Concrete slab load limits.

[RonMar]

Does anyone have a link to any load limit reference material for concrete slab on grade floors? I have been looking around a bit, but have not had any real luck finding what I am looking for. What I am looking for is typical slab thickness load limits in pounds per square foot. IE: How much of a per SQ/FT load will a 4" garage slab withstand? Or a 6" slab?

thanks

 

[Treemonkey1000]

ConcreteHelp.net - Guides and tips on working with concrete

 

[MikeD74T]

Compressive strength of concrete for footings to floors should be 2500 -3000 psi or more at 30 days when poured & cured properly. The limiting factor that you need to consider is the strength and compaction of what's under the concrete. On good compaction with non-expansive soil a 6" slab will hold the heaviest equipment , dozers, excavators, etc. If you have bad soil you need a reinforced slab, like a bridge deck on the ground. If you leave marks on the ground before you pour or the ground raises or expands when wet then you'll not be happy with the floors performance later. "Architectual Graffic Standards" is a good reference book for reinforced slabs. MikeD74T

 

[RonMar]

ConcreteHelp.net - Guides and tips on working with concrete

Thanks. That is an interesting site, and I added it to my bookmarks, unfortunatly in about 90 minutes looking thru it, I didn't find what I was looking for.

Perhaps if I lay out the details of the project I am contemplating. I want to add a large super insulated hot water storage tank to an upcomming home build. When I say large, I am talking 750 gallons. That is a tank approximatly 70" in diameter by 45" tall. A tank this size will have a bottom surface area of around 26.73 SQ/FT and the bottom insulated pad will have a surface area of approx 36.67 SQ/FT. At around 6400# all up tank weight when full, that is a load of 174-239 LB per SQ/FT, depending on how much the lower insulation distributes the load over the floor. I am estimating that the The ground floor/basement level will be a 4" re-enforced slab with footings over 2-4" of insulation, with ICF walls. With the potential load and footprint from the tank described above, does anyone think the area this tank will occupy will require any additional floor thickness? Is there a "rule of thumb" that says in general, do not exceed XXX# per SQ/FT on a 4" slab.

Thanks

 

[RonMar]

Compressive strength of concrete for footings to floors should be 2500 -3000 psi or more at 30 days when poured & cured properly. The limiting factor that you need to consider is the strength and compaction of what's under the concrete. On good compaction with non-expansive soil a 6" slab will hold the heaviest equipment , dozers, excavators, etc. If you have bad soil you need a reinforced slab, like a bridge deck on the ground. If you leave marks on the ground before you pour or the ground raises or expands when wet then you'll not be happy with the floors performance later. "Architectual Graffic Standards" is a good reference book for reinforced slabs. MikeD74T

Thanks Mike
I am obviously well within the compressive strength of the concrete itself, but there are indeed a lot of variables, which is probably why I don't ever recall seeing a rule of thumb My future build site is mostly sand and round rock, but I am not sure how that will effect load bearing ability beneath the slab. I am just trying to get my brain around some of the details I am planning for this new home, and wether I need to make special considerations or perhaps make different plans for certain features. A large thermal storage tank has been a dream of mine for quite a while though, as it adds some real versatility to the available forms of energy I can use to efficiently heat in the winter time.

 

[GT2]

Not sure this helps, but way back when I was renting warehouse space there was a building code or something that said not to exceed ( I think) 100# per sq ft.
Now this proly has more to do with ocupency code than actual concrete load.

 

[CurlyDave]

Ron:

Proper design will allow you to spread the load out where your tank will be, but the first thing I would do is get an opinion from a soils engineer.

In my fairly limited experience, I have seen soils that have 2000#/sq ft to 8000#/sq ft load bearing capacity. Anything above 2000#/sq ft is well above what you need for your tank.

I am sure soils exist that are below 2000#/sq ft, but I just haven't seen them yet.

 

[yooperdave]

You could do a google search on PCA - Portland Cement Association. They have lots of good slab on grade information.

You could also do a google search on ACI - American Concrete Institute.

Joints, temperature & shrinkage reinforcement, subgrade, prep, loading should all be considered.

I have had several garage slabs installed. For smaller to medium equipment - cars, smaller trucks, nominal rack loading, I used a 5" slab with 4000 psi concrete, fiber reinforcement, and air entrainment.

Still a few smaller cracks under some heavy loading areas, but overall, very good results.

Good Luck,

Yooper Dave

 

[yooperdave]

Hey Curly Dave:

I engineered a large house that looked like a river paddleboat way down south many moons ago.

The geotechnical engineer stated that the soil bearing capacity was only 800 psf. Most building codes do not allow you to build on soil with less than 2000 psf bearing capacity. However, way down south the code was not so strict. The footings got real large and expensive.

Also built several buildings over peat moss - not recommended. The soil bearing capacity was nil, so we had caissons, grade beams, and structural slabs. When location is everything, it only takes lots of money to make the dream happen if the underlying soils are bad.

Regards,

Yooper Dave

 

[foggy1111]

I'm not sure of the loading of vaious concrete thickeness....but.....I remember waaay back when I was in my 20's and working with similar inexperienced lads....when we received one million lbs + of coiled steel, and stacked those coils in a pryamid at one side of the building. The soil was all good gravel and the concrete was 6" reinforced. We stacked the steel durning the week....and on Monday, the floor was sunk over a foot. We quickly learned to distribute the load....and the floor "recovered" about 1/2 the settleing.....after removing the load.

 

[warhammer]

Why such a big tank?

Warhammer

Thanks. That is an interesting site, and I added it to my bookmarks, unfortunatly in about 90 minutes looking thru it, I didn't find what I was looking for.

Perhaps if I lay out the details of the project I am contemplating. I want to add a large super insulated hot water storage tank to an upcomming home build. When I say large, I am talking 750 gallons. That is a tank approximatly 70" in diameter by 45" tall. A tank this size will have a bottom surface area of around 26.73 SQ/FT and the bottom insulated pad will have a surface area of approx 36.67 SQ/FT. At around 6400# all up tank weight when full, that is a load of 174-239 LB per SQ/FT, depending on how much the lower insulation distributes the load over the floor. I am estimating that the The ground floor/basement level will be a 4" re-enforced slab with footings over 2-4" of insulation, with ICF walls. With the potential load and footprint from the tank described above, does anyone think the area this tank will occupy will require any additional floor thickness? Is there a "rule of thumb" that says in general, do not exceed XXX# per SQ/FT on a 4" slab.

Thanks

 

[RonMar]

Why such a big tank?

Warhammer

My goal for this new house is to meet the majority of it's heat needs with solar. 750 gallons of water working between 90 and 150 F, can store around 370KBTU in that 6200# of water. With the tank at 150F, and an average heat load of 10KBTU, that is 37 hours of heat. A 15KBTU load would deplete the tank in 24 hours We get quite a bit of winter sun, but it can also be clouded for days at a time. The planned large storage, and a planned large collector area as well as a 10' tracking parabolic collector, will hopefully store enough heat on sunny days to carry me over the shorter clouded periods and reduce the ammount of fuel and electric I need to provide.

I burn a lot of branch and blowdown waste off my property each year. I also only have about 30% of my property the way I want it and there is a LOT of cleanup to do in the future. That burnable waste is going to be chipped and saved for the winter months to fire a small outside boiler(pellet stove on steroids). With the available storage tank, this boiler should only have to be lit-off occasionally, and will not have to run all the time during extended clouded periods. The large tank gives me some flexibility in how I can manage my heating system.