Reinforceing My Floor

Hi Guys
I am getting a new tank 1100mm L x 800mm W x 600mm H (528L) with a 180L sump which gets me to about 740kg. Now comes the problem , my place was built in 1927 and have beutifull old wooden flooring which i dont want to damage and which because if the Cube like size of the tank its alot of wieght in a small area and i am worried the floor wont hold because of the distribution of the wieght on only 4 legs and like i said i dont want to damage the floor otherwise i would just pull up the floor in that spot and put the tank on the foundations. I have had an idea but would like to run it past a few ppl before i start. I want to get a 6mm steel plate that in flat and just slightly bigger than the size of the tank. Place the steel plate on the spot were the tank is going to go on top of the steel plate i want to cast a 20mm thick slab of concrete with a 3 to 1 mix of cement and 10mm crushed stone , on top of the the first layer of concrete i want to put a layer of steel mesh (treated for rust ofc) and then on top of that i want to cast another 20mm of a 3 to 1 cement mix with i can then skimm to get it perfectly lvl.So the basic idea is to spread the wieght of the tank over the whole section of floor and as a bonus i can get my tank perfectly lvl ( old wooden flooring is way out of lvl) . I dont know if you guys can get a goo picture of what i want to do . Please if anyone has better ideas i would love to here then
Thanks
Antony

 

Reafer - Lift the section of floor where the tank is gonna stand, then put 4 supports in place or extra beams to take the weight, to support the original flooring. Put the flooring back and then let the tank stand on that. 750kg is not a lot of weight, your foundation seems like overkill for what you need.

 

Hey Reafer
if you are going to do this you will still mess up the floor in the long run, with so much effort being done you would be better off taking the floor boards out in this area at least then you can make sure you are spaning from joist to joist. the other thing would be making sure that the joists are termite free and still have the correct structural stability, i would still check this with somebody with a structural background though.maybe make this area a bit of a raised feature to compliment the tank, just my 2cents.
Good Luck and keep us posted - with pics of course

 

plus if you think about it, adding a double layered concrete slab over the floor will add even more weight to an already heavy spot in the floor

and like hux said, make sure there is no damage to the wood below that will carry the weight, in 82 years alot could have happened down there

 

Hi reafer
I would take either some Metal I beam or a solid woodbeam not less than 100X100 and put this under your legs.
The most important is that the beams run with your floor board if they are mounted directly onto the joist/rafters. If a second under construction was used (unusual) than you have to go across your floorbboards. But if at all possible, check the condition of the under construction. If it is a self carrying floor you should have a 228X38 or 228X50
If you have perline 76X46/50 its risky, if no proper foundation below
Good luck and let us kn ow how its going

 

Have a look see what is happening under the floorboards before you start planning on what you are going to do.

 

thx for all the responce guys. I think i will lift a few boards and see whats going on. I will keep the post updated

 

I take it you are worried about the legs of the stand damaging the floor board. the easiest way to do this it to spread the wait evenly over the floor if the floor has a solid foundation that is, basically you take flat bar or some thing like that and weld it under the legs, joining all the legs together(length wise and breadth wise as well) that way you have distributed the wait evenly over the floor so you should not have and damages. I might be wrong but I am sure that will work

 

no i am worrying if the floot will hold the wieght of the tank, the floor boards ara only 140mm wide so i want to spread the wieght as much as i can

 

gareth, the floor boards are "suspended" so the worry seems to be, will the tank stand, or fall through the floor, lol

 

try and see which way the beams run that the floor boards are on ... Then take 50 x 20 mm square tube and run it either front to back or side to side, so the square tube runs over the most amount of beams,,, this spreads the weight over more beans and less 15mm floor boards.

 

Hi Reafer

I will have the exact same problem when I move to the new house. Can you climb under the house? My new place is about 3 steps higher than ground level, so I can crawl under there and with the help of some mates I'm going to chock it up with bricks and planks, if needed, I want to see where the beams are in relation to where the tank will stand, and if the there are beams under there that are close enough I think I will be able to get away with it, I will use some kind of wide feet though to distribute the weight to not damage the flooring. I am dreading going under there though, I am k@k scared of snakes! I'll probably throw some kind of bomb under there about a week before we move in!

 

lol, cherry bombs or black widows should probably work well enough, unless something catches fire

i just noticed, your avatar looks like that fake baboon fish on a thread i read the other day on here

 

Hey Reafer

Where abouts in PE you staying. Sounds like a typical old Walmer house.
If you want I can pop around and see if I can give you some advice. I mainly do concrete design work but I'll see if I can help if you're interested.

By the way, if distributing the load is all you want to do just stick with the steel base plate, 50mm concrete isn't gonna do much except add more weight to the floor. Especially if its taking a point load of +/- 200kg's. It might just crack (depending on what mesh ref you're using).

I'll PM you my number.

Cheers, Greg