Mobile Home (floors) and Aquarium Sizes

[kmckienz]

I have not been able to find any specs on what my mobile home floor can support. It is a single wide (14x56)built in 1993 so is to HUD standards on a steel under frame. (there's a crawl space between indoor floor and ground)

I have a spot on an outer wall (the end/shorter wall) for my second tank. I want to get a 110-125 gallon but am really fearful of what the weight will do to the floor. I am in Florida so our ground is sugar sand. I wonder if that much weight (1000-1400 lbs) could cause the floor to sink on that side.

Does anyone have any experience or experise they can share? Lifting the MH and putting concrete underneath it is not possible at this point.

Oh, in case your wondering...I own a 10 acre farm and the MH was already there. I built my 8 stall barn with tack and feed room first and then just decided I have enough work already to have to deal with building a house. I like spending my money on the critters instead (9 dogs, 2 personal horses, 4 cats, and now my tank) :mrgreen:

 

[RyanG]

Kathy do you know what size floor joists you have? Basically if you can stand four people in close quarters without the floor failing you should be fine with a tank of that size, As long as you set it up perpendicular to the floor joist that is. Furthermore if you are still worried about it have a custom stand built with a solid bottom to spread the PSI's, kind of like a wall layed on it side.

Disclaimer I am not a structural engineer and these are only opinions....lol.

PS Kathy you do have to justifiy you housing to anyone let alone us, we arent snooty like a lot of reefers!

 

[kmckienz]

That's true. I guess if my sofa bed couch which is quite heavy loaded with three adults does not make the floor move than a tank with weight distribution should be ok.

I woulk love some more responses though so I can get a warm fuzzy about it.:Cheers:


So I am not really a redneck but I can play one... you know you are a redneck when any of the following things are "worth" more than your house.

1. truck- check (2004 Suburban)
2. barn - triple check
3. violins- check
4. Dog kennels and GSD breeding stock - check
4. Reef Tank - not yet... but give it a year :mrgreen:

 

[yote]

Kathy,your my kind of woman.:mrgreen:

Your floor joists are made from steel bracings on 36" centers with wood joists between those.So it should hold the weight.
If your really worried about it.Pour a footer under where you plan to sit the tank.It only needs to be 16" wideX6"deep.And about 12 inches longer than your tank.I would re-enforce it with 1/2" rebar.Then use 8" concrete blocks to build up to the bottom on the floor.Then wedge a 2X12 between the floor and the blocks.You can also weld an I beem and block from the footer to the I beem.

 

[RyanG]

Holy Over build Yote! THanks how I tend to do things too. Kathy you should really be fine with what you have. A note of caution trailers normally use the cheapest building materials possible especially when it comes to floors and drywall. I would use a stand thats going to spread the weight out, nothing to worry about in the immediate future but it the tank is there for years(10 or more) it might be a problem. Woohoo another Redneck here! Yes!

 

[Altohombre]

I don't think most rednecks even know what a violin is, they prob think its a giant fly swatter or something.

 

[RyanG]

Sure they do Alto its just called a fiddle, havent you ever heard the Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels?

Kathy I dont know crap about violins but what kind do you have thats worth more than your pad? A stradovarious(SP)?

 

[kmckienz]

deleting duplicate

 

[kmckienz]

Ok....

Sorry to burst the "red neck" bubble (just when I was starting to fit in) but I am not really one at all. (live close to some though). I don't want to pretend to be something on this board that I am not.

It is kind of the running joke that I am the only "semi-snob" that lives in a trailer. I actually have 4 yr college degrees (double majored) and grew up middle class (like camping but never had lived in a MH before buying my farm on my own) After I bought the Suburban I knew I had officially met the "criteria" though.

I play the violin (not much fiddle music), like classical, top 40, latin etc., dislike most country music (which is unusual for where I live),

I pretty much despise sport hunting. I don't mind those who have contracts with the government , licenses to help control populations, or actually eat all the meat they kill but anyone who thinks it's actually 'fun' to kill something is not someone I would hang out with (sorry Yote, just being honest.. not trying to offend you)

Hmmm, let's see what else....oh, well I do say ya'll (I am from FL afterall) but I don't have an accent other than that. :mrgreen:

Ok..so I do have a lot of dogs (9) but they are for breeding and Search and Rescue work. (not that with gas prices I have been doing much training lately)

Anyhow, thank you for the information on the MH. I think I will go ahead and start looking for that tank and stand. I am going to try to wait until I find someone getting out of the hobby and selling a complete set up. After buying all new for the 46 I can see how buying used can save you a lot of "car lot" dollars.

