HELP!!! floor weight ?

xmaslolly76

Does anyone know what the weight limit of a floor is on a new build house. We currently live in a 3 storey town house the livng room and kitchen are on the first floor. I am due to give birth in 4 weeks and wanted to use a birthing pool in the living room Combined weight of pool when filled with mother and child is around 750kgs. My other option is to use my DD's room which is on the ground floor but that would mean turfing her out and as we dont know exactly when baby will come its not really fair on her. I wondered if anyone new the weight limits for these floors. i have called persimmons but they are useless and cant help at all houses are now roughly 5 yrs old if that makes any difference????

xmaslolly76

Bump ! anyone im kind of desperate does anyone know where i could find this information. Thanks anyone who can help :-) x

maggie111

Perhaps you can ring your local building regs department? I bet they will have an idea or advice on how to check.

Cknocker

Domestic floors should be designed for a live load of 1.5kN/m2 (Approx 150kg/m2), what size is the birthing pool?

AdrianW2

Try this thread at diynot, which I don't understand or this one at diydoctor. I think they say design load is 1.5kN/m2.

I also know nothing about birthing pools, but 750 litre @ 30cm is roughly a 1.7m diameter circle, giving you an area of about 2.3m2 for your 7.5kN, or a loading of 3.3kN/m2.

I've probably done the sums wrong somewhere.

xmaslolly76

Birth Pool in a Box Regular
Mini
This is the information i have from where i bought it :-)

External max dimensions76" x 65"
193 x 165cm



Internal max dimensions56" x 45"
142 x 114cm

Internal depth26" (66cm)
26" (66cm)
Rim width10" (25cm)
10" (25cm)
Built-in seatYes
No

Cknocker

That gives you a load of 2.2kN.m2, to be honest the floor would probably take it with the factors of safety included in the design.

The loading is a UDL, ie applied over the whole floor area, the chances are the rest of the floor has nowhere near that kind of loading on it, which would make up for the large point load.

olias

Do you want to risk the floor collapsing whilst in the middle of lobour and you ending up in your DD's room without using the stairs?:eek:

Do ya feel lucky......well, do ya!:D

Olias

allan673

far too much weight to be honest for the 1st floor :eek:. its not worth the risk.

i would use it on the ground floor only.

Cknocker

If you want to be sure and you don't mind a bit of unsightliness for a few day, hire a couple of Acrow Props and place under the ceiling below.

TheMidge

Floors are designed to take a distributed load over their entire area of 1.5 kn/m2. At this load floor deflection should not cause damage to ceiling finishes below. If you exceed this limit in one area and have less load somewhere else they tend to even out. Your birthing pool applies around 4.5kn/m2 to the area of floor directly under it. If it does overload the floor the worse thing that is likely to happen is that you may get a little bit of cracking to the plasterboard ceilings below. To minimise any risk you should ideally position the pool over or close to load bearing walls below. You can often tell these walls as they will be thicker, or perhaps brick rather than plasterboard. If you know which way the floor joists run that can help you determine which walls are likely to be loadbearing. Avoid positioning the pool such that it is above the centre of rooms on the floor below. As your pool is rectangular aim to position it so that the longest side is at right angles to the floor joists, that way the loading will be spread over as many joists as possible.