Weight of shelves with vinyl concern

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Paul Beatty, Oct 25, 2020.

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  1. Paul Beatty

    Paul Beatty Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I recently added one last ikea shelf and am officially nervous about the weight. Any structural engineers, architects and/or experienced collectors help me get some sleep here....I am on the main floor of a home with a basement below. I'm not ready to move to the basement - hoping to stay where I am.

    I have roughly one wall with 28 cubes and another wall with 20 cubes. About 3500 records. Room is roughly 12x12 (office).

    Thanks for your help/advice.
     
  2. The FRiNgE

    The FRiNgE Forum Resident

    Impossible to answer on the shelving you are using. The weight is a concern, and should be. Approximate weight of 100 records is about 50 Lbs, so, 3500 records will weigh in at about 1750Lbs. The construction of the room or home should also be a concern, as record shelves should be on a supporting wall.
     
  3. Bob_in_OKC

    Bob_in_OKC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas
    We could suppose one joist is at least designed as 12 feet (joist length) x 2 feet (joist spacing) x 40 pounds per square foot (current residential code) = 960 pounds. That is probably more than the weight of half the records. You could test that by weighing a sample stack of records. I’d be worried enough to investigate.

    The joist spacing could be less than 2 feet, which would reduce this calculation. If there is a beam or bearing wall, that would likely be designed to carry the load of half the room instead of just one joist spacing width.
     
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  4. grapenut

    grapenut Forum Resident

    Joists are usually spaced at 16” OC.. I speak as a former licensed carpenter.
     
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  5. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
  6. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Are you worried about the shelves collapsing or the floor under them collapsing? :)
     
  7. formbypc

    formbypc Forum Resident

    Do they all rest on the floor, are they attached to the wall .... more detail, please.

    However, consider this; would you be comfortable with using the room as a dining room, with 4 people around a central table? If so, compute that weight and compare to LPs.

    Would you comfortable placing a piano in the room? That would rest on only three or four legs/castors, and I don't think we see many pianos causing structural failure ... and they are heavy assemblies of cast iron and wood.
     
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  8. Peter K

    Peter K Forum Resident

    Very interesting question and I worry about it myself! I have the IKEA shelving unit too with 25 sections all full of records and cds. It is on a wooden floor which itself is joists. The unit isxagainst the supporting internal wall but not physically attached. The loading calculation above has given me food for thought.
     
  9. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    My iPod is getting very heavy in my pocket What should I do? .... :D:D:D:D
     
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  10. formbypc

    formbypc Forum Resident

    I've got the Ikea 5x5 Expedit, fully loaded, against one wall, with, on the same wall, a heavy Tannoy subwoofer, three Ikea full-height Billy/Gnedby CD racks, and two single-level, wide Ikea cabinets loaded with LPs. Rounding the corner to an adjacent wall is a three-level Ikea wide cabinet stacked with reel-to-reel tapes, magazines, DVDs, and a heavy reel-to-reel machine on top. I've got access to the garage below this room, and there's not a sign of anything that concerns me.

    The only problem I had was that I placed a single bracket on the top of the Expedit to inhibit toppling, and as the Expedit settled into the carpet, the top moved outward to a small degree, slightly more than the leeway I'd built in the to the bracket, and it pulled a little bit on the plasterboard of the wall. Small repair needed. This was clearly due to the back of the unit resting on the grip rods and carpet near the wall, and the front not having the same underneath, since it's resting on carpet and underlay, not carpet plus grip rod. There's more leeway for it to sink into the carpet at the front.

    Unless you feel your floor is particularly weak or poorly built when compared with what we might call "standard construction", I wouldn't worry. Standard construction will be fine.
     
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  11. Paul Beatty

    Paul Beatty Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I am more worried about the floor = shelves are strong and good build. My concern is that the cubes hold roughly 75 lps. Now, I have an area with 5 cubes stacked on top of one another, so roughly 450 lp's in a 12"x12" area. I am sure others have the same setup, but just voicing my concern.
     
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  12. Paul Beatty

    Paul Beatty Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Thanks for your reply, posts like this make me feel better. The house is only 7 years old - should state that, but adding an additional 4 x 4 cube - which now reaches over 6 feet high of records, has me concerned.
     
