Fitness floor LL
Fitness floor LL
(OP)
I have a client who wants to convert a building into a gym. There is a second floor that he wants to put circuit traing equipment on. The IBC has never really done a good job of giving live loads for rec/fitness floors. Does anyone have an idea of a safe LL to use in my design. I'm wondering if 150 psf is not enough or too much. I'm treating the equipment as a LL since it may be shifted around. Any help is greatly appreciated.






RE: Fitness floor LL
RE: Fitness floor LL
Gyms and health clubs have a lot of open space with really intense localized loads. 150 psf sounds generous overall but you may want to look at what could be happening at individual members in more detail. I'd be asking the client for cut-sheets on some of the likely equipment to see what sort of loading intensities are possible.
regards,
Michel
RE: Fitness floor LL
150psf seems heavy to me. As Michel points out, health clubs typically have large open areas combined with localized areas of heavy weight (racks of free weights are probably your biggest culprit). Treadmills aren't that heavy, a few hundred pounds, but spread over around 15 square feet. I'd see if 125psf or 100psf would satisfy. Perhaps you can do an analysis using some actual point loads from machines/loads placed in worst case scenario arrangements and compare that to an equivalent distributed load. It might help give a sense of scale and see if your 150psf is really needed.
Do consider running a floor vibration analysis. Serviceability might dictate your design more than strength in this case.
M.S. Structural Engineering
Licensed Structural Engineer and Licensed Professional Engineer (Illinois)
RE: Fitness floor LL
A single machine (treadmill for example) is going to put all of its load on four very small points at the legs. Its not a "uniform" load spread out over the whole floor area of the machine.
RE: Fitness floor LL
RE: Fitness floor LL
RE: Fitness floor LL
RE: Fitness floor LL
I’d still check it out. Circuit training machines (and circuit training in general) can still cause noticeable excitations. And I would note on the drawings that what you designed for and what you expect to NEVER be on that floor. I say that because I had an elevated floor like that once (in a gym)…..I designed it based on what the owner told me: there will never be an aerobics class up there. Well guess what? I joined that gym about 5 years later…..and it was like a disco club up there.
In any case, the best source I’ve seen to check floors for this kind of vibration (by human footfalls) is: “ATC design guide 1 : minimizing floor vibration”.
RE: Fitness floor LL
Structural Engineer Magazine Article
JLC Magazine Article
Also, I recommend you consider fatigue in the connections between wood members. Due to the repetitive loading this floor is likely to experience, you may want to oversize any hangers or fasteners.
-Shane
RE: Fitness floor LL
While I agree with your point that the load of a treadmill will only be applied via a finite number of feet on a given machine, the fact is, the machine still occupies floor space, so you won't have those 15 or so square feet occupied by other loads. The load from the machine's feet only pose a risk if you are concerned about a punching failure. As others have point out, if you are concerned with this, you should also be concerned with heavy lifters doing squats, who may place 500lbs spread over the area of the ball of their foot.
No load is ever truly uniform. look around your office, desks, chairs, bookshelves, these all apply point loads to the floor, but we don't design for each piece. Watch out for especially heavy equipment, but you don't have to go bananas tracking the location of every little bench and water cooler.
Shaniak raises a good point, I did not realize you were designing this floor with wood framing in mind. I agree with him, connection design and fatigue may be an issue and deserve your attention.
M.S. Structural Engineering
Licensed Structural Engineer and Licensed Professional Engineer (Illinois)
RE: Fitness floor LL
Concentrated loads will likely be an issue. If the existing deck is plywood or particle board, you may want to apply an additional deck on top.
BA