Increaing the load capacity of 1st floor floor

[Justin Music Studio]

Hello I hope someone can help.
I could do with some advice regarding how to spread the load of a heavy object on a first floor building.

Before I start may I first explain that I live on the 1st floor in a small residential building,
which consists of two flats, one on the 1st floor and one on the ground floor.
I also live in the UK where the building standards require that buildings are built the min load capacity of 150 kg per square metre.

I also believe that the 1st floor is likely constructed out of steel beams and girders with a concrete slab either placed on top or set in place.

OK. Let me explain the details.

I have one room which is:
9 ft x 12 ft = 108 ft2
2.74 m x 3.65 m = 10.001 m2

with a min load capacity of 30.72 ft 2 or 150 kg per m2

I have a heavy object (isolation booth for recording music in) that has a floating floor of:
6.67 ft x 6 ft = 39.6 ft 2
2.01 m x 1.82 m = 3.68 m2

I estimate the weight of the entire isolation booth to be between 1000kg and 1200kg including the floor
So, I figured that the weight of the booth using the existing floor of 39.6 ft 2 or 3.68 m2 would result in the room to over load.
even as a dead load, rather than a live load.

For example. 1200 kg / 3.68 = 326.08 kg per metre, which is more than double the min safe load capacity,
as is 2645 lbs / 39.6 = 66.79

However, I have read that it is possible to increase the load capacity of a floor by implanting an engineered solution.
One area for example, I read that it is possible to create a platform on beams covered with a floor, which can be used to spread the load even further. A simple spreader.

And as I can use the entire 9 x 12 floor space, it is possible that I may be able to make a beam and wood top platform to spread the weight more evenly.

Although, I was wondering if such a strategy would work? I ask, as I am not a structural engineer but a sound engineer.
So please forgive me if I have a very simplistic understanding of structural engineering so do not fully understand the other complex factors that have an impact on the true science behind the engineering.

Still, I would be really grateful for any advice on this matter that I appear to find hard to find info on.
Thanks
Kind regards
Justin

 

[BridgeSmith]

What you're proposing may work, or it may not. In any case, you will need to involve a local structural engineer for any solution. The potential good news is that, depending on the configuration of the floor support system, the platform may not be necessary, but you won't know until the structural engineer is able to look at the support system for floor and determine its capacity in the area where you want the booth to go (and presumably the path across the floor in order to get it there). If a platform can be used to spread the load to areas that can support it, you'll need the structural engineer for that as well. I can tell you this much, the platform will have to be stiffer than the floor, or it'll just be adding more concentrated load.