  13. Bob_in_OKC

    Bob_in_OKC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas
    One perhaps comforting thing to keep in mind is code calculations don’t represent a structural failure. It would be calculated to a deflection limit.
     
  14. formbypc

    formbypc Forum Resident

    Ours is early 1990s build, standard lateral joists with particle-board floorboarding at right-angles to them on top.

    We've got a baby grand piano in another room on exactly the same type of floor, and its weight is borne by three legs with castors, all pressure on those three small points, of around a square inch or so. We didn't give any consideration AT ALL to whether or not they are above the joists, or resting on the particle board alone, and again - no problem. Clearly the particle board has the structural strength to support one-third of the piano's weight; if not, one or more legs would have gone through it, but there's no evidence of any movement..
     
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  15. rednedtugent

    rednedtugent Forum Resident

    Location:
    Funk, Ohio
    I would just buy dynaflex records. :buttkick:
     
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  16. quadjoe

    quadjoe Senior Member

    I'd be sure to attach a bracket to the top to keep things from tipping over in the unlikely event that a child would try to climb your record cabinet. As for the weight load, remember that the total weight is distributed over the area of the cabinet shape (or the number of feet, if the cabinet has any) and not a single point load. I have my record collection is a set of custom cabinets that hold books on the top 3 shelves and then records on the bottom, and they are upstairs along a single wall. Our floor joists are on 16" centers and the floors are 5/8" plywood which is carpeted, and my record cabinets are perpendicular to the direction of the joists. I'll try to post pictures after a while so you can see how they are arranged. They've been there for nearly 4 years and our house went through a category 5 hurricane....
     
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  17. dividebytube

    dividebytube Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    My grandfather, may he RIP, was an avid book collector. The story as I heard it: He had his books shelved in the finished attic and the weight began to cause the floors (and ceilings below) to sag. Additional support had to be added.
     
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  18. formbypc

    formbypc Forum Resident

    With some housebuilders, the "floor" in the attic is not designed with the same load-bearing capability as the floors in the designated living spaces. It's built to be a ceiling for the rooms below, and simply to separate the attic from them. Not as a load-bearing floor for the attic.
     
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  19. roverb

    roverb Forum Resident

    Location:
    603
    now you've got me a bit concerned about my piano...
     
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  20. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
    If the records and crates total say 2000 lb
    And the area is 24 ft x 1.25 ft = 30 sq ft
    Loading ~ 67 lb/sq ft
    For a modern home built to code the design live load is 40 iirc. So not good.
    But that is the whole floor 12x12x40=5760 lbs
    And there is a safety factor.
    It's good the load is against the wall (load bearing I assume). The bad is it's a point/concentrated load vs distributed.

    If you walk near them do you feel movement or creaking? I would get someone to look at it.
    They could put some posts/jacks below and/or sister the floor joists.

    I might distribute them along 3 walls if possible.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2020
  21. formbypc

    formbypc Forum Resident

    A square foot = 12x12 inches, or 144 sq inches, so that's 67/144 = just under half a lb per square inch.

    As I mentioned above, one can place a baby grand piano on typical particle board floorboarding, around 500 lbs spread over three point contacts of around one square inch each, so around (500/3 =) 166 lbs per leg, without issue.
     
  22. BrentB

    BrentB Urban Angler

    Location:
    Midwestern US
    We have a saying in the service department in the dealer I work in about cars on the lifts. "It can't fall past the floor, just get out of the way first!"
     
  23. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
    even though the 500 lbs only has 3 points of contact the load is distributed by the beams, joists, flooring, etc over a much larger area.
    More than 3 sq ft each x 3 ~10 sq ft at least
    So 50 psf

    I have been a licensed professional engineer in multiple states for decades. I have done wood construction structural design, new and remedial.

    67 psf is his approximate loading LP's ONLY.
    No people, furniture, etc. so it is actually higher than 67 psf.
    Code 40 psf

    I offered my opinion. It's up to him to decide.
    In the basement
    4 jacks
    2 10' 2 x 12 boards
    Place under each row: 2 jacks and 1 board
    Cheap insurance imho

    He needs someone to look at it, measure deflection, pull out, cracks, etc.

    https://www.bc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IJ-12_Design_Live_Loads_Residential_Floors.pdf
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2020
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  24. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
  25. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
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