tub + 3500 lbs. After I completed my deck, I was proud of it and, of course, wanted to show it off to all my friends. That being said, most weight-bearing calculators for decks assume a default of 1500 pounds per square foot for soils. Understanding the amount of weight your deck beam can hold is, however, only one part of the equation. To determine the maximum load capacity of your deck, start by calculating its total area and multiply by 50 psf. The first thing you need to work out is how much water the jacuzzi will hold (in gallons) and multiply that by 8.345404, which is how many pounds one gallon weighs. Afterward, I began to wonder how much weight can a deck hold? That is a big range. Decks built ground level up to 2 feet off the ground can support up to 100 lbs per square foot; sufficient for most hot tubs. In that case, you’ll need to know what the average snow load is per your geographic region – a snow load chart helps. I highly suggest hiring a professional to check it out. ... After adding a spa, plus water, plus people in the hot tub you can add around 6000 lbs to your deck. That way, the weight is divided amongst three footings. So I think I'm going to get a pro out there to spec it out. There’s no official skateboarding weight limit, but the quality of the board you buy will affect how much weight it can bear before it gives way. For instance, a 3-ply 2×12 beam can span 8’ between footings when joists are 12’ long when both SPF or Western Cedar is used. To calculate the load, you should use 40lbs per square foot for live loads (these are variable loads that are dynamic such as the weight of people and furniture) and 15 lbs per square foot for dead loads (this is the weight of the materials used for the construction of the deck) for a … Is there a way for me to test how much weight it can hold? Such calculations would hold if, for instance, the load is square. Let's add the dead load of 10 psf to our number and we get 111 psf in the area under the tub. Divide that distance in half. There is no specific amount of weight that each weight plate can support, however they can only hold up to 10. For instance, if you know the dead load of the deck will be less than the prescriptive 10 lb., then you can select 5 lb. That number is simply a minimum requirement. They'll probably tell you that you have to pull a permit, so I wouldn't give them your name or address unless you want to jump threw those hoops. Most decks will hold more – sometimes significantly more – than 50 pounds per square foot. The average homeowner does not have the tools available to determine how much more weight your deck can hold than the code minimum of 50 pounds per square foot. Many building departments limit joist cantilevers to 24" maximum. can hold 420 gallons of water and seat 6-7 people (average weight per person = 185 lbs.). Figuring Out How Much Your Deck Handle As a general rule of thumb, if you have a deck that’s raised only a couple feet or less, it can support about 100 pounds per square foot. It’s possible that it could hold much more weight than 50 lbs. How much weight/ How many people can my rooftop deck hold? On, not in. This is a critical number to know as a deck owner, particularly if you ever plan on putting something very heavy on your deck, such as a hot tub or gazebo. Once we find out the appropriate diameter, we can then know if our deck is overbuilt and, thus, capable of sustaining more weight. They will tell you exactly what the code is for that sort of thing. When we built a deck-expansion onto our house, we also got a fairly large spa. Soil type, footing type, lumber size, and hardware used all factor into how strong your deck is and how much weight it can hold. Simply because it is assumed that you will clear your deck prior to inviting 20 of your friends over for a beer on that deck. However, a properly constructed cedar deck to specs of 50 pounds per square foot will be able to hold the same amount of weight as a deck that has used typical pressure-treated wood. Now you have an area for each footing. Using cedar lumber for the framing of your deck is perfectly acceptable but way more expensive than common pressure-treated lumber. Reverse that and divide your area by pi. You’ll measure the distance from the ledger board to the center of the support beam and draw a line. First, you divide the tributary load of 1500 – the weight-bearing capacity of the default soil type used to determine building codes. 3000/1500 is 2. Thanks for the advice. In short there’s no one right answer to “how much can my deck hold?” However, one rule of thumb to keep in mind while answering the question is that the answer commonly is that if a deck is properly designed, it’s built to hold 50 lbs. (8.35 lbs / gallon). Most decks will hold more – sometimes significantly more – than 50 pounds per square foot. Therefore, if you have a deck beneath a roof eave where snow will slide onto, you either need to regularly clear your deck or install a roof snow guard of some type. SYP lumber can span 10’ – 2’ more than the other species. It then determines the total load from each tributary area based on the design load of your deck. Multiply each area by 50, and you have the number of pounds per square foot that each footing can hold. Luckily, we now know how to calculate those loads since we did it a few paragraphs above. Aimee Ann on June 7, 2018 at 4:04 pm I have a 2nd story rec room, measuring 24×18 in … Let’s take our 12×10 example and investigate the weight capacities of different types of beams. That means that the overall structure can support a load of people, or “stuff”, of at least 40 pounds per square foot on top of your