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Article: 58319 of rec.arts.books
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From: spb0457@rigel.tamu.edu (SubGenius)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Can you stop nostalgic book buying?
Date: 17 Feb 1993 15:28 CST
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References: <1993Feb9.164418.22785@PacBell.COM> <1993Feb12.120839.1616@grebyn.com> <1993Feb14.003008.3368@zip.eecs.umich.edu> <1993Feb17.133611.2486@grebyn.com>
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Robert Grumbine writes...

>  My ballpark estimate on books is 10 lbs per foot for a single row of
>hardbacks, or a double row of paperbacks.  (Having had a scale and
>time on my hands one evening.)  So a 6-shelf bookcase, with 3 foot long
>shelves represents about 180 lbs of books.  To get up to 8000 lbs,
>(Fiona's tally) we're in the range of 45 such bookcases.  Was that
>the reason for your move?  To find a place with room for your books
>to be displayed? :-) 
> 
>  I once talked to a friend who is in construction about the floor
>loading problem.  After we roughed out the weights (as above) he
>told me that I really shouldn't put the cases away from the supporting
>walls.  The cases represent about 60 lbs per square foot, and would
>have extended across much of the room.  The floors (I forget
>the exact figures) are designed for 20-30 lbs per square foot
>average loading.  (The standard being designed for a dinner 
>party, I guess.  But they only get part of the floor space.)

+--------------------------------------SubG---------------------------------+
According to the 1991 Standard Building Code:


		MINIMUM UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED LIVE LOADS

Occupancy or Use				Live Load (psf)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Libraries:
  Reading rooms					 60
  Stack rooms (books and shelving at 65 pcf)	125
  Corridors, above first floor			 80

Residential:
  Multifamily houses;
  Private apartments				 40
  Public rooms					100
  Corridors					 80

Dwellings:
  Sleeping rooms				 30
  Attics with storage				 30
  Attics without storage			 10
  All other rooms				 40


..where psf is pounds per square foot and pcf is pounds per cubic foot.

The good news is that these loads are then factored so that the actual
figure designed for is larger than the expected load.  The bad news is
that the standard weighting for live loads is 1.4, so that if the
code sez that your live load will be 40 psf, you design for [(1.4)(40)=]
56 psf, still considerably below what you'd like for books.

Back to some good news.  If you overload your floor, chances are that you
won't punch a hole in it (unless you start stacking VW microbuses on top
of your books).  On the other hand, depending of the construction of the
floor you're overloading, you probably will notice some sagging.

I'll refrain from prating on at greater length about structural design.

SubGenius