Expert: Bruce E. Johnson - 5/25/2011

Question
How much weight a room in a semi detached house can bear. The weight should be evenly distributed in the house? I am living in two room extension of semi detached house. It has basement. It is 30 year old building. In one room we approximately place 700 Kg. That is 1 queen bed and 1 twin bed. we sleep two adults and 2 kids. total weight is 300 kg. plus under the bed are 40 kg of rice under queen bed and 40 kg under twin bed. Is it problem to the structure. Sometimes on more adult of 65 kg will be doing computer. And add another 200 kg of wardrobes.

Answer
Hi Haranath, without knowing how the floor system in your home is constructed it's hard for me to say exactly what your floor is capable of bearing..however, most floor systems are designed to support 50-70 pounds per square foot or 244-342 kilos per square meter of floor space.  So if your room is ten meters long and four meters wide or 40 square meters then with standard building practices your floor load capacity will be around 1000-1300 kilos. But you haven't given me your room dimensions so that is an estimate to give you an idea. So if you have 700 kilos of weight you should be okay..Is there a problem?  Is your floor system sagging or bouncy or showing other signs of stress for you to write this email?  I hope this information helps please feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce johnson