deck. If you drove a dump truck over it, yes this would throw all our calculations out the window. Do I need to hire a professional to do that? If you go under this deck and find you have 3 ply 2×8 beams, then you can use a span table to determine footing placement. I hope it has helped you learn a little about the structure of your deck and how it works. I want to know how much weight my deck can support. How much weight will a .125 inch wood screw support? If you want to actually put people in that hot tub, you’ll need to reinforce your deck. If that is the case, you could have the strongest deck frame in the world, but bad soil will cause your deck to sink under loads that the frame of your deck is designed to support. So if a hot tub like the one in the example is under that weight, the average deck should be able to support it. Then check out this footing load table, which can tell you exactly how big your footings need to be based on the size of the post, the span of the beam, and the length of your joists. I spent a week at a vacation house on the Russian River, and the rickety deck (about 15 feet off the ground) had a pretty large 4-person hot tub jacuzzi on it. So, what’s the load capacity of a standard deck? However, you’ll have to get underneath — or at least have a good view of the underside of your deck – to see the dimension of lumber it was built with as well as to measure the distance between footings, footing type, and the type of hardware used. Calculating a tributary load is fairly simple if you have a standard rectangular deck attached to your house. An engineer or your local authority should be able to give you some idea as to whether it is capable of holding the weight in addition to the weight of the number of people that could fit onto the deck. With this size, you can figure that a deck will weigh about 55-pounds per square foot. The three major types of wood species used in deck construction are Southern Yellow Pine (SYP), some combination of Spruce, Pine, and Fir (SPF), and Redwood, Western Cedar, or Red Pine. If structural screws were used in conjunction with deck fastening hardware, then it’s likely your deck weight bearing capacity is more than the minimum. Ask MetaFilter is where thousands of life's little questions are answered. 288/3.14 = ~96. The American Wood Council states that cantilevers are limited to 1/4 the span of the joists. Also, deck maitnance is key (waterproofing and that kind of stuff) to prevent the wood from rotting. It may cost you, but you’ll know for sure the limitations of your deck and the steps for rectifying any issues. for 7 occupants = 5655 lbs. How much weight can a 11 7/8″ X 1 3/4″ X 20′ wooden I-Joist hold. The depth of each structural member will also be a key player here. Mind, you didn't say embedded. I want a jacuzzi out there. That doesn’t mean that your deck will suddenly have the same bearing capacity – it only means that your deck will not sink – ever. The gross vehicle weight (GVW) is how much the trailer and its payload weighs together. Next, you measure the distance between the footings. If you want to host a large party on your deck but still aren’t sure if it can handle the weight, it’s best to contact a building engineer. Let’s take a 12×10 foot deck as an example. Add to this the weight of the tub itself and any filters, pumps etc and you will have a total weight for the whole thing. It would be difficult to verify every last detail of your deck structure to ensure it is up to code, particularly the thickness of concrete footings and soil type. When you add a spa or hot tub to a deck you are adding a lot of weight. So a 100 sqft deck would be designed to support 5000 lbs. Default is 50 psf which you can change. All of them did, I'm sure, have a solid foundation. The next portion is to figure out how much weight this footing is going to hold. For instance, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has an average snow load of 70 pounds per square foot. As well, we’ll show you resources you can use to ensure you are building your deck strong enough. Like anywhere from 25lbs to well over 300lbs. Do that for each midway point between footings. Let’s change that area of 2 square feet into inches. Eugene has been a DIY enthusiast for most of his life and loves being creative while inspiring creativity in others. Below I’ve listed a few of the major areas that give a deck the ability to sustain large amounts of weight. To safely install a roof deck, the roof needs to be able to support about 55 pounds of weight per square foot in general. Here’s an example from deckmagazine.com: A 56-sq ft. hot tub with a dry weight of 855 lbs. Absolutely, but we’ve got to know how much weight each of our footings can handle. Lastly, we’ll take a look at the different types of lumber you can use for your deck and how it will affect the weight capacity of the overall structure. We’ll have to install another footing beneath the beam. Help me make my curtains as noiseproof as possible. You must use at least five framing nails to attach the rim joist to the ends of your joists. If so, how much does that cost? But our hot tub is 3900 pounds – what do we do? If you find that your deck joists are 2×10, but the deck load calculator only mandates 2×8 joists, then you can safely assume your deck is much stronger than 50 pounds per square foot. water + 1295 lbs. Knowing the tributary load of each footing can help us determine the diameter of each footing. What started as a small gathering ended up pretty large, and there were a lot of people on my deck. The gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) is the maximum amount of weight the trailer