How to know if your floor is strong enough for a tank?
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Jekyl
GSP is the devil and clowns are bad pets
Have a basement? As long as the tank is going across your supports and not with them you should be fine. I have a 90 gallon with basement and didn't have to do anything special
tomboys
Active Member
We don't have a basement, we're in a UK Victorian style terrace, but it does have a suspended floor.
Gtinnel
10K Club member
Unfortunately as far as I know there really isn't a good way short of hiring a structural engineer to look at it, which I assume almost no one would do. From my experience as long as the tank is running parallel to the floor joists then most floors will easily support the weight of any reasonable sized tank. I once lived in an apartment that every time I'd walk through the living room the floors would shake horribly, but it still held a 75g and 55g tank without collapsing.
monkeyCmonkeyDo
7500 Club Member
Research load bearing walls.
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I think you meant perpendicular to the floor joints. You want to spread the tanks weight across as many joints as possible. Preferably being close the a load bearing wall at the same time.
The short answer is an 80 gallon tank should be fine pretty much anywhere you put it 99.9% of the time.
The problem is without an expert (or those of us pretending to be) cant say with certainty without more details. Things like termite damage, etc you wont even know without an inspection.
As others said though the safest spots are near exterior walls or interior load bearing walls and perpendicular to the joists, but an 80gallon should be fine on any reasonably built modern home no matter where it goes unless there are extenuating circumstances(termite,etc)
The problem is without an expert (or those of us pretending to be) cant say with certainty without more details. Things like termite damage, etc you wont even know without an inspection.
As others said though the safest spots are near exterior walls or interior load bearing walls and perpendicular to the joists, but an 80gallon should be fine on any reasonably built modern home no matter where it goes unless there are extenuating circumstances(termite,etc)
The tank should run perpendicular to floor joists for best support. Not sure what a suspended floor is but to be safe you should ask a qualified structural engineer or a reliable building contractor. A lot more needs to be considered besides the tank.
I am going to build a 180 gallon, my only option is parallel with the joists AND I AM hiring a structural engineer so the floor gets beefed up correctly.
I am going to build a 180 gallon, my only option is parallel with the joists AND I AM hiring a structural engineer so the floor gets beefed up correctly.
Jekyl
GSP is the devil and clowns are bad pets
ThisI think you meant perpendicular to the floor joints. You want to spread the tanks weight across as many joints as possible. Preferably being close the a load bearing wall at the same time.
Gtinnel
10K Club member
I did indeed. Thanks for catching that.I think you meant perpendicular to the floor joints. You want to spread the tanks weight across as many joints as possible. Preferably being close the a load bearing wall at the same time.
I was considering perpendicular to floor joists as well (parallel to the exterior wall). However, directly under where I want to place my tank is a steel i-beam (perpendicular to the exterior wall). I want to place my peninsula as a room divider perpendicular to the exterior wall. If I do this, its placement will be directly over the i-beam. What are your thoughts on this scenario?
tomboys
Active Member
What about in a reasonably built 120 year old home?
tomboys
Active Member
Suspended floor basically means that the floor is on joists, but the joists are about 1-2 feet above the ground. There is a layer of insulation under the floor. It's an old method of building (as someone said any modern home should be fine, but this isn't a modern home it's 120 years old)
Well i imagine in many cases maybe even safer, but a lot less codes and standards back then so probably more variable. I would expect it to be fine, but would be taking a look and making sure joists are spaced appropriately, etc.
tomboys
Active Member
How do I know if they're spaced appropriately?
Haha i wish that was an easy question. Look to see if they are 16' inch o.c(distance between center of each joist). Even better if less. In the US in my area at least most homes around 1900 would have been built 16"oc with 2x10 or 2x12 lumber which is more than sufficient. The bigger issue we run into with older homes is brick foundations that support the outside walls begin crumbling and can be a bigger issue with heavy loads. Termite damage(even old damage that was long ago taken care of) is also a common issue in homes that old.
In any case i would still say you are "probably" going to be fine. An 80 gallon tank is heavy, but not unreasonably so.
tomboys
Active Member
Well it looks like it would be parallel with the joists, but in a corner between 2 load bearing walls. It would be on 2 joists, they're 6.5cm (2.5 inches) across, 10cm (4 inches) deep with 30cm (1 foot) between them
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