Upon the date 06:38 AM 10/27/99 -0700, Mike Ford said something like:
"John B" <dylanb_at_sympatico.ca> had originally written:
>>I live in a 29 story building. I have 2000 pounds of racks with CPUs in my
>>"lab" (a room 20' X 20'). I am going to move in another 2-3 thousand pounds
>>of minis as I am going through my storage and moving them up here. I am also
>>picking up more minis from a plant in the US. I am placing the mini racks
>>along the walls in the hope that there is more support there. A real serious
>>question I have is... Can a room in a building like this support 5000 pounds
>>or more? If someone here has experience with this please tell me if this is
>>okay.
>
>The trouble I think is in the difference between these three words; can,
>should, and will. The rule of thumb I go by is, what weight of "people"
>would fit in the same space. 5000 lbs is about what you might expect from
>25 to 30 people in a room.
>
>OTOH you might have substantial liability risks from putting all this
>"commercial" stuff in an apartment building.
John,
Hmmm, you want to know for sure, eh?
5k pounds distributed _evenly_ over the 20x20 area is 12.5 lbs/sq. ft.
Well, that's not much. An average size fully loaded refrigerator provides
at least twice the floor loading (figure ~250 lbs over ~10 sq. ft.) BUT the
_total_ floor load capacity of the building's floor must be considered.
Your apartment building is most likely designed as a residential structure
and not a factory/office/commercial structure. Therefore the floor load
specs are going to be minimum required to get the building built yet allow
'normal' floor loading from 'normal' household furnishings distributed
somewhat evenly across the area. If the room is on an outside corner of the
building or on two sides of columnar support within the building then there
may be a chance a big load will not stress the floor/wall interface too
much. The walls below the room are very likely not designed as supporting
walls, just separating partitions, so don't consider them as any support.
The 40 lbs/sq ft Steve lists is probably correct for your local building
code in Canada, but check for sure.
Do you know your building super or other high-level building maintenance
person really, really well? If so, ask their opinion.
You indicate you're picking up more minis from a plant in the US. Yet more
loading will aggravate a problem already raised by the original 5k lbs.
I feel Mike is correct suggesting the liability risk. Steve's building code
information he gave in his msg is likely how your apartment building may
have been constructed.
I'm not at all trying to discourage you from preserving old hardware in
your apt. It's just that you should know the possible risk of a floor
structure that just might be too weak to handle over 5k pounds in a 400 sq
ft area --plus, disclosure to the owner will help you keep possession of
your home whether or not they approve. You see, if nothing is said to the
super how do you explain it to them when he/she knocks on the door to
investigate "a dangerous situation", or whatever, reported by someone who's
seen/heard of all that weight in that room? A real serious question indeed.
Get an apartment in the basement level where the floor pad directly
contacts the earth :-)
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt_at_netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL:
http://www.antiquewireless.org/
Received on Wed Oct 27 1999 - 12:52:03 BST