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How much weight can an upstair room can hold?

I was " confined" to 2 small empty bedrooms for my A/V gear(14x16 and 14X15)and they are both upstairs. I have added up the weight of all my equipments and racks/stands in one room and it's about 400 lbs so far . I am looking into some mono-amps and some speakers for the other room. Being living in a city that tends to have some " foundation" issue, is it safe to load up another 200 lbs equipments in the other empty room. The builder is no longer in business so ther is not much help there. Any one who is in the same boat can share a thought or two ?
andrewdoan
Post removed 
andrewdoan OP
223 posts
 
Thank you, guys and thanks to a friend who warned me. Yes, I just now notice a crack about 6 " on the ceiling of the garage where I have put my main rack on the carpet floor in the room above . I wonder what kind of house Kimball Hills built but the house is less than 10 years old and it ain't a cheap one either. It 's time to get busy to pack all the gear and gets rid of them at a loss a again. Time to get ICE stuff. It's just a story of my bad luck.
hevac1
812 posts
 
1 crack is not a problem. Cracks happen throu out the life of a house. They happen as the house settles. Watch the crack and see if it gets longer and you could also have someone come and look at it. No reason to get rid of anything.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,138 posts
 
Hevac1 is correct. one thing you can do is use some tape to mark the ends of the crack to see if it is elongating. Elizabeth is correct about storage of LPs, but 500 lbs of gear should not be a problem at all. Also consider where the gear is located. If its arrayed against a load bearing wall and spread out so its over several joists, then the load on any one joist is small and transferred to the vertical load-bearing studs and plates that are designed to carry much bigger loads. If you are really worried about this, call an architect or structural engineer. Would be well worth a couple of hours of their time (if they charge you at all; they may be able to answer this question very quickly in a brief phone call) considering the cost and hassle of selling all your gear.
leatherneck1812
116 posts
 
Andrewdoan

I am a carpenter, general contractor and builder of all things great and small for my entire life.

A 10 year old house following the standard building codes would allow for 40 pounds per square foot of live load for your floor. Taking 1 room of 14 x 16 with a total of 224 square feet x 40 = 8,960 pounds equally distrubited throughout the room. A 300 pound refrigerator of 33" x 36 " = 36 pounds per square foot. These days lots of folks weigh in excess of 300 lbs. and occupy 1 square foot. I have never heard of someone falling through a floor or colapsing a floor. These loads a very conservative

You have absolutely no worries for your stereo or anything else in your home.

The crack is probably a drywall seam.

Enjoy your system and stop worrying.
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