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

Showing 3 responses by hevac1

You should have no problem. The heaviest item per square inch in your home is your refrigerator when full. It's even heavier than a waterbed per sq inch. There are lots of homes with frig's on the second floor. I have my record collection and stereo on the second floor of my house. My house is over a hundred years old. I did add support under the records but not the rest of the room. 400 lbs is about 2-3 people at most BTW.
Semi,
I would check the distance between joists if I were you.
They used 24" centers alot and the joist is usually a true 2X6 in older houses. Today it's 16" centers and the joists are 1.5"X7.5" at best. The issue is, will 24" centers with 2’X6”s hold enough weight? Maybe, but when I remodeled my 3rd floor they made me add joists between the existing joists and onto the existing bowing 2"X6" joists to bring it up to code.
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.