Hi DIY Folks
I hope someone can help suggest some good solutions here.
I recently moved into residential accommodation, a 1 bedroom flat that is situated on the 1st floor of a 2 flat unit (1 bed flat upstairs, 1 bed flat downstairs). Otherwise the property is detached.
Now that I have moved in I would like to reconstruct an isolation booth made from lightweight materials (timber, dry lining and mass loaded vinyl).
The booth potentially weighs as much as 1200 kg with a 6 x 6.6 foot floating floor.
The room I would like to reconstruct the booth in, has a floor area of 9 ft x 12 ft.
I figured that if I rebuilt the booth on the existing floating floor, the pressure per square foot would be higher than recommended.
In the UK, I have read a document authored in 1996 that states the min spec of British Standards for the min load capacity for imposed floors in residential buildings including in the bedroom.
The min load capacities are listed as follows.
Uniformity distributed load kN/m2: 1.5 kN/m2
Concentrated load kN: 1.8 kN/m2
Now presently the isolation booth has a floating floor of 6.6 foot (2.032m) x 6 foot (1.82m) and an area of 39 square foot (3.714 m2)
I estimate the isolation booths weight at approx. 1200 kg including floor
So I calculated the load of booth as it is @ 1200/3.714 = 323.10 kg / m2
translated to imperial
2545 lbs / 39 = 67.8
Which in both cases is too high
However, I do note that once the booth is reconstructed, it will not move.
So perhaps should be treated more like a dead load rather than a live load.
Now, I was wondering what the solution was to this problem, as I would still like to rebuild the room.
I was thinking that if I were to rebuild the floating floor to span the entire are of the floor (which is 9 ft x 12 ft or 2.74 m x 3.65 m)
Then I would be able to distribute the load of the weight of the booth
more evenly across the entire area of the floor, rather than on one particular area.
If done so.
I calculate crudely the following: the area of the entire floor is as follows:
12 ft (3.65m) x 9 ft (2.74m) = 108 ft 2 (10.001 m2)
1200 kg / 10.001 m2 = 119.98 kg/m2
2545 lbs / 108 ft 2 = 23.56 lbs/ft 2
I also have read that if I were to build a dunnage platform (raised floor made from joists of some form with floor covering on top) to distribute the weight evenly, and placed the frame for the dunnage over the joists in the floor, then it is possible that I would be able to increase the load capacity even further as a safety precaution.
If anyone out there has any experience or knowledge on this subject, I would most definitely be grateful for your advice.
Thanks
