Browse Forums DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair 1 May 08, 2010 6:12 pm Hi Guys I am new to this forum. This is my first handy man job, so I hope to learn a lot from the more experienced people. I have just purchased a 210x60x60cm fish tank. It will weigh about 1 ton. I have concerns my floor cannot take it. I have wooden floor boards and its not on solid ground. I have been under the house and found that - the tank will be along a load bearing wall and will fit over 5 joists. - the joists are 4x2 and spaced 40cm apart I intend to put two 4x4 timber posts that are 90cm away from the wall along the joists to support the tank. I will dig holes then concrete it in. Also to spread the load by attaching 4x2 planks of wood to the joists. Here are some pics. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This is my intended plan Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ One major concern is that today i went under the house to dig the posts and i saw that there was a trench of water that was about 10cm deep that extends along my load bearing wall. It had just rained quite hard last night so I think its from that. I stabbed a pole through the water and it was very soft mud.. about 30cm deep. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ It had heavily rained last 2 days and my house is on a slope so im guessing its from that. Will this water cause the bricks to sink into the mud if there is a heavy load on it?? Let me know what you guys think.. If you have any concerns please let me know! Thanks, Adrian Re: Heavy fish tank on floor boards.. need your help! 2May 09, 2010 7:01 pm I'm no engineer, but if it is a load bearing wall, doesn't it already have a little more than a tonne sitting on it? That water and mud would have already caused the house to sink, over the years, if it was a problem. I can't see any problem with putting some reinforcing posts under the floor like what you have already suggested. I'd be thinking something more like this though: (Hope you get the idea, dod gy ascii pics FTW) self::bbcode_second_pass_code_cb Re: Heavy fish tank on floor boards.. need your help! 3Jun 26, 2010 7:38 am Possibly use an adjustable gal post which has a built-in ant cap. Try and find where the water runs in an direct its flow elsewhere. Re: Heavy fish tank on floor boards.. need your help! 4Jun 27, 2010 1:17 am Your load bearing wall will almost certainly be sitting on a concrete footing and will need much more than a little water for it to settle. If you dig a little in the mud you will probably find it. If you're worried just make a path for the water to drain. I agree with digamma's design. better still built a couple of brick pylons instead of the 4x4. Re: Heavy fish tank on floor boards.. need your help! 5Jun 27, 2010 10:25 am Hi, First up, congratulations on thinking about supporting all this extra weight. You would be amazed by the amount of people who wouldn't even consider this! Secondly, get that water away from your foundations!!! This might be a blessing in disguise that you noticed this because if you do not want that amount of water 'pooling' there on a regular basis. Try to dig a channel to allow it to flow outside or at least away from your wall. Now, on to the good stuff. I like your design but I would like to suggest a slightly different way. Add a 90x90 hardwood bearer under the existing joists to help spread the load and then have it supported by 2 90x90 posts into concrete footings either end. Then add new joists to the existing floor, in between the old joists. This will halve all the weight on all the timber and will give excellent support for your fishtank. Good luck Jack of all trades... master of none Thanks for letting us know. The programmer will have a look at this later today. 2 6679 Firstly, if your house is still under builder's warranty (10 years in Victoria) you should have no need to crawl into roof space but let the builder handle it, unless you… 3 5638 |