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Upstairs weight limits?

huggers

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Joined
Sep 22, 2016
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3,238
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West Dorset
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Andy Hug
This may well be a stupid question. So guys, I currently have my gym/weights in my upstairs games room because lockdown. There's probably north of 200kg in there. There's also a load of other sh1t including an arcade cab which I built up there which weighs a tonne. In the not to distant future I plan on sticking a couple of pins in there. It might only be one pin if I buy NIB in which case no drama. Just wondering though if it's two or three does weight in an upstairs room become an issue. I should say as well that before lockdown and definitely after lockdown that room gets busy with my cronies larking about, so could be 6 or 7 of us in there at times. So yeah, anyone know if I need to be concerned with weight??
 
That’s the reason I moved my room to the garage, rooms upstairs in my house spans 18’ across, I know it had huge joists fitted as my wife’s uncle put them there when he converted it as it was a school. You could feel the room floor move if you jumped up and down with all the machines in and people.
Wife made me move to the garage where I built a big room😂

I guess it depends on the span/joist size, concrete structure would be best but most houses don’t have that. My brother recently had a house built with concrete structure, amazing.
Do the bounce test to see if there is any flexing.
 
depends on how it was built and if you think about how much a bath weighs and most floors are strengthen around baths. Typical domestic floor loading is 2.5 kN/m2

how_7485788_calculate-floor-load-capacity.html

if its a recent build worth checking out building regs but I'd be looking underneath to see what load bearing walls are there and where your weight is.
 
I built a gym upstairs in our house and asked the same question of an architect he said if you take the sq ft of the room and multiply it by 20 this is a reasonable guide as to how much weight it can hold safely. So if you room is 10ft x 10ft - 100 sq ft then this can safely hold 2000KG.
 
Thanks guys, very useful. The house is 1930's and very well built so that should play in my favour.
 
that formula is slightly worrying, imperial measures followed by a metric volume.
 
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Also relies on the timbers not being rotten, 1930’s house might be worth checking but should be ok. I recently renovated a Victorian house that I own where you could see the floor sloping upstairs and the ceiling below was a bit of a slope. Joists were rotten in wall and had to be jacked up and repaired. Previous owners just worked around the slope!
 
If in doubt seek a professional but think on it like this:-
If 10 people walked in your upstairs room who weighed 13 stone, would you worry about the floor collapsing? That’s 825 kilo... if another 10 walked in I’m sure you would still feel comfortable....
You’ll be surprised how strong a floor is as long as in good condition.
 
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Oh a bit of maths/science I like it.
10 ft x 10 ft is 3m x 3m = 9m2
Someone mentioned 2.5kN/m2 as an acceptable load
So that 22.5 kN over the 9m2
1kN = 100kg (Well nearly)
So that 2250 kg.
Quite close to what that architect said.

Okay so let's do some maths. Let's say 6 people weighing roughly 90kg a pop. One or two might be carrying a bit of extra timber but that'll do for now. That's 540kg. My arcade cab must be 100kg. 2 pins at say 150kg each. We're looking at just under 1000kg when the room is full of drunkards. Add in some other odds and ends and my weights and still way under. Plus the room is more like 14ft by 11ft. Think I'm okay, certainly for two pins.
 
^^^^^^^ if your floor is in good condition ^^^^^^^
Being 1930s..

Yeah it's pretty good I would say. We fully renovated it when we moved in and a new steel was put directly under one of this rooms walls to make way for open plan kitchen dining type stuff downstairs
 
Got 2 pins upstairs in one room with a fruity on other side of the room, it’s not caved in yet :D

Keep them on the side the beams go into the wall and you prob be fine.
 
just speak with a structural engineer, tell them the room size, how much weight you plan on putting in it, the walls below it, and what's already above it.
they will do a floor joist calculation to suit the load, check your joists are the same as what they have given you, and then away you go. explain that its not for building regs etc and they wont have to produce a certificate or anything like that,

ive just had done very similar when I built my extension, ended up costing £130, but I had a few steel beam calcs in that price too not just the floor joists.
 
Not a lot of pins as heavy as 150kg most are 120 or under. JJP and a few others are up there though.

A bed with a couple of people in it and a wardrobe and other bedroom pruck is going to be the weight of 3 or 4 pins
 
Make sure all the stairs are in good nick before you carry the pins up. One rotten step while you are lifting the pin with all your weight plus most of a pin on one foot and ... well you get the idea.
 
Call a local structural engineer and just ask the question bet you find more than one that will throw up an approx answer, why guess when you can find out from an expert in a minute or two phone call.
 
So these calculations are not that difficult. I have attached a screenshot that explains how I would work out the floor deflections. The results depend on how well the joists are built into the supporting walls (simply supported from fully built in). Please note that i have never worked in the house building industry, so take what i am giving you with a pinch of salt. I have, for example, had to play Google Bingo for some of the input data. And i don't know what acceptable floor deflection the building industry works to. So i would still recommend talking to a structural engineer, but at least from a position of knowledge.
 

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Sorry to resurrect this thread. The box room in our house is becoming my games room (house built in 1990). Currently got 1 pin and a cocktail cab in there without issue. I plan on adding a 2nd pin and a candy cab when they arrive on Monday.

What are peoples thoughts on the weight? 2 pins is probably less weight than 4 adults isn't it?

CF1F0198-B1EB-4050-90CD-B1F1151E7EE7.jpeg
 
I had 2 pins and 2 fruit machines upstairs in a room at one point on a 1990s build and my house is still standing! :D
 
Wife's just suggested we convince the 6 year old to swap her playroom into the box room, and put all the arcade gear into the 2nd bedroom 🥳
 
The carrying capacity of a residential floor in a modern building (1990s) is 40 pounds (18kg) for the main level and in newer builds (back end of the 90s/2000s) 30 pounds per square foot for the upper floors.
 
The carrying capacity of a residential floor in a modern building (1990s) is 40 pounds (18kg) for the main level and in newer builds (back end of the 90s/2000s) 30 pounds per square foot for the upper floors.

No idea what that means sorry 🤷🏼
 
This was a much better description than what I over complicated before.

The usual design load on second floor bedrooms is 30 pounds per square foot live load and 10 pounds per square foot dead load. Rooms other than bedrooms will have a 40 pounds per square foot design load. Both types have a 300 pound concentrated load limit. A master bedroom 10ft x 15ft with a floor area of 150 square feet would have a design load of 4500 pounds. This weight would likely never be reached.
 
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Bob the builder says......

I'm not a builder but see other post that I have just bumped on same subject.

Box room should be fine as usually uses same size joists over much shorter spans so often strongest floor upstairs
 
All those calculations are pointless. It depends on construction.

Some houses are concreate flooring upstairs. Some houses have wider spaces between the beams. Some houses have two layers or chip board as floorboards that are much stronger than standard floor boards.
I spend a long time in the building industry, so many different types of flooring and construction methods exist.

Houses are designed to take so much weight. You could put 20 adults in a box room and it will still be safe - as long as your materials are good.

If you are worried - ask a builder. Do not ask people on a pinball forum.
 
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