Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Is HEAVY bookshelves on timber upper floor a problem? 5Oct 06, 2014 9:04 am Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Is HEAVY bookshelves on timber upper floor a problem? 8Oct 07, 2014 7:24 am Hi Dr House Yes you sound paranoid for which I do apologize for contributing to your state of mind. Better safe than sorry tho "Engineering is calculations with common sense thrown in" That has been passed down to 5 generations (of engineers) in our family. Calculations= Bookshelf + 2 people =3pka (point load) Common sense= it depends on where the load type is acting and a heap of other variables If the floor starts failing the serviceablity criteria, eg excessive deflections, vibrations, material appearance,etc, get it checked. There is a big difference between one bookshelf (point load) and a row of bookshelves (line load).hth Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Is HEAVY bookshelves on timber upper floor a problem? 9Oct 09, 2014 9:28 pm Well, common sense also tells me that a bedroom should be able to withstand more than 10 people standing in it - let's say a huge house warming party with 10 people going into a the bedroom.... assuming each person is weighing average of 85kg, that's 850kg of live load spread across the whole room, and on top of the heavy furnitures eg. queen size bed already in the room. And if these 10 people just happen to want to play some kind of kinky party game with girl piggyback on the guy - that's 170 kg of point load right there! I can't believe if someone just decided to do that and the floor would fail like that. "Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is almost always somebody screwed up." Re: Is HEAVY bookshelves on timber upper floor a problem? 11Oct 10, 2014 7:50 am Dr House Well, common sense also tells me that a bedroom should be able to withstand more than 10 people standing in it - let's say a huge house warming party with 10 people going into a the bedroom.... assuming each person is weighing average of 85kg, that's 850kg of live load spread across the whole room, and on top of the heavy furnitures eg. queen size bed already in the room. And if these 10 people just happen to want to play some kind of kinky party game with girl piggyback on the guy - that's 170 kg of point load right there! I can't believe if someone just decided to do that and the floor would fail like that. Dr House - amidst all the hyperbole you do have a point. And this may be one of the reasons why decks and balconies collapse ie not being aware of what load a structure has been designed to take. And with Australians growing bigger every year builders may have to start putting notices up in rooms alerting the occupants to how many people per weight can be in a room on the top level of a double story house at any one time! Re: Is HEAVY bookshelves on timber upper floor a problem? 12Oct 10, 2014 8:25 am Engineers and designers would have that room rated as a single or double bedroom - with the floor joists worked out for dead load and live load with a safety factor built in accordingly. If you have that increased weight all that would happen is that you would probably get more deflection in them and a bit more bounce as people move around. If you wanted to use that room as a loungeroom or for any of your other ahem, multi-person activities you should have told the builder at the design stage. You could also apply that to any other part of your build. Stewie 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 5661 What size are the windows, double or single glazed, can I have a pic of the full windows inside & out? If you can see packers please take a pic. 1 12420 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15993 |