Reinforce floor for 180, floor jacks from HD?

[Psyduck]

Ok I'm about a week away from filling up this 180 gal tank I have. I've chatted in previous threads about doubling up joists for reinforcement, but am not sure I really know what I'm doing when it comes to that. What about using floor jack from Home Depot (found them in their online store, $25)? They looks like metal jacks that can extend as high as 9', which should be fine for placing a 4x4 parallel to the tank to give it added support. Is this a stupid way of thinking and it would just be easier to nail additional joists to the current ones or is this an even better way to take the bounce out. Thanks.

[Minnreefer]

WE use a couple of those floor jacks and a 6X6 under our 135 and (knock on wood) still doing well. Hopefully James will stop in and say hi.

Jon

[Psyduck]

Well from what I have been told the worry isnt it falling through the floor it is bounce in the floor. Do you have any noticable bounce around your tank?

[Minnreefer]

The floor jacks really do help on that part. Our house is so bad, it does not even have a foundation , it used to be an old cabin. If it does not bother you and or mess up the basement too much, I would recomend them.

Jon

[Stang69]

By floor jacks if you mean the screw type you can get simple pyramid blocks like you would build a deck with and put them under your floor. They are cheaper than the screw type. You simply cut a 4x4 to the right length and lag bolt it in to the block and then to the bottom of the floor joist. JMO

Jeff

[Hommeworks]

It kinda depends what the material is under the house. Beneath my subflooring is dirt. The floor jacks are wooden 4x4 with a 9' diameter concrete footing. you plumb the jack under the floor joist, then tie the jack to the joist using a galvanized joint which joins 4x4 with 1 3/4(depending on width of floor joist). Do a 4 or 6 pack of these then crosstie the floor jacks together using 2x4s. That should make the floor nice and stable.

[Psyduck]

This will definitely be an interesting week as I set this giant paper weight up. I'll try to take pictures as I set it up and do a little pictorial.

[billc]

Just a thought. If you ar going to be putting the jacks on or around dirt. You might want to add some flashing at the top as a termite shield...

[Psyduck]

No dirt, the basement floor is concrete.

[semajftw]

I know this thread is almost a week old, but I was on a nice vacation and relaxing for the last week in South Carolina, so I haven't been on here in over a week.

Psyduck: Did you purchase the floor jacks? Are you done with supporting the floor?

If you did do this i would be curious on how you tied the floor into the jacks, that can be difficult.

Well from what I have been told the worry isnt it falling through the floor it is bounce in the floor. Do you have any noticable bounce around your tank?

Well to respond to this, i would say that 'bounce' or vibration in the floor will be dampened by the weight of the tank on those joists. Bounce isn't really what you should be concerned about, deflection is more of a concern. if the floor deflects under the weight of the tank you might notice a slight 'down hill' walk to the tank. Deflection may not be a concern depending on where the tank is located though. Deflection will be its greatest if the tank is in the middle of the joists, and much less if it is by a support of the joists. I dont remember if we discussed this previously or not.

Let me know if you need any more help on this subject, I am always glad to help.

-James

[Psyduck]

Sorry I was out of town for the weekend too . No I have not bought the posts yet, we have postponed the setup for a few weeks yet do to problems with getting my parents here. As far as attaching them to the floor, I guess I thought it would be fine on its own after I tightened it and attached it to the joists/2x4s. Perhaps this was naive (spelling) on my part. This is a partially finished basement so there is a thin carpeting on the floor.

I see your point about the deflection/bounce, that is what I am concerned about. I was just trying to find a nice, easy, cheap way to give myself a little piece of mind and I thought the floor jacks would be it. Again I am not the greatest at DIY Home Improvement stuff, but if you have other ideas I would be open to them . Thanks!

[semajftw]

How many floor joists were you intending on using?
one per joist? that seems expensive and overkill.

If peace of mind is what you are looking for then you might want to look into running a 4x4 or similar across the joists in question and then run the floor jacks to each end of the 4x4, but that depends on which direction were your floor joists are running.

I kind of need a better picture in mind to help you further.

HTH - James

[Psyduck]

That is exactly what I was planning. Actually the tank will be on an angle to the joists, and will probably cover 3-4 joists. My plan was to use a 4x4 directly under the tank and use 2 of the floor jacks as support. Hope this gives a better picture of what I want to do .

[semajftw]

works for me, but dont let that 4x4 get too long.

Just seems a little expensive compared to doubling those couple of joists with the same size members.

-James

[Psyduck]

Ok when you say "doubling", you are just jamming in another 1x6 right next to the current ones and running them over the load bearing parts that the current ones are over? I guess I'm not exactly sure what "doubling" entales.