Dave+Amy Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 I'm wanting to know at how litres is it recommended to have the flooring reinforced? Also - would a big (say 500/600L) tank designed for a corner need reinforcing?? And what's involved in reinforcing the floor and how much usually? I have no idea where to ask this question so Technical was the closest category I could think of. Cheers, Amy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 The answer depends on lots of variables. On a good floor in the corner of a room, 500-600 liters should be fine, in a dodgy old Wellington house....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 What about a house built in the early 70's?? the floor's wooden...wanting to upsize but don't want to cause mum's floor to disappear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Probably OK. Would you put a 70s waterbed in the room? Same sort of weight. But to be sure you need to know whats under the floor. If the tank runs 90deg to the floor joists and is close to supporting piles, then no worries. If you can jump on the spot and it bounces.... then it's probably not up to building regs anyway and you need to do some repairs to stop the house falling down. Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Your floor is designed to take a static load equivalent to a column of water 400mm high evenly distributed over the floor (2kPa) I have a tank stand with two tanks 400mm high on a stand with a footprint of 1200x450mm but it is designed to distribute the load as much as possible over that footprint rather than puting all the load down through four legs that are each one square inch. It is located across the bearers and is not a problem in a house built in 1945 with a similar floor load design. The main thing is to distribute the load over the footprint and across the bearers. The force on the flooring has nothing to do with the capacity of the tank but all to do with how high the tank is and how that load is distributed over the footprint and down through the flooring to the load bearing members in the sub floor. It is one of those problems with fish keeping, a bit like the need to earth an electric heater in an aquarium---It is not quite right but seems to work and has done since grandfather was dealing with the same problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Our house is slighty raised by concrete (done to prevent flooding since we live next to a stream) - I think it's actually wooden floor on top if concrete but Mum's not convinced and no one's brave enough to climb under the house. thanks for the help :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 Our house was built late 70's, wooden floor (so Grant could crawl around underneath adding and removing cables, wires etc). We had a waterbed for years with no problem and when we build our 6ft have no pans to reinforce the floor. I think our 4ft actually has an extra pile under it as that was the space in the original plans for a fireplace. If you are really worried, have an extra pile added under the floor where the tank is to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted March 11, 2009 Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 If it was wood over concrete you would not be able to crawl under there. An added pile would not do much to help as it would need to be exactly in the right place to do any good and that would be unlikely. The flooring is on to the joists and the joists are on to the bearers which are on the piles. It would therefore depend on where the tank was in relation to all of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted March 12, 2009 Report Share Posted March 12, 2009 if your tank will be 600kg get 6 large people to stand where it will be placed & im sure you will find it will be fine. if you are further concerned get them to jump up & down to test it. if it fails you may make the news Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwibrick Posted March 13, 2009 Report Share Posted March 13, 2009 I have a 220litre tank, and while it comes in over the normal liveload that the floor is designed for (1.5kPa) strength wise it makes the floor quite bouncy. When I first set it up if you stood or walked past the front of the tank it got quite a wobble, not very reassuring, and while I was not worried about the floor actually failing the wobble of the tank wasn't good, so all I did was get under the house and prop the joists that were supporting the tank at the front of the tank, now it's not a proper foundation but it stops the bounce in the floor at the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave+Amy Posted March 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2009 if your tank will be 600kg get 6 large people to stand where it will be placed & im sure you will find it will be fine. if you are further concerned get them to jump up & down to test it. if it fails you may make the news hahaha imagine - "hey Mum, my fat mates put a huge hole in your lounge" But do you need a qualified builder to reinforce the floor? Don't know what you can and can't do now with the council regulations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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