Hope we can still be friends even though I am not really a RN.:D

 

[RyanG]

Damn it! Its ok Kathy we can still be friends...for now. jk

 

[yote]

Yep,same here.
BTW.I perfer wild meat to farm raised anyday.So nothing goes to waste here.

 

[fatman]

Ryan you are flat out wrong! A Reef tank setup the size she describes is going to weigh in at over 2100 pounds complete, without deep sand beds or anything like extra water or buckets of salt mix stored nearby. That is like one large adult male every square foot in an area 12 foot square. A good deal more than a sleeper sofa full of people, or a refrigerator or bathtub with a person an 30 gallons of water in it. How much of a lean or slope do you want her floor to have? A trailer is only designed for hauling to the site on its framing members. It is expected to be put on a full perimeter foundation after dropped at its site. It is not expected to hold hot tubs or large tanks without extra bracing nor is it even expected for them to hold a chest or up right freezers. A certified engineer would make recommendations paralleling Yotes recommendations if he had to put his recommendation on paper followed by his signature. However if not in a frost free part of the country he would even want the footing below the local average frost line. The area of the tanks installation should have, even with jury rigging alone, at least timber blocking under the framing members that the tank sits perpendicular two. If the tank sits parallel to joists then a cross beam should sit across the two joists approximately under each side of the tank and those should be on top of timber blocking or concrete blocks sitting on at least a double width and double layer of 2 x 12's or timbers. You do not want to know how many years of college I have in engineering and the other sciences. It would be nice to know what is being now provided for a foundation. It isn't just sitting on a few stacks of blocking or, and as I have seen a lot of them, on flat tires on its three axles and some concrete blocks under the tongue and trailers rear, all hidden behind skirting. Trailers are known to fold up on themselves when picked up by there steel beams which are barely nore than bent sheet metal. No house of comparable size would ever be built on such a light weight super structure as a mobile home. 1) It's construction would not be approved. 2) It would not be insurable. 3) Bank loans would not be available for it. 4) An ethical contractor would not build it. Trailers stand alone in their standards as HUD standards for trailers are not the same standards as for HUD approved site built homes.

 

[kmckienz]

So my warm fuzzy is gone after Fatman's post.

My mobile home is not sitting on flat tires or axels. It is on a steel frame with massive steel beams resting on multible stacks on concrete blocks and strapped to the ground with hurricane straps and the other tie downs. I am not home right now to crawl under and see how far apart the cross beams are but will look this weekend.

I live in Florida so frost/freeze lines are irrelevant. Given the location in my MH that I want to put the tank, it would not be too difficult to pour some footers and then stack up concrete blocks all the way up to the floor level in the location where any part of the tanks will touch.

I am getting tired just thinkging about it. I will just have a talk with my Regal Tang and tell her to grow slowly..verrry verrryyy slowly. :sfish:

 

[fatman]

The only major issue is if the tank is running parellel to the floor joists. Even then with your trailer sitting on well drainng soil (principally sand) the fix would not be expensive or difficult. It could be done by anyone who can nail together a few cut boards, and stack up a few concrete blocks. The hard part would be worming down below the spot you need to support, and dragging in your materials. It is not something you need a building permit for or need to hire a contractor to do any plans do not need to be drawn. Thing of stacking blocks on top of a double layer off two foot long pressure treated 2" x 12" set side by side with the seems between the layers ninety degrees to each other. You need support under or just inside of the four outter corners of your stand. Some people use two beams and put the four supports judt in from the ends of the beams and span beyond the floor joists they are trying to support. Some people just put two supports under each floor joist. The towers on top of the two by twelve pad you preapared are usually just 8" x 8' OR 8" X 16" concrete blocks to a height as close as you can get to your beams or floor joists then fill in the left over space with peices of scrap 2" x 12" and plywood of different thicknesses. Fill the space but make it loose enough to remove the shim peices of 2 x 12 and plywood so as to nail them together. Then the important part. Berfore your put the wood back on top of the concrete blocks while they are stacked in the place they will remain fill their cavities from the top them two thirds full of urethane foam caulking that comes in cans and quicly put the wood on top of the conctrete blocks. The foam will fill the block cavities holding them together and also press the wood tightly against the beam or floor joist. If you use a beam(s) you will need to toe nail it into place so it will stay there while you build the supports up underneath them. Or you can get screw jacks if any come in a height size that will fit your needs, then you would just need to put down your double layered pressure treated 2" x 12'' platform foundation and adjust and screw up your jacks. They sell them in quite a few heights and they offer a large adjustment potential. It would be more expensive but a lot quicker and less work.