is able to safely hold and transport, as rated by the manufacturer. The type of load in question will also determine how much weight a 2x6 can hold on edge. The total load for each tributary area is then divided by the area of each footing in order to determine the load psf imposed on the soil. Also, some of the most highly durable skateboard trucks have weight limits of 250 lbs. This number is the footing area – but we need the diameter. Or, we can place the hot tub where two or three tributary load areas intersect. The spa filled has 320 gallons or 2672 lbs. The thickness of concrete is an important factor in load-bearing strength, but to conserve resources and avoid over-building, other factors are also taken into consideration. per square foot. But decks 2 feet or higher will need added support. A residential deck should be designed to hold 50 psf (40 psf live load and 10 psf dead load). The key is to make sure you use the appropriate nails or structural screws, as indicated by that piece of hardware. It will simply ensure that the deck does not sink into the ground. If your deck was built to code and the appropriate permits were pulled and signed off on, then it is entirely likely your deck holds a minimum of 50 pounds per square foot. That number is simply a minimum requirement. We get just over 19” for our footing diameter. If you don't already have plans for the deck, draw up a sketch showing the size and spacing of bearers and joists (including the material if you can), the dimensions and materials of the decking itself and the details of how it is held up. The … Ask MetaFilter is a question and answer site that covers nearly any question on earth, where members help each other solve problems. The Spa itself if friggin heavy (to the extent of needing to use a crane to lift it onto a 2nd-story deck). It is always wise to contact a professional to get an accurate estimate of what your deck can safely handle. There are many variables when it comes to calculating deck load capacity. Can you put a hot tub on a deck? This is for soils that are a mix of loam, silt, and clay, which also happens to be one of the weaker types of soil. I can now safely assume that my deck can hold much more than 50 pounds per square foot, as indicated by the deck span chart. Therefore, a deck of 120 square feet multiplied by 50 shows that your deck can hold 6000 pounds, including the structure. Maximum allowable overhang cannot exceed 1/4 … If you don't already have plans for the deck, draw up a sketch showing the size and spacing of bearers and joists (including the material if you can), the dimensions and materials of the decking itself and the details of how it is held up. However, it is highly advisable not to push the 2x4 material up to its limit. Join 6,470 readers in helping fund MetaFilter. Generally, we’re talking about 50 pounds per square foot. If your footing is 24” sonotube, then it is more than strong enough to support your deck. My favorite storage solution is to shove more and more stuff “up in the rafters.” And that got me thinking… how much weight can my roof trusses take? Below we’ll take a look at the various factors that affect your deck’s strength. Then find the square root, and multiply times 2. I've never in my life seen a sunken hot tub, though I know they exist. It means different types of soil vary in terms of how much weight they can support before whatever they are supporting sinks into the earth. It is only slightly stronger than SPF lumber or Redwood and Wesetern Cedar. And it does not really matter because the frame of a Trex deck is what supports the deck, not the deck boards; therefore, a Trex deck is no stronger than a lumber deck. Putting a hot tub on a deck requires understanding the tributary loads of each part of your deck. Before you calculate how much weight your deck can hold, you first need to understand how much weight per square foot it can hold. If there is no strong wind, a 2x4 measuring at least 8 feet can support at least 1,000 pounds vertically. If your deck is built on bedrock, gravel, or even sand, then you’ll have a higher – and potentially even a much higher – soil bearing capacity. I went through the permits, but was not able to find a weight rating in there. Advice for building a back yard cabin,... Atlanta MeFites: Contractor recommendations required! For … Again, knowing your deck lumber species can allow you to see if your deck is overbuilt. Here’s the official answer: Unless you have “storage trusses” specifically engineered for extra weight, you shouldn’t store anything in them. But keep in mind those are just estimates. One of the best tools in your arsenal to determine deck weight capacity are deck load calculators and max span calculators, widely available online. To calculate the weight of the deck, I’ll use a 10×10 deck for this example. This means that if you had a 100 square foot deck (10′ x 10′), you’d be able to hold 5,000 pounds above it (assuming the weight was evenly distributed). How does this affect load-bearing capacity? For our purposes, we’ll assume our deck is 12 feet long and 10 feet wide. At the beginning of the article, we determined that the total live load the deck could sustain was 4500 pounds, after subtracting for the “dead” load, which is the deck structure itself. It also risks collapsing a deck. Trex claims it supports 100 pounds per square foot, although that number is not based on any specified criteria for a deck structure. If you look at the joist span tables above, it doesn’t take long to see that SYP is stronger than the other lumber species. Using the example above, if you have a beam of that size built with SYP lumber, and