# How much weight can a 2nd story room hold?



## Volume (Mar 31, 2005)

This is an off the wall question...maybe someone out there is a building inspector or something, never know.  The house was built in the 50's.

Anyways, I starting wondering how much weight my home gym floor can hold safely.  I have a large bedroom which contains a softside waterbed, 400 lbs of weight, a bench, and a power rack.


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## Triple Threat (Mar 31, 2005)

It's going to depend on the type of wood used for the floor joists, the span of the joists, and the spacing between them.


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## DOMS (Mar 31, 2005)

I don't think you really need to worry.  Any given floor can support 20 or more people.  Assuming and average weight of 175, that equals 3500 pounds.

 Unless your house was poorly built, you should be fine.


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## Volume (Mar 31, 2005)

Yeah, thats true, I hadnt thought of it like that.  Coolio


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## shutupntra1n (Mar 31, 2005)

This may be expanding a bit but I had a waterbed on the second floor once. In the case it leaked enough and the flooring became soaked you might have an issue. I had a plumping system go once and the floor and ceiling below became mush. The rest would be obvious.


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## ALBOB (Mar 31, 2005)

If you're really concerned you should put a couple of sheets of 3/4" plywood under your home gym.  That'll spread the weight out evenly across the floor.  Waterbeds are safe on second floors because of this very principle.  They apply less weight per square inch than refridgerators.


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## Volume (Mar 31, 2005)

whoa, physics rock!  Ill see if i can get something made up at work to help the cause..plywood would be a lil ugly, but i get the jist, ill get something made up.  The waterbed shouldnt be an issue, its got 7 tubes in it..so the chances of all of them busting at the same time would be crazyyy.


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## DimebagDarrell (Mar 31, 2005)

well, you can basically assume it this way.  just take the area of the floor and divide it up accordingly to the main girders by tributary area.  since there's joists, you can essentially treat the floor as a one-way slab.  then, calculate your dead load, live load, and superimposed loads, and split them up onto the girders according to the tributary area.  since youre on second floor, you can use the ASCE live load reduction factor.  since the weight is on a beam, the live load element factor is 2.  then you plug into the ASCE live load reduction equation:

L = L(sub 0) * ( 0.25 + 15 / (K(sub LL) * (A(subT))^(1/2)) )

now you know how much weight your floor can handle!!!!











seriously, though, these days, the ASCE (american society of civil engineers) reccomends a live load capability of 30 psf for residential habitable areas.  so, if you room is say 10 ft x 10 ft, then you have 100 square feet * 30 psf = 3000 lbs.  you should have no problem with 5 or 600 pounds.


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## Leon77 (Mar 31, 2005)

Volume said:
			
		

> This is an off the wall question...maybe someone out there is a building inspector or something, never know.  The house was built in the 50's.
> 
> Anyways, I starting wondering how much weight my home gym floor can hold safely.  I have a large bedroom which contains a softside waterbed, 400 lbs of weight, a bench, and a power rack.



how longs a piece of string?  could be anyones guess


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## DOMS (Apr 1, 2005)

Leon77 said:
			
		

> how longs a piece of string?


 I *hate *that phrase.


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## Volume (Apr 1, 2005)

Righteous! the room is 16x16,  so i have 7680?  Mooacakckacakck!!  Ill use 3000 lb as my max anyways....just incase the house is f'd up.

You got big brains dimebag! Are you in construction?


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## Crono1000 (Apr 1, 2005)

about half an albob


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## ALBOB (Apr 1, 2005)

Crono1000 said:
			
		

> about half an albob



Be very careful there piss brain, or I'll rent the apartment above YOU.


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## DimebagDarrell (Apr 1, 2005)

Volume said:
			
		

> Righteous! the room is 16x16,  so i have 7680?  Mooacakckacakck!!  Ill use 3000 lb as my max anyways....just incase the house is f'd up.
> 
> You got big brains dimebag! Are you in construction?




yeah, im a construction engineer.  going for my PE in structural engineering, if you couldnt tell lol


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## Volume (Apr 2, 2005)

Awesome! Thanks a ton for helping me out!


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