80 gallon tank in a wood condo building... too heavy?

Omega

Omega

Clowning Around
Dec 29, 2005
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Surrey, BC, Canada
My condo is about seven years old. I just moved from a concrete building to here on the 2nd floor. I'd like to put the tank against the wall in the living room that separates me from my neighbour. I believe it's called a bearing wall. I'm going to be using 80 pounds of sand, 50 pounds of rock, and a 30 gallon sump. I don't see anything in our strata by-laws concerning waterbeds, unlike other apartments I've lived in. I calculated a waterbed to be around 280 gallons. Should I be worried?
 
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it will be no problem. particularly if you run it ACROSS several joists. your tank will weigh about 800 pounds so look at it this way ... would you be worried if 4 linemen for the New York Giants stood in the same spot in your living room sipping tea? you wouldn't expect them to end up in the apartment below you would you? see? no problem. also, figure a piano weighs close to a thousand pounds and i'll bet someone in your condo has one.
 
If you are concerned get the plans to your building and check which way the joists run and place the tanks across them so that the weight is balanced across multiple joists.
 
liv2padl said:
it will be no problem. particularly if you run it ACROSS several joists. your tank will weigh about 800 pounds so look at it this way ... would you be worried if 4 linemen for the New York Giants stood in the same spot in your living room sipping tea? you wouldn't expect them to end up in the apartment below you would you? see? no problem. also, figure a piano weighs close to a thousand pounds and i'll bet someone in your condo has one.
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Well, you aren't going to have 4 linemen sipping tea on the same spot for years, are you? And if you do, my sympathies. Point is, just because it can bear the weight now dosen't mean constant pressure from 800+ pounds of tank isn'y going to cause some significant stress on the structure. I think its best to look at where the joists run perpendicular to the wall, so the weight is more evenly distributed. Better safe than sorry.
 
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