Posted Floor Live Loads

[vmirat]

A customer asked me about their second floor live load posted limit of 125 psf (storage). They want to know how to figure out what they can put up there. How are non-engineers suppose to figure out floor load arrangement so as not to exceed the posted limit as required by the IBC?

 

[cntw1953]

Your customer was on the right path (that got you - an engineer, involved), for which was the intent of requiring posting floor live load capacity (in case the original design document get lost, change of owners, uses...etc).

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Buy a scale and weigh the junk

 

[DTGT2002]

The simplest solution is to rent the space below the storage area to an engineering company, and once they move in, mention the intent to fully load the area and ask for a little insight on how much that would be.


This question is always one that has baffled me, there are two sides, at least. One side assumes that the design loads are based around reasonable experience of the loads typically encountered and most people will behave in the typical way. One side assumes all folks can figure out what something weighs and evenly place things in a room.

I think the right answer is what your client did - ask a responsible party.

Most folks don't really think about the consequence of turning the third floor cube farm into file storage. A round of applause for those that do!