Weight on bedroom floor
MM
programme began, I began to worry about the weight placed on the floor
of my bedroom. There has to be a limit. Recently I added my digital
piano, two heavy speakers, and a computer desk. Already in the room
are a bed, two separate floor-to-ceiling shelving units built out of
Ikea Ivar components, plus various boxes of junk and papers.
Just how much can a modern floor bear? I think I'm going to start
removing some of the heavier stuff, distributing it more evenly
throughout the house.
MM
Tim S
How many adults would you be happy to have in your bedroom at once?
All those 60-100kg masses add up fast.
Simon
The joists will sag way before they "snap". You could monitor the
deflection reflected in the ceiling below. If it was that bad, the
ceiling would have cracks in below. The legs of say a grand piano on a
single floorboard may be an interesting thing to ponder.
Or the weight of a cast iron bath on rotten floorboards.
Simon.
Bob Minchin on the move
the uniform loads for floors was equivalent to about 2.5 average adults
per square metre. This is purely from memory so cannot point you to
anything to justify this but the loads you mention will be nowhere near
that.
Bob
Cash
The question is - are they all stacked in the middle of the floor or against
the walls?
In the middle of the floor, you *may* have a problem - but only if the room
is a large one and the floor joists are long.
Against (or near) the walls - then it's unlikely to be a problem.
Unless of course you have a large audience in to listen to your piano
recitals - then you'll also have to cope with all the beer and snacks, along
with the 'live load' of the people on the bedroom floor! LOL
Cash
Fredxx
"MM" <kyli...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:998aa551a0nku56s8...@4ax.com...
A modern domestic floor should cope with a floor loading of 1.5kN/sqm. I
doubt your equipment comes anywhere near that. Now fish tanks are another
kettle of ...........
RubberBiker
> A modern domestic floor should cope with a floor loading of 1.5kN/sqm.
whilst meeting a suitably low deflection figure, i.e. they are nowhere
near the failure point.
Still - have a few cavalier sparks and plumbers through, and they'll
drill away the joists until they're like aero bars.
Stuart Noble
> Lying in bed this morning, contemplating the world as the Today
> programme began, I began to worry about the weight placed on the floor
> of my bedroom.
Mid life crisis?
gunsmith
The occupants were poached to death.
The Medway Handyman
"The weight we place upon a floor by way of bathroom suites, beds, wardrobes
etc, is known as the "imposed load". It is again accepted that, for normal
household requirements, the imposed load will not exceed 1.5kN/sq.m." Thats
from the nuilding regs.
HTH
--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
jo...@jjdesigns.fsnet.co.uk
The old standard for residential floors, stairs, landings etc was 40
pounds per square foot.
(Book and stationery stores, a hefty 200lb ft^2 )
Bill Wright
"Bob Minchin on the move" <nos...@nospamplease.net> wrote in message
news:h839li$j6g$1...@news.albasani.net...
> Simon wrote:
> ISTR when doing calculations to meet UK building regulations noting that
> the uniform loads for floors was equivalent to about 2.5 average adults
> per square metre.
Bill
The Natural Philosopher
love-in?
I've carried heavy weights in vehicles, but none as heavy as 6 people in
my camper :-)
If the floor aint bending. its well safe structurally. You would likely
see about a foot deflection before it fails. assuming no rot!
Over a shortish span - say 12ft a regular joist will take at least half
a tin. Which is a bath full to the brim of water..and humans. being of
very similar density.
Note that you would struggle to carry half a ton to a bedroom in ten
50kg trips. 50kg is VERY heavy. Its about a hundredweight in old money.
Most people today struggle to lift half that.
A desk is about 35kg probably.
A TV is about 15kg.
A person is about 80kg
6 people are half a tonne.
A barrowload you can just push is about 100kg-150kg
Matty F
wrote:
> Note that you would struggle to carry half a ton to a bedroom in ten
> 50kg trips. 50kg is VERY heavy. Its about a hundredweight in old money.
The building inspector didn't like the laminated beam that I made. He
said I had to get an engineer's certificate for it.
The engineer wanted me to hang 1500kg from it while he measured the
deflection. I got sick of carrying weights upstairs so I hung a lot of
20kg plastic bottles on the beam and filled them with water.
The deflection was 2.2mm.
Tony Bryer
> ISTR when doing calculations to meet UK building regulations noting that
> the uniform loads for floors was equivalent to about 2.5 average adults
> per square metre. This is purely from memory so cannot point you to
> anything to justify this but the loads you mention will be nowhere near
> that.
Domestic imposed floor load is 1.5kN/m2. I'm 90kg, 900N as near as matters
so 1 2/3 x me. As said already, deflection is virtually always the
determinant of floor joist size, also the same joist size and spacing in
generally used for the whole floor so the shorter spans will take a lot
more.
