucco.

 

[Tenshoa]

I cringe at the thought of a flood on a second floor....

Exactly

But at least it's above the garage

 

[Tenshoa]

There will never be a flood. Let's start pulling off the stucco.

Hahaha. I smell a party....

 

[discocarp]

The solution is clearly to buy cheap cars and not worry about it. That's more for the tank budget anyway.

 

[GatorAlum05]

Keep the tank downstairs. It's good conversation starter with weird guests whom your wife invited over.

As for upstairs goes, I put a full gym in my spare room. It's collecting dust.

 

[uruguayanreefer]

Thats a big *** room
The first step is to find out what the floor joists are made out of

2x6 2x8 2x10 or by 12? Structural lumber? Grade 1? Grade 2? They all can carry different loads under different spans?
Are they wood I beams?
Lvl?

The water weight alone in a 1200 gallons worth of tanks is what 10,000 lbs? No matter what that floor is made out of you will probably have to reinforce it anyway.
It might be as simple as installing a glu lam beam in the ceiling below to help distribute the load.
Or as complex as sistering In new joists next to the ones currently there which would require ripping out the ceiling below that floor.

Either way with the weight your talking about a Structural Engineer would be the person that would make that call. If u have the money to spend on a tank or multiple tanks of that size. Hiring and Engineer to draw up some plans is a drop in the bucket for ya. Plus it will make it cheaper on you and easier on the carpenter to install after the plans are drawn up.

 

[solarwrx]

make sure you have good home insurance LOL

 

[KnownStrangeR]

Thats a big *** room
The first step is to find out what the floor joists are made out of

2x6 2x8 2x10 or by 12? Structural lumber? Grade 1? Grade 2? They all can carry different loads under different spans?
Are they wood I beams?
Lvl?

The water weight alone in a 1200 gallons worth of tanks is what 10,000 lbs? No matter what that floor is made out of you will probably have to reinforce it anyway.
It might be as simple as installing a glu lam beam in the ceiling below to help distribute the load.
Or as complex as sistering In new joists next to the ones currently there which would require ripping out the ceiling below that floor.

Either way with the weight your talking about a Structural Engineer would be the person that would make that call. If u have the money to spend on a tank or multiple tanks of that size. Hiring and Engineer to draw up some plans is a drop in the bucket for ya. Plus it will make it cheaper on you and easier on the carpenter to install after the plans are drawn up.

After hours of phone conversation, I was able to talk him into Having a hole cut out in the floor of the room the size of the tank and installing a hydraulic car lift which will raise and lower the tank into position for viewing or maintenance. Problem solved

 

[Tenshoa]

After hours of phone conversation, I was able to talk him into Having a hole cut out in the floor of the room the size of the tank and installing a hydraulic car lift which will raise and lower the tank into position for viewing or maintenance. Problem solved

haha.

I will have to look into it further.

On that note, we put an offer in on it tonight! Wish us luck!

 

[Tenshoa]

Some pics of where the room is and the garage underneath...

 

[Tenshoa]

Thats a big *** room
The first step is to find out what the floor joists are made out of

2x6 2x8 2x10 or by 12? Structural lumber? Grade 1? Grade 2? They all can carry different loads under different spans?
Are they wood I beams?
Lvl?

The water weight alone in a 1200 gallons worth of tanks is what 10,000 lbs? No matter what that floor is made out of you will probably have to reinforce it anyway.
It might be as simple as installing a glu lam beam in the ceiling below to help distribute the load.
Or as complex as sistering In new joists next to the ones currently there which would require ripping out the ceiling below that floor.

Either way with the weight your talking about a Structural Engineer would be the person that would make that call. If u have the money to spend on a tank or multiple tanks of that size. Hiring and Engineer to draw up some plans is a drop in the bucket for ya. Plus it will make it cheaper on you and easier on the carpenter to install after the plans are drawn up.

As fun as it sounds, I couldn't handle a tank that large. But realistically speaking, a couple of smaller tanks would be nice if the floor can withstand them.

 

[eg8r210]

Here are my thoughts on where I want to put my tank when I move into another home...I want the tank to be in the one place I will spend the most of my time that is not called "the bedroom".

By putting the tank up in that room, you will be forcing yourself to go look at it if it is an area of the house you might not spend much time in.

The house we wanted to buy in Oakland had the perfect place for the tank. There was a spare room that shared a wall with the living room. Just off to the side was the little room that is under the stair case. I would have been able to put the tank in the wall (in the spare room that would be my office) to be seen from living room, plus I could see the tank from my office. The spare room under the stair case was big enough for me to put the sump plus one of the runways I got from SITC. It would have been a pretty sick set up because that little room was actually very spacious with plenty of room to walk around.

 

[Tenshoa]

Here are my thoughts on where I want to put my tank when I move into another home...I want the tank to be in the one place I will spend the most of my time that is not called "the bedroom".

By putting the tank up in that room, you will be forcing yourself to go look at it if it is an area of the house you might not spend much time in.

The house we wanted to buy in Oakland had the perfect place for the tank. There was a spare room that shared a wall with the living room. Just off to the side was the little room that is under the stair case. I would have been able to put the tank in the wall (in the spare room that would be my office) to be seen from living room, plus I could see the tank from my office. The spare room under the stair case was big enough for me to put the sump plus one of the runways I got from SITC. It would have been a pretty sick set up because that little room was actually very spacious with plenty of room to walk around.

That is almost EXACTLY what I am doing here in the exact same setup as you mentioned. Living room, staircase, storage room, formal living room. It is going on the living room wall that borders a room under the staircase. I am pondering putting my sump stuff under the staircase in that room, but I am concerned about moisture and humidity. I don't want to put it "in" the wall though because I rather enjoy the side views/depth.

 

[eg8r210]

That is almost EXACTLY what I am doing here. It is going on the living room wall that borders a room under the staircase. I am pondering putting my sump stuff under the staircase in that room, but I am concerned about moisture and humidity.

I was going to vent the room to the outside.

Ps, after spending all this time typing on my iPhone, I sure with the regular computer browser would add a period when I hit the space bar twice.