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Record Collection on 2nd Floor Weight Concerns


zdkaiser
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I'm curious if you all keep your collections on non-ground floors and if you have concern about your floors buckling, sagging, or even collapsing. I have about 750 albums (a filled 1x4 shelf filled and standing vertically, a filled 2x4 laying in its side with about 100 lbs of stereo equip on it, and another 2x4 standing vertically with about 100 LPs in it, some books, and CDs).  All are against a load bearing wall on the second floor. Floor joists run parrallel with the shelves.

 

 

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I remember looking into this many years ago and learning that I should not be concerned about the weight of my collection, provided it was placed against the load-bearing outer walls.  To bear this out, I have not read anywhere anytime about a second floor apartment floor collapsing under the weight of a record collection.

 

I found this discussion online and will share it here.  It looks like weightlifters who live in second floor apartments have many of the same concerns as vinyl collectors.

 

Quote

This is actually the perfect time for me to answer this question. I was doing research because I want to build a 2 story shed in our yard, and wanted to see what size wood I would need to support the second floor. The first floor is for storage, the second floor is a chill place, so I guess you could call it a guest house. I looked up building codes, and the supporting weight of 2x8's, 2x10's, and 2x12's. 

 
If the building is between 5-30 years old, the floor is being supported by 2x10 joists every 16 inches, while the walls are supported by regular 2x4s every 12 inches(don't worry about that, one 2x4 standing vertically can support over 4,000 pounds, I just thought I would throw it in as a fun fact). If it was built after 2004, the floors are being supported by 2x12 joists every 12 inches. This adds a huge amount of support.
You said it's a pretty large room. I'm assuming this means it's pretty close to 25x25 feet? One 2x12 joist that is 25 feet long at it's weakest point can support over 1000 pounds at it's weakest point(the center). So assuming they stuck with building codes and have a supporting joist running through the center of the 2x12s, you can hold about 3000 pounds at any spot in the room(the edges near the walls are many times stronger). A 2x10 with the same situation could support about 2000 pounds at any one spot in the room
 
If you don't understand what I'm saying, just trust me. You're fine unless you have (to be safe) over 1,500 pounds/ every sq foot. You could put a pickup truck loaded with bricks in the room and it wouldn't even dent the structural support. 
To make it short, you're fine. You're right to ask questions though, because no one wants to fall through the floor and end up in their neighbor's living room.

 

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Funny, I've just been looking into this as my collection has just been moved up to our second (or first I guess) floor. 

Without doing lots of fancy calculations, most standard construction floors and homes (UK at least) are estimated to hold up to something like 100 stone. I don't think that, unless you have thousands upon thousands, that it isn't a massive issue.

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5 minutes ago, Tidal Wave said:

I feel like the simplest amount of common sense could answer this. 

 

Can you sit four people on a couch without the floor collapsing?

4 People sitting on a couch for a few hours here and there  is much different than a 800lb collection sitting in one spot for months/years.

25 minutes ago, unknown pleasures said:

Yo momma so fat, her casual walking around the house causes as many major structural issues with the flooring as that of an above-average in size record collection. Word. 

Yo mommy so fat, when she sits down she can flatten a warped 200g.

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11 hours ago, zdkaiser said:

4 People sitting on a couch for a few hours here and there  is much different than a 800lb collection sitting in one spot for months/years.

Yo mommy so fat, when she sits down she can flatten a warped 200g.

People sitting down on a couch also have a much higher dynamic weight while the records are static. 

 

If you are just paranoid put one shelf on one side of the room and the other shelf on a different side. 

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On 9/24/2017 at 11:07 AM, zdkaiser said:

I'm curious if you all keep your collections on non-ground floors and if you have concern about your floors buckling, sagging, or even collapsing. I have about 750 albums (a filled 1x4 shelf filled and standing vertically, a filled 2x4 laying in its side with about 100 lbs of stereo equip on it, and another 2x4 standing vertically with about 100 LPs in it, some books, and CDs).  All are against a load bearing wall on the second floor. Floor joists run parrallel with the shelves.

 

 

I mean, are your shelves sagging?  

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17 hours ago, zdkaiser said:

House or apt?

How beefy are your joists? 2x8s or 2x10s?

Hi. I live in an apartment and been there six years. Have gradually added more weight over the years.

And I believe my beefy joists are none of your concern, mister. 

:) I have no idea.

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4 hours ago, Freki said:

That would be silly since my shelves have evenly-spaced supports to distribute the wight across a larger area. Who the hell knows how buildings are made though.

You just have one floor joist supporting your floor?

 

Many people understand how buildings are made. That’s how we keep building them. 

 

So, take an engineering perspective of this issue. Codes call for a specific load bearing capacity of a floor, as a whole. Let’s say 40 lbs/square foot is standard. It doesn’t matter if it’s upstairs or downstairs, assuming your downstairs isn’t a concrete pad on earth.  Let’s say you have a 10*15 foot room. Your square footage is 150 square feet, right? Your load bearing capacity would be 40psf*150ft^2 = 6000 lbs. this is for your whole floor. 

 

Yes, if you concentrate the weight in one small area you will cause damage to that area, but spread over a few square feet, you will most likely be fine. Your shelf would give way before your floor.

 

source: engineer at a general contracting company.

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9 hours ago, Jlegg said:

You just have one floor joist supporting your floor?

 

Many people understand how buildings are made. That’s how we keep building them. 

 

So, take an engineering perspective of this issue. Codes call for a specific load bearing capacity of a floor, as a whole. Let’s say 40 lbs/square foot is standard. It doesn’t matter if it’s upstairs or downstairs, assuming your downstairs isn’t a concrete pad on earth.  Let’s say you have a 10*15 foot room. Your square footage is 150 square feet, right? Your load bearing capacity would be 40psf*150ft^2 = 6000 lbs. this is for your whole floor. 

 

Yes, if you concentrate the weight in one small area you will cause damage to that area, but spread over a few square feet, you will most likely be fine. Your shelf would give way before your floor.

 

source: engineer at a general contracting company.

He sarcastically said the same thing as you. 

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