"Steve" wrote in message
. uk...
Time soon to put new floor down in lounge, but it is a bit more involved.

This floor has to support a substantial dead weight or two - A Steinway
Concert Grand Piano that weighs in at 480kg, or about half a tonne. The
weight is, according to Steinway, evenly distributed over the three legs
i.e. 160kg per leg.

The other dead load is a lighter but still heavy - Boston upright piano
that is probably half the weight or less and with weight on four feet,
although centred on a much smaller overall area. .

The remaining "live" load will be furniture etc. - normal things :-)

The existing joists are 4" by 2" and are at present supported by sleeper
walls at 5 foot centres, the spacing between joists is 10" with no
noggins.

I plan to increase the number of joists by about two, depending on
arranging things to suit the Caberboards that I think will do the job.
Running double joists where the dead weight will be centred.

This will, obviously, make it harder for noggins if they are needed to be
fitted, but the close spacing between joists should make them unnecessary
I think?

Am I on the right track here? Any ideas or information would be most
welcome before I do it and find that our beloved piano has crashed through
the floor!

Thanks

Steve
Hi,

You could of course "Test" your floor before engaging in all this work,
without any Pianos being involved.

You get 7 adult men, who will weigh about 14 stone (75Kg each, 525Kg total),
to stand where the heavier piano is to be placed, and 3 adult men (total
225Kg) to stand where the lighter piano is to stand.

If the floor survives this test without any groaning, then you can get them
to jump up and down to give the floor a shock load.

If you are worried about the point loading then maybe you need to fit steel
plates to the floor to spread the load.

Ian.