How do i know what weight my flooring upstairs can support?

[nikki_kaiser]

Hello! I am considering a larger tank but would like to know how I go about finding out how much weight I can put upstairs in one place. If you have any good advice please respond! Thank you!

[Convict2161]

When was the house built? There are a lot of avenues you can go to find out but let's start there. Older homes and houses you really have no issues. It's the newer homes etc that you can run into a problem.

Also what size tank? You can find a load bearing wall and set it up on that side.

There are OSHA standards to uphold when building but the newer homes IMO lack some. You should easily be able to keep 2,000lbs on a second floor of a private dwelling.

You could always go to your town hall and get the specs of your home and see when it was built. You may even get lucky and find floor plans also.

[jcolon]

Just as important as what convict2161 mentioned ... IMHO .... Is the type of stand. Weight on floors become an issue when you get around a 50gal or larger. The way I figure, if a second floor and support a couch / sofa with 2 adults, it should hold 45gal and down.

With larger tanks... How the weight is distributed becomes an issue. For those tanks, I don't like metal stands that have 4 legs at the corners. That just pinpoints the weight in a small area. Stands that resemble cabinets with a wide base touching the floor better distributes the weight.