How heavy is too heavy for upstairs floors?

ripplyuk

I have small bookcases all over the house and was planning to tidy things up by having one large bookcase in the bedroom. The ones I’m looking at weigh anywhere from 45-70kg, before adding all the books many of which are heavy hardbacks. Is this too much for a bedroom floor? It’ll only be around 80cm wide x 40cm deep so it’s a lot of weight on four small ‘feet’. 

It’s an old (1952) end-terrace house if that makes any difference. If I put the bookcase against the party wall, would that be stronger? A lot of advice online mentions joists and finding out what way they go to see if the floor can tolerate the load but I’m clueless about these things. 

Murmansk

I'm no structural engineer but I suspect you'd be unlikely to overload the floor with a bookcase. A bookcase with a load of books on is unlikely to weigh more than, say, three decent sized adults. 

Get three adults to stand where you plan to put the bookcase and see if the floor collapses! 

Have you ever felt the weight of an Ikea wardrobe made of chipboard, before it's been assembled? Imagine that with lots of stuff in it. Very heavy. I've never read about a house floor collapsing because it was overloaded by a bookcase - or anything else come to that. Best avoid placing 12 pallets full of house bricks in the centre of the room though!

Albermarle

I am currently sat next to two tall modern floor to ceiling cupboards, which are next to each other in a bedroom of a 100 year old house.
They weigh a lot empty as I know because I decorated the room last year. They are both rammed full with boxes of stuff, books etc. It never crossed my mind the floor might not be able to take it.
So should be fine, unless the floor is showing any signs of problems. 

casper_gutman

I'm confident a single large bookcase would be fine. I doubt bookcases all around the walls in a room would be a problem in a house of standard UK construction. Many of my friends' and colleagues' homes have this, and I've never heard of any problems.

It might be a different matter if you wanted to fill a large upstairs room with large bookcases, including in the middle of the floor area. Under the 'Eurocode' design codes widely used in the UK, living accommodation is typically designed for floor loads of 1.5 kN/m². Library reading rooms with book storage are designed for 4.0 kN/m², so significantly more. Dedicated book stacks used solely for storing books are designed for more again: the greater of 6.5 kN/m² or 2.4 kN/m² for every metre height of storage.

stuart45

I remember the floor being reinforced in the Yorkshire ripper case incident room  because of the amount of paperwork involved.

ChilliBob

I was convinced this thread was going to be about vinyl! I considered my collection upstairs but decided against it.. Not just for weight mind! 

weeg

You'll be fine. A whole room full of books might be another story, or an attic full but upper floors are fine. Otherwise all of us flat dwelling bibliophiles would be in real trouble!

Fwiw, I'm a structural engineer who was raised by a librarian. The loading criteria hasn't changed meaningfully since they started standardising building codes.

Eldi_Dos

Agree with the consensus that it will be fine with the proviso that with a house of that age it was common to drll holes then fill with wooden dowels to which wallplates where then attached. These dowels are not always the most robust of timber.
It is a good idea if any trade has floor up for someone to have a look and check in a house of this age.

OP the bookcase you are thinking of seems narrow,is it going to be tall? if so fitting brass picture frame brackets might be a idea.