I have a bathroom project that I'm doing and I loaded all the materials
into my master bedroom - not knowing if I'm loading too much weight on
the second floor structure. I have placed eight standard sized sheets
of wonderboard (6 x 9's, I think), four 8 x 12 sheetrock sheets, three
hardibacker 8 x 10 floor sheets, a 24" bathroom wood cabinet, 25"
granite top with ceramic inlay bowl amd a Kohler toilet - all in one
quarter section of a 18 x 12 bedroom. It all seems fairly heavy for the
one segment of the room, but then I look at our solid wood armoire,
dresser and bed and think maybe I'm sweating this for nothing.

Is this too much weight in one area for a 40 year old single family
split level home? Is there standards and maximum weight capacities for
a room? I never really thought about this and need help quick.

"Billy" writes:
I have a bathroom project that I'm doing and I loaded all the materials
into my master bedroom - not knowing if I'm loading too much weight on
the second floor structure. I have placed eight standard sized sheets
of wonderboard (6 x 9's, I think), four 8 x 12 sheetrock sheets, three
hardibacker 8 x 10 floor sheets, a 24" bathroom wood cabinet, 25"
granite top with ceramic inlay bowl amd a Kohler toilet - all in one
quarter section of a 18 x 12 bedroom. It all seems fairly heavy for the
one segment of the room, but then I look at our solid wood armoire,
dresser and bed and think maybe I'm sweating this for nothing.

Is this too much weight in one area for a 40 year old single family
split level home? Is there standards and maximum weight capacities for
a room? I never really thought about this and need help quick.

Call a degreed and professional licensed structural engineer first
thing tomorrow and get them to your place asap.

There's no way to answer this on usenet, and for free, from a bunch of
hacks like us with no access to inspecting your actual construction,
you won't want to trust our answers anyway.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Todd H. wrote:
"Billy" writes:
I have a bathroom project that I'm doing and I loaded all the materials
into my master bedroom - not knowing if I'm loading too much weight on
the second floor structure. I have placed eight standard sized sheets
of wonderboard (6 x 9's, I think), four 8 x 12 sheetrock sheets, three
hardibacker 8 x 10 floor sheets, a 24" bathroom wood cabinet, 25"
granite top with ceramic inlay bowl amd a Kohler toilet - all in one
quarter section of a 18 x 12 bedroom. It all seems fairly heavy for the
one segment of the room, but then I look at our solid wood armoire,
dresser and bed and think maybe I'm sweating this for nothing.

Is this too much weight in one area for a 40 year old single family
split level home? Is there standards and maximum weight capacities for
a room? I never really thought about this and need help quick.

Call a degreed and professional licensed structural engineer first
thing tomorrow and get them to your place asap.


Yeah, more good practical advice. Spend a few hundred bucks for an
engineer, instead of just moving some stuff around. Residential
construction should be built to take a minimum load of 30lb/sq ft. and
there is plenty of margin in that, especially if it's in a corner.
So, make a good estimate of what the material weighs and if it exceeds
that, move some around.





There's no way to answer this on usenet, and for free, from a bunch of
hacks like us with no access to inspecting your actual construction,
you won't want to trust our answers anyway.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Your home has a practical design load of approximately 60 pounds of
"live load" per square foot.
"Live load" means the total weight of the things in the room (bed,
people, furniture, etc.). "Dead load" is the weight of the materials
that comprise the floor itself (joists, plywood sub-floor, carpet,
etc.)

If your bedroom is 10 x 12 or 120 square feet, an acceptable live load
at 60 pounds per square foot equals 120 pounds times 60, or 7,200
pounds.

If you have a waterbed in the room, you should be concerned. Otherwise
it sounds to me like you're fine.

If you are concerned that you may be overloading the floor, you can:

Lay the wonderboard sheets flat on the floor (spreads and distributes
weight)
Take the smaller, heavier items and put them in another place.

Determine which way the floor joists run, then stack the wonderboard
sheets against the wall that is perpendicular (90 degrees) to the way
the joists run (distributes weight).

Or finally, why wait? Get busy and get the stuff installed!!! lol

Hope that helps!

Robb B.
Builder & Remodeler
Grand Rapids, MI

On 13 Mar 2006 06:47:14 -0800, someone wrote:

Your home has a practical design load of approximately 60 pounds of
"live load" per square foot.

Since when?

Residential requires only 40 psf.

Old residential might be built to only 30.

But damn thing didn't fall in while he was woting for a reply post,
and if not creaking cracking and sagging then he is likely OK. And if
it was, then he is too late!


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

Robb wrote:
Your home has a practical design load of approximately 60 pounds of
"live load" per square foot.
"Live load" means the total weight of the things in the room (bed,
people, furniture, etc.). "Dead load" is the weight of the materials
that comprise the floor itself (joists, plywood sub-floor, carpet,
etc.)

If your bedroom is 10 x 12 or 120 square feet, an acceptable live load
at 60 pounds per square foot equals 120 pounds times 60, or 7,200
pounds.

If you have a waterbed in the room, you should be concerned. Otherwise
it sounds to me like you're fine.

Actually waterbeds are less of a load than many things commonly found
in homes that people don't think twice about. Like refrigerators,
filled bathtubs, or a bunch of people at a cocktail party. If they
were a problem, you;d hear a lot of stories about collapsed floors, but
you don't.



If you are concerned that you may be overloading the floor, you can:

Lay the wonderboard sheets flat on the floor (spreads and distributes
weight)
Take the smaller, heavier items and put them in another place.

Determine which way the floor joists run, then stack the wonderboard
sheets against the wall that is perpendicular (90 degrees) to the way
the joists run (distributes weight).

Or finally, why wait? Get busy and get the stuff installed!!! lol

Hope that helps!

Robb B.
Builder & Remodeler
Grand Rapids, MI

On 12 Mar 2006 20:52:26 -0800, "Billy" wrote:

I have a bathroom project that I'm doing and I loaded all the materials
into my master bedroom - not knowing if I'm loading too much weight on
the second floor structure. I have placed eight standard sized sheets
of wonderboard (6 x 9's, I think), four 8 x 12 sheetrock sheets, three
hardibacker 8 x 10 floor sheets, a 24" bathroom wood cabinet, 25"
granite top with ceramic inlay bowl amd a Kohler toilet - all in one
quarter section of a 18 x 12 bedroom. It all seems fairly heavy for the
one segment of the room, but then I look at our solid wood armoire,
dresser and bed and think maybe I'm sweating this for nothing.

Is this too much weight in one area for a 40 year old single family
split level home? Is there standards and maximum weight capacities for
a room? I never really thought about this and need help quick.


Call your building department and see if they can look up the code
standards for approx. year your home was built so you can have an idea
what the live load was designed for (capacity). The next thing is
approx but not really what an engineer would do (too lengthy to give
an exact method here). Take the weight of your material divide by the
area it's occupying and multiply that by about 1.25 (call this a fudge
factor) and see if this combined number is less than the capacity. Of
course, its always best to spread the load out as much as possible
regardless of the calculation.