House footings taking a fish tank weight?

[W.olly]

At last i can plan next years project once the car is done and i am onto the house project.. The house being the biggest project i have ever had,

This part is the fish tank i have had planned for the last so many years.

The tank will be 300cm x 100cm x 60 cm and weighing it t around 3000kg, with sump. prob a bit more ( 100kg ) due to rock but not planning on many more planted if i can stop the fish from digging them up..

Anyway. The house is ex council of around 1940`s era and Manchester built. Where the tank is going is a suspended concrete floor, one floor beam going parallel with the tank. . Tank sat on the floor that is supported on three sides. I have asked a good few builders to come out to look and see if the floor will take the tank weight. To me it will but i am no builder. And no builder has bothered to reply.


What i am asking is if folk think it will take the weight, which i think will be hard to say with out seeing it so i understand if folk will not ye or ney. I can gain access to the underside of the hosue as there is a 4 foot crawl space under it, ill have to remove a newish floor under the stairs to do this but will be worth it if its good to go.


So biggish tank for a biggish loon to build project BTW it will be a ply/GRP tank with one viewing window.

hope i can get this done now, been planning this for years.

 

[Agroshield]

Please say length, width and height for clarity. You give three measurements, but we do not know which is which.

 

[Beanwood]

You probably need to be asking a structural engineer
No builder would want that on their liability..

 

[dan treg]

you may need building control so probably need proper calcs

 

[KaneH]

The tank, base and decorations must be fairly hefty if you’re estimating it to be 3Te. Water weight of that full is only 1800kg so 1200kg extra in the other bits?

Assuming it’s the 3x1m dimensions as the footprint that would give you 1000kg/m2. General domestic imposed floor load is 150kg/m2 so you’d be significantly over that as a comparison. Given you have the ability to access the solum you could quite easily strengthen the joists beneath the tank location before setting everything up. Seems the sensible choice

 

[Beanwood]

The tank, base and decorations must be fairly hefty if you’re estimating it to be 3Te. Water weight of that full is only 1800kg so 1200kg extra in the other bits?

Assuming it’s the 3x1m dimensions as the footprint that would give you 1000kg/m2. General domestic imposed floor load is 150kg/m2 so you’d be significantly over that as a comparison. Given you have the ability to access the solum you could quite easily strengthen the joists beneath the tank location before setting everything up. Seems the sensible choice

New word award to you @KaneH
Never heard of solum before!

 

[gaz1]

no if you continue then build pillars under the floor to support the concrete

 

[6ply]

That's a big tank!

I have some offcuts of cast acrylic used to make an even larger aquarium. Skip diving!

 

[caprinut]

This might help.

 

[addjunkie]

Get a structural engineer to calculate a steel size for you, or two in parallel. In my house we used two C s back to back to make them easier to slide in. Knock hole in the wall, both ends, add load bearing concrete bearing stones each end. Allow to set, slide in joists, level with a bit slate if required and cement in.

 

[Ali]

Made me think about whether there were any structural incidents with water beds, but I wasn’t around in the 70’s

 

[CompoSimmonite]

If you have access to the crawl space under the proposed tank then what about a scaffolding frame to support the underside of the floor above ?
Just interested but what size fish will be going into the tank ?

 

[gaz1]

just build 4 pillars and then use concrete lintels if you want a proper structure under the concrete floor

4 posts would be enough to support the concrete floor but the lintels would add more structure to support the floor

 

[Jaeger_S2k]

Your footings might not be able to take a concentrated load of the pillars.
Fine for a house as the load is spread, just a thought, as they'll have never thought of needing footing for that concentration?
Certainly needs an engineer to be sure.

 

[dave h 2]

Anyway. The house is ex council of around 1940`s era and Manchester built. Where the tank is going is a suspended concrete floor, one floor beam going parallel with the tank. . Tank sat on the floor that is supported on three sides. I have asked a good few builders to come out to look and see if the floor will take the tank weight. To me it will but i am no builder. And no builder has bothered to reply.


What i am asking is if folk think it will take the weight, which i think will be hard to say with out seeing it so i understand if folk will not ye or ney. I can gain access to the underside of the hosue as there is a 4 foot crawl space under it, ill have to remove a newish floor under the stairs to do this but will be worth it if its good to go.

This sounds like non traditional construction, with the concrete suspended floor, the good few builders are probably still running away. Your house type may be found in the link.
If yours is cast in-situ beams you may not want to continue. I would do something to take the whole weight of the tank, you can't tell if the floor is just concrete or rebar'ed

 

[dieselsamurai]

just build 4 pillars and then use concrete lintels if you want a proper structure under the concrete floor

4 posts would be enough to support the concrete floor but the lintels would add more structure to support the floor

This is exactly how i would do it , If the tank is against one one structural wall then 50% of the weight is bearing down on that . I may have misread the question but builders would probably not want to get involved in this

 

[dieselsamurai]

Slightly of topic went to the Aquarium at Gran Canarias this autumn and it has the largest curved window in the world 33m by 7m and 140 ton was the best aquarium ive been too

 

[gaz1]

This is exactly how i would do it , If the tank is against one one structural wall then 50% of the weight is bearing down on that . I may have misread the question but builders would probably not want to get involved in this

its too small of a job whilst ackward to get materials where needed

then its also customer side of it that wont see the money in doing what is being asked of them

 

[W.olly]

Hi all, i am not ignoring you all. Just had a loss in the family. Quick read though and i will look into thsi more.

thanks all.

 

[Gareth J]

If you're of the mindset that you can just get away with it, you could potentially just measure deflection as you install it.

The loading limit won't be the failure load on the beams, it'll be the point at which the deflection exceeds acceptable limits. Look them up for your floor.

Then, set up a deflection measurement system at the least supported point and start to build/fill your tank. As the floor deflects, you'll see if it is going to get close to it's specified limit. Then you will have proved to yourself it needs more support. Or not, if that's the case.

I suspect that, even if the deflection with the completed, filled tank is acceptable, with the addition of the dynamic loading of a few guests jumping around, it will be exceeded and feel horrible, even if it's not close to failing.

Additional pillars below sounds like the simplest way to support.