Safe upstairs?

[09hemi]

Hey guys, I planning on putting my 400lbs safe up stairs its is like 21 L x 29 W. How will I know if my floor can support it, I assumed I was until I talked to my father in law and he put some doubts in my head...hes pretty smart about this kinda stuff. How will I know if my floor can sopport it?

 

[SSGSAD]

Put it upstairs, and if it falls through, then the floor can't support it !!!!!

 

[Que]

Honestly, I would not trust it.

 

[Bronsonbull]

Your floor should support it. Any floor should support 400lbs or you have structural issues. With that said you can always put it in an area with load bearing beams or framing underneath. Most closets are well supported.

 

[pate]

most floor joist fall right at 16 to center. so since your safe is 29 wide u need to be sure and put it direcetly over two joist. to make it even safer i would get 2 2x4's and set them under front and rear of safe. and make sure the 2x4's are atleast 48in so they will be sitting on 4 joist.

 

[rockhopper46038]

You'll need to know how heavy that safe is going to be when you fill it full of stuff. You'll also need to look at the construction of your second story, namely the size of the floor joists, the "on centers" distance, and the type of sub-flooring used. With that width and depth you should have no trouble positioning the safe so that it straddles 2 joists regardless of how you orient it (so long as your O.C. is 16" - some newer houses may be stretching that to 24" O.C.), but ideally you would be able to find a spot where it is directly above a first story supporting wall as well, or along a wall so the weight isn't in the center of the floor joists. The base of the safe is 4.22 sq ft - that 400 lb safe with another 200 lbs in it will exert a load of a little less than 150lbs/sq ft. I would be more concerned with getting it up the stairs, when the weight will probably be concentrated on the small patch of the dolly's wheels in contact with the stair step. My gut says that you should be fine, but my napkin math is just that, a quick calculation that is only worth what you paid for it.

 

[pate]

also with that said a single joist can handle almost 600lbs itself.

 

[IndianaResident]

Think about 2 adult men standing near each other on your upstairs.

Common occurrence, and one well planned for.

I wouldn't not stress 400 pounds on a house built to hold humans any day of the week.
I realize it will be heavier once you fill it with guns, but the basic deal is the same--a group of people crowded in a room will put much more stress on it than your safe will, especially when they move.

I don't remember the final decision, but there was a thread on here about the damage a safe would sustain from being heated and dropped (if floor joists burnt), and that may be another question to ask/research.

 

[buford t justice]

I'd say indiana resident covered my opinion pretty well.

All I can say is good luck getting it up there,use plenty of people and be careful.

 

[Que]

Is there any way to find out how much weight a floor can handle? I've been resisting putting a pool table upstairs for fear the weight could cause structural damage.

 

[Brandon]

i see no issues. first floor or second floor, they should be framed just about the same, if you don't trust it on the first then def. do not put it on the second, but i see no problems at all.

otherwise i was going to say the same thing about 2 grown guys standing in the same room but that was already covered.

 

[Brandon]

Is there any way to find out how much weight a floor can handle? I've been resisting putting a pool table upstairs for fear the weight could cause structural damage.

I have a 3 piece solid slate pool table upstairs in my house that was built in 1989. No issues what so ever. about 6 years ago i could tell you what weights it could or could not hold, a pool table should not hurt a thing.

(think one grown guy on each corner of the pool table... even though it is dead weight, it should be ok)
but i am not an engineer.

 

[mjrducky]

400 pound safe is not a problem on the second floor. Stairs would give out with the safe and manpower probably before your floor would if you had an older home.

On the pool table I've seem some tables weigh well over 1000 pounds and I've seen floors bow as a result of the weight in the center of the rooms with no support below. Many homes can handle it but I'd want to know the weight of the table first, and the structure of the home.

 

[Mackey]

Think about 2 adult men standing near each other on your upstairs.
Common occurrence, and one well planned for.

Ok I've been thinking about that, and if those two big boys are standing
close enough that they are in an area the size of a footprint of a gun
safe, I'd say we got a couple of funny boys upstairs.

 

[shooter1054]

Get in contact with a structural engineer or an architect. They have to know what the load bearing capacity of a floor is before building. Being in the construction industry myself, I wouldn't worry about the safe or the pool table. As ducky said, I would expect the stairs to give out before the floor. And I wouldn't expect the stairs to give out. Unless the home was built back in the 50's or 60's and some 70's.

 

[eldirector]

Is there any way to find out how much weight a floor can handle? I've been resisting putting a pool table upstairs for fear the weight could cause structural damage.

Absolutely! Google Floor Load Limit. There are a couple of calculators. I'm not an engineer, so can't quite describe how to do it. A couple friends do this sort of thing for a living. If you know the materials (2x4 or 2x6 joists) and how it is constructed, you can get real numbers.

Your floors can support a lot more than you think. I was going to put a safe upstairs, but I wanted one larger than would fit through the closet door.

 

[Brandon]

if your floors are framed with 2x4 you better run now!!!

 

[motoman]

if its really only 400lbs then its fine. if its 800-1000lbs then maybe not.

 

[Leo]

With a GOOD quality level and some different thicknesses of shims, make a map of the floor where you are going to put the safe. Record which shim thickness under the end of your level makes the bubble center. Transfere this info to the map you have gridded out. VERY FEW floors are really level after the house is a few years old. Move the safe into the room, and retest after a few weeks. If the bubble drifts more around the safe, you better brace things under it. It is also advisable to locate the safe against a wall that lines up with a wall in the lower level. Some hallway walls are already load bearing, and are located above heavy load bearing structures of the foundation. That will be the strongest place in the house.

 

[jelzy]

As far as figuring out what the floor can hold, you will need to know a few things:
Joist size, joist spacing (centers), joist span (from bearing to bearing)

Currently, the typical residential floor load is designed for 55psf, but I don't know what it was when your house was built, much less what building materials were used.

I do know pool tables on the second floor of a house usualy weigh less than what a waterbed would, and i have yet to see any issues with one. Not only second floors, but also in attic trusses.

There have been many good suggestions on here from what i read. I would think your safe as it is, but I don't know all the details either.

Feel free to send me more detail and I can help you run the calcs yourself.