| Re: Sub floors & preparing for your new aquarium
Well it's DONE (floor support system).
We discovered that there is NO "human" access to our crawlspace at all under this house. So we had to pick a point that would allow us to break through a non-load bearing wall to create this access point. There is only one non-load bearing wall that would allow for this and it's approximately 20' from where the tank is and it's underneath our deck.
We started yesterday by removing a good portion of our decking boards to give access to the area. We then used a masonry bit in a hammer drill to make holes in the mortar joints and then used a hammer to break out the block to make a hole. This was all done either laying on our back, on our knees or hanging almost bat-like from the deck joists. It went more smoothly than I had planned so in short order a good friend was on his belly crawling under the house.
We made a "trolley" system to get tools and supplies to him under the house so that he doesn't have to crawl in and out any more than he HAS to. Ideally we wanted one in and one out each day. It works amazingly well (a big surprise). The trolley was a rope that he had under there with him with a snow sled (plastic tub sled) that we loaded with tools and stuff. He pulled the sled to him, emptied it and then we pulled it back out to reload.
he located and marked where the tank was located and and started digging out an area to pour concrete for a footer. We created a grid of rebar and he poured the concrete into the hole (we mixed in buckets and "Trolleyed" it to him). It couldn't be used yesterday because it needed to harden before placing block on it.
This morning he went back under the house and used various sizes of bock to "shore up" the potentially weak floor. The footer is about 5' x 3' x 2' with an array of concrete block stacked up to almost to the subfloor with a treated 2v on that up against the floor joists as a "shim".
It's all done now and ready for water. It's still several weeks out on adding water but fortunately now that house should support the tank when I do add water.
Unfortunately due to location and light issues I only have a pic of the wall before and after the access hole. I couldn't get any pictures to come out from under the floor.
Allen |