chimpsnest
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2008
- Messages
- 1
Hi all, I realize that these questions have been covered numerous times, but I haven't seen anything that resembles my situation. What I need is somebody familiar w/construction I suppose.
I want to put a 60 gallon tank along an outside wall on the 2nd floor of my house (tank = 48" long. framing = 2 x8 16" OC) Framing runs front to back on 2nd floor, tank stand would span across about three joists. Can't remember if tank stand is four legs, or solid frame on bottom (it's still @ the store).
The dilemma is that the 2nd floor of my house bumps out 2 feet from the first floor (ie garage/first floor level = 26' deep and 2nd floor/fish tank level = 28' deep). No option for tank on 1st floor unless I want it in garage or entry area.
I'm not certain that the 2 x 8 joists run from the front of the 2' bump out all the way back to the steel beam in the center of my garage -OR- if they ran the joists from the steel beam to rest right on top of the frame of the garage doors, then separately put in joists to frame the bump out on its own. I would think the 2nd scenario couldn't be the case because the front wall of the house supports the weight of the roof and that would mean that weight was supported by a suspended area of 2 x8 's kind of floating 24" out from the front of my house.
I've linked to some construction shots from when the house was built in hopes of finding my answer (I also have more pix @ home that I hope will yield more construction info for me - and I have my plans too, but I know what's on paper doesn't match the final build exactly). Hopefully my cheesy MS Paint rendition of the construction helps illustrate what I mean along w/the pix. click on the pix to look closer and get my descriptions.
chimpsnest/Aquarium - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
At one time I had a 55 gallon aquarium upstairs in a hallway of a cape style house, but it was on a load bearing wall.
Any help or suggestions or construction input is appreciated I just don't want to mess up my new house in a HUGE way!
I want to put a 60 gallon tank along an outside wall on the 2nd floor of my house (tank = 48" long. framing = 2 x8 16" OC) Framing runs front to back on 2nd floor, tank stand would span across about three joists. Can't remember if tank stand is four legs, or solid frame on bottom (it's still @ the store).
The dilemma is that the 2nd floor of my house bumps out 2 feet from the first floor (ie garage/first floor level = 26' deep and 2nd floor/fish tank level = 28' deep). No option for tank on 1st floor unless I want it in garage or entry area.
I'm not certain that the 2 x 8 joists run from the front of the 2' bump out all the way back to the steel beam in the center of my garage -OR- if they ran the joists from the steel beam to rest right on top of the frame of the garage doors, then separately put in joists to frame the bump out on its own. I would think the 2nd scenario couldn't be the case because the front wall of the house supports the weight of the roof and that would mean that weight was supported by a suspended area of 2 x8 's kind of floating 24" out from the front of my house.
I've linked to some construction shots from when the house was built in hopes of finding my answer (I also have more pix @ home that I hope will yield more construction info for me - and I have my plans too, but I know what's on paper doesn't match the final build exactly). Hopefully my cheesy MS Paint rendition of the construction helps illustrate what I mean along w/the pix. click on the pix to look closer and get my descriptions.
chimpsnest/Aquarium - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
At one time I had a 55 gallon aquarium upstairs in a hallway of a cape style house, but it was on a load bearing wall.
Any help or suggestions or construction input is appreciated I just don't want to mess up my new house in a HUGE way!