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Originally Posted by Dentoid  I'm no expert in this field, but when I was growing up we had 2 king sized water beds on the second floor of our house (yes-we were hippies). There was some concern about the weight and damage to the subfloor, but we were told that the weight would be distributed over the the base of the beds and that the trusses were designed to compensate for sag. We never had any problems. Somehow this relates, but I can't tell you why. Al? Frankie? |
Yes it relates! Water is water! For the most part a floor system is designed to carry a LOT more load than what we put on it. Here is how one of my professors described it..
" The floor is designed to carry all of your normal furniture, all of your family, and ALL of your freinds at any given time. This way when you have that HUGE cook-out and everyone you know is there and it starts raining, when they all come running inside you're covered. Now if they all go upstairs and stand in ONE small area you have problems because that's a concentrated load that we have NOT accounted for."
A waterbed is much more spread out over a larger area than most of our tanks are. The "footprint" of the tank is a direct factor in how much load is going into an area in PSI! I've only had one water bed and when I took it down to get rid of it I noticed that it had support in several areas under it. Where as our tanks are usually supported around the perimeter of the stand only. The actual "Structure" of the floor is designed to carry a lot of weight short term and a fair amount long term. It's like you can stand on your head short term and the concentrated weight isn't bad but you can't stand it for long because it's a concentrated load and your head isn't designed for it. Now you take your same bodyweight and apply it over your feet. You can tolerate this loading long term because it's not nearly as concentrated AND it's been designed for my our Great Engineer Above!!
Yes all concrete will literally PULL water from the ground and slowly apply it to whatever is placed on the concrete. A common test to see how much moisture is "wicking" apply some clear plastic to a room in your basement. Make sure it's taped around the perimeter so the water doesn't just evaporate out. Check it every day at different times and you'll see water gathering on the plastic from underneath.
Hopefully this helps some more. I'd hate to muddy already cloudy waters!!
Allen
