Floor Dead Load Capacity of Old House (Great Neck: new house, buying)
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I’m buying an upright piano which takes about 10 sqft and weights about 600 lbs, and not sure if my floor can hold this dead load. My house is in Great Neck and was built in 1928, and I’m not sure about the dead load capacity for that time. Moreover, the dead load capacity of the houses built nowadays seems to be 20-30 lbs/sqft, which is way less to support a piano. But I do see many people with pianos at home without any problem. These contradictory facts make my confused. Do I misunderstand anything? Thank you.
I'm no structural engineer but 600 pounds is basically 3 slightly overweight adult men. Did you also not plan on ever allowing people into your home because of structural concerns?
I'm no structural engineer but 600 pounds is basically 3 slightly overweight adult men. Did you also not plan on ever allowing people into your home because of structural concerns?
Men are live load, while piano is dead load. There are different capacities for each of them.
I have a couch that is 600 lbs plus that’s 17 feet long with a solid coffee table weighing 200 pound plus maybe 10 people on a Sunday. I just have a steal beam underneath however and it’s solid. No one knows your house and we have no pictures. I’ve been in houses that you walk across and you feel the floor move a little and you hear the random noises as you walk across. Weather it be a console cabinet or something else.
I know people that added gun safes and reinforced the floor. No one here can tell you anything with no pictures of the sub floor.
Who knows what your joists look like.
In a perfect world you should be fine.
Last edited by 94nasupra; 10-05-2023 at 07:18 PM..
There are houses that old and older that can and do hold that weight. My sister had a grand piano in her house in GC that was built in the 1920s. Do you think no one has an upright piano on LI??? As someone said I'd trust that in an old house in NY over a new house here in NC. 100%.
Imagine what a high end treadmill with a 250 person running on it weighs.
So your dead load is 600lbs total and surface of 5ft x 7ft
Therefore, your 600lbs total / 35 sf = 17psf(pounds per square foot)
What is the height of your floor joist?
What is the spacing of your floor joists?
What is the length of your floor joists from beam to concrete wall?
Basic math is as follows:
If the spacing is 16 inches on center, you have 2”x8” and the length is less than 16ft, it will support 20psf which is more than your 17 psf of your piano.
Though you have an old house, old growth df is stronger than what we use today.
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