Floor Support

Ok, got a real dilemma here ... was hoping someone could clarify things up for me

I'm looking to purchase a 165 litre aquarium. If 1 litre of water is approximately equal to 1 kg (I think), the entire volume of water in the tank would weigh 165 kg. I guess, then, that the total weight of the aquarium could be 180 kg.

Ok, but, here's the thing ....

I live in the 1st floor of a flat.

Now ... I've been told by the developers of the property that the imposed load design is 1.5 KN/M2 evenly distributed ... I think that equates to 150 kg/m2 ... I believe is the normal floor load of flats/homes in the UK.

This tells me that the aquarium is too heavy for the floor :-(

Does this make sense? It doesn't to me ... if the imposed load design is 150 kg/m2, three people sitting on a sofa would exceed this weight, a filled bath tub would exceed this weight ... I'm confused.

So, what I'm asking in a round about way ... has one got an aquarium of similar size or greater in a first/second floor of a building? If so, have you had any structural issues?

Many thanks,
Mike

 

The problem with the question your asking is that each building is built differently. Some may have wooden, standard floors, while others may have reinforced concrete floors. Now, many people have aquariums on the first/second floor of their homes, I also have known people who have had them in their apartments. My dad is a builder, and basically, a standard load in a home is 40lb/sq foot for a first floor, 30lbs for a second. Now this is designed for a live weight, someone walking/jumping, moving. A fish tank is a dead weight, however, the dead weight distributes the weight over a much larger area. Thus refgrigerators, sofas etc. are all dead weights. So you probably should be ok, but again, I have no idea how homes in Europe are built or loaded.

 

I'm a building contractor by trade, and without seeing the design of trusses that support the first floor its difficult to see. However keep in mind the closer you put the weight to a load bearing wall (exterior wall for example) the more load it can take. As this will cause the load to be transfered more to the structure than the floor joists.

The 150kg/m2 is the average load it can take in the when concentrated into a singular spot. So if you have a 300lb (I don't know the metric to american standard conversion off the top of my head) standing in one spot and a 300 lb man 2 feet away it will hold easily. In most cases also in bathrooms have reinforced floors to support the additional load (as it can greatly increase with a large person + water in there).

If you can reinforce the floor I's sugjest it, if you cannot get a long tank to distrubute the load

Just check with your landlord to make sure its ok.

Any questions feel free to ask.
-Gavin

P.S. Welcome to 3reef