you have a span of 10’ but with three footings instead of two, you can safely assume the overall weight-bearing capacity of the deck is far more than 50 pounds per square foot. This includes furniture, people, etc. Therefore if you have a hot tub that weighs 4500 pounds, that doesn’t mean your deck can support it since that weight is only in a concentrated area. The other half is supported by the footings supporting the beam. Since we are shelf geeks and own a company that manufactures floating shelves, this is an easy one for us. A key indication of your fastener load bearing capacity is what you’ve used to affix beams to joists and posts to beams. Above, we calculated the tributary load of a deck, which tells us how much weight each footing can sustain. If you are not sure if your deck is built to code, then fortunately you can still determine how much weight your deck can hold. Now keep in mind that the deck is meant to sustain that load over its entirety – not in a concentrated area. Here is a formula you can use: H (porch weight)= 40 lbs/sqft floor live load + 25 lbs/sqft dead load + 30 lbs/sqft roof live load = 95 lbs/sqft (assuming roof over porch). Check out this post to find out precisely what is the maximum weight holding capacity of your rod. Since a hot tub will more than likely fall into the area of just one, or maybe two, footings, we need to know that one footing can handle the weight of a hot tub. But what does that mean? One of our last variables in determining deck weight bearing capacity, fasteners, are arguably the most important aspect of deck construction and the most overlooked. How to Determine if a Deck Can Support a Hot Tub, Deck Weight Limits for Composite and Other Types of Decking. Thanks guys... my ladies really want to start hot tubbin' nightly and I want to indulge them, and myself. You cut a big hole in your deck, then pour a concrete foundation on the ground to support the weight of the hot tub, and drop it in. In general, most decks can withstand 100 lbs per square foot. Let’s say that distance is 14’. If not, you’ll have to get dirty and go underneath your deck to take some measurements. The amount of weight that each individual footing can hold is called the tributary load. If we have just four footings of 1 sqft under the tube creating four rought equal tributary areas of 16 sqft each footing will have to carry 16x111 lbs or 1776 lbs over our 1 sqft footing and we have 1776 psf In fact, the snow that slides off the roof and piles up over winter is extremely heavy. Just as 50 pounds per square foot is the minimum weight capacity for a deck built to code, so too is soil bearing capacity. This calculator determines the size of each tributary area of your deck. or 7 lb. On the other end, a 2x6 can support a V8 engine of between 600 – 700 lbs. If only nails were used, without hardware of any type, then you might want to think twice before placing an 8000-pound hot tub on your deck. Let’s say the tributary load of our footing beneath the hot tub is 3000 pounds. The type of lumber used is also critical in determining how much weight your deck can hold. It is 10'x16', framed with pressure treated wood. In the case of our deck, we have footings every 4’. Of course, this isn’t something you’ll want to guesstimate. total weight. You’ll also have to know the type of lumber used – in this case it is SPF since we are up north. Don't get confused with what weight you might think or want to load the deck with. construction, and less joist overhang. and eek out a longer span. So, if the spa is less than 100 pounds per square foot you likely have nothing to worry about. Calculating tributary loads is not difficult, as long as you have a diagram of your deck’s framing structure. The joists are 2"x12" over 20ft, 16" on center ; The framing under the deck is typical 2"x4" framing (living space), on a concrete foundation; The deck was built in 1980 up to code. However, if you are using post to beam connectors, joist hangers, and hurricane ties to support your structure, then standard 10d nails are just fine – the hardware itself will provide most of the support. The average homeowner does not have the tools available to determine how much more weight your deck can hold than the … Log in to Reply. While accounting for snow load in the U.P. Dividing by 5 will allow you to determine that 4500 lbs is the max live load your deck can hold. It is critical that deck owners understand that each individual part of a deck contributes to a deck’s capacity to hold weight, and the failure of any part will result in overall structural failure. Now it is simply a matter of finding the area for each rectangle. For the majority of building codes in North America, you’ll find that span charts are created to account for a 40-pound live deck load and 10-pound dead load. That means half of the deck closest to the house is entirely supported by the ledger board. The GVW includes the weight of the trailer itself, plus its payload and anything that adds to the total weight. All posts copyright their original authors. Weight. is probably wise, you’ll notice that North Carolina, for instance, only has an average snow load of 15 pounds per square foot. It is also not as strong, which will result in potentially more footings since cedar cannot span the same distances as pressure-treated wood such as SPF or SYP. Add to this the weight of the tub itself and any filters, pumps etc and you will have a total weight for the whole thing. One square foot has 144 square inches – so for us it’s 288 square inches. As always, thanks for taking the time to read this article. 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