--
Tony Bryer, 'Software to build on' from Greentram
www.superbeam.co.uk www.superbeam.com www.greentram.com
Simon
Can you tell us more about the laminated beam. Sounds interesting.
Did you build it in place in an upstairs room ?
Simon.
geoff
<kyli...@yahoo.co.uk> writes
--
geoff
geoff
<?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?@?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.//.com.invalid
> writes
>MM wrote:
>> Lying in bed this morning, contemplating the world as the Today
>> programme began, I began to worry about the weight placed on the floor
>> of my bedroom. There has to be a limit. Recently I added my digital
>> piano, two heavy speakers, and a computer desk. Already in the room
>> are a bed, two separate floor-to-ceiling shelving units built out of
>> Ikea Ivar components, plus various boxes of junk and papers.
>>
>> Just how much can a modern floor bear? I think I'm going to start
>> removing some of the heavier stuff, distributing it more evenly
>> throughout the house.
>>
>> MM
>
>The question is - are they all stacked in the middle of the floor or against
>the walls?
>
This one for mr Bryer
"he took a trip to Adelaide to find himself a whore
he packed the furniture round the room and up against the walls
the Shelia asked what was his game, he answered ion the spot
if its anything like a kangaroo, we'll need all ther space we've got"
... got chucked out of O'Malleys in Melbourne for singing that
--
geoff
MM
<.............\\@...............//.com> wrote:
>MM wrote:
>> Lying in bed this morning, contemplating the world as the Today
>> programme began, I began to worry about the weight placed on the floor
>> of my bedroom. There has to be a limit. Recently I added my digital
>> piano, two heavy speakers, and a computer desk. Already in the room
>> are a bed, two separate floor-to-ceiling shelving units built out of
>> Ikea Ivar components, plus various boxes of junk and papers.
>>
>> Just how much can a modern floor bear? I think I'm going to start
>> removing some of the heavier stuff, distributing it more evenly
>> throughout the house.
>>
>> MM
>
>The question is - are they all stacked in the middle of the floor or against
>the walls?
Around the walls. However, "around" gets a bit general the more one
stuffs into the room!
>In the middle of the floor, you *may* have a problem - but only if the room
>is a large one and the floor joists are long.
>
>Against (or near) the walls - then it's unlikely to be a problem.
>
>Unless of course you have a large audience in to listen to your piano
>recitals - then you'll also have to cope with all the beer and snacks, along
>with the 'live load' of the people on the bedroom floor! LOL
Well, it's only a digital piano. And I wouldn't risk placing a real
piano in there, let alone a baby grand.
I am reassured!
MM
MM
Way past mid, I'm afraid...
MM
MM
Oh, yuk. I can't stand them. I'm sure they'd make me wee constantly.
MM
The Natural Philosopher
[practice to run a thin strip of carbon fiber each side of a balsa strip
to make one..glued on. Pretty good until the compression buckles the
bea,m, but it wont snap, and it stiffens it a LOT. a single layer of
glass tape, top and mostly bottom, plus resin, on a beam might well work
in a full size situation
Matty F
He didn't like the beam just because I admitted that I made it.
It's 6050x400x100mm. It consists of 8 pieces of 100x50 Douglas Fir
joined with some fancy glue that was recommended (a red powder that is
mixed with water as needed).
I made it on a concrete floor with lots of clamps. I put a curve in it
assuming that it would go flat when in place. I can't remember how
much I curved it but my guess was correct.
Since I couldn't get timber long enough I had to have staggered joins.
A mistake that I made was to cut the joins at 45 degrees, because
that's all the dropsaw would cut. However I should have made the
effort to cut a very much sharper angle.
The other mistake I made was to believe what the glue manufacturer
said about its gap filling ability. You need about twice as much glue
as it says on the packet.
And next time I will neatly round the edges of the beam to look like
it was made in a factory. Then the building inspector won't make me
pay for an engineer to come on site and prove it won't collapse. He
said that the roof was holding up the beam anyway and he could have
designed a roof without a beam. It's an upside down W shape.
Matty F
> Did you build it in place in an upstairs room ?
I built it downstairs where I had a floor. Then half a dozen people
carried it upstairs. I'd recommend building a beam close to where it
will be used!
The Natural Philosopher
That's the issue. BCO's are not structural engineers. They are pretty
good, but not that good. Basically when faced with something outside
their tables of recommendations, they have to cover their arses by
getting it OKed by someone who does understand the tricky maths.
Which is how I got single glazing past mine. a bulky tome from some
heating engineers showing that overall, my house met heat loss standards.
Stuart Noble
There are plenty of grand pianos in first floor flats. Not sure about
concert grands, but certainly the middle size.