Building code: How much can I physically store in my apartment?

I plan to give Costco some nice business but would have to store a lot of it (heavy consumables) in my apartment.

I have the space, but am worried about the “cheap Taiwanese construction” I keep hearing so much about.

I asked the building management and they said 200kg/m^2 which seems really low to me. My fridge should be falling through the floor if that’s really the case, and God forbid more than 1 person used the couch at once.

Is there some way to pull this information for the building, or to politely ask for the real numbers, or does this seem reasonable/usual? It’s a big building, maybe 5-10 years old.

My guess is that rating they are giving is for the whole building assuming everyone put 200kg per m^2 then the pillars on ground floor wouldn’t collapse from all the weight above.

It’s not saying you can’t have 400kg in a 1m^2 area assuming you have another 1m^2 with no weight.

The max weight for a single 1m^2 area of floor would be a different number.

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when’s the party, because I hear you’re buying CostCo’s Kirkland bottled beer

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Is there any way to know what they are giving? I know for example if I concentrate the weight in corners and along load-bearing walls I can get some more out of it, but there’s a big difference in Costco terms between 200kg and 400kg, and then 600-800kg where I have a pretty empty room that I can just load up.

Every day, buddy. I’m going full zombie apocalypse in case Costco sells out of my fav’s. Stock was dangerously low last time I checked.

it is the minimum live/dynamic loads in building codes.

it is different from the strength/hardness of the floor material. (I hope this makes sense.)

Taiwanese buildings are all made of reinforced concrete, ones that isn’t sheet metal construction that is (those I find rather dodgy).

I’ve seen a freaking supermarket built out of sheet metal and steel studs. I don’t know how they’re having all that stuff upstairs but quite a few are built this way. But normal buildings are basically 4 inch reinforced concrete with THICK rebars that can probably hold many tons. Seen spas built on second floor with a large pool that most likely weights several tons. Water is very heavy.

How much can I physically store in my apartment?

Based on what I’ve seen the local hoarders accomplish, the amount of shit you can jam in your crib is virtually infinite.

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So what would that translate into, practically?

Let’s say I wanted to stack Kirkland bottled beer from floor to ceiling in a 1m^2 corner of my room (ignoring how bad an idea that is for the sake of example, or assuming I bought beer insurance or had some kind of support brace), and it weighed say 600-800kg. Could I get away with it?

Or in more specific terms, given that rating, how much could I probably get into a 1-2m^2 corner of a room, where one of the walls would be the exterior of the building?

Why would that be a bad idea?

In general, you should be fine keeping heavier items in part of your apartment. If you can spread them out, it would be better. Maybe you could spread them evenly across the room and add a fake floor on top for improved walkability.

Also note that loads change with movement, so if you add a 600-800kg horizontal beer bottling line in one corner of your room rather than just a stack of beer, I would be more concerned. Only from a structural perspective, of course.

I think you need to know the size of floor boards that the thing is put on. If a thing with a weight of 1 t and a bottom size of 1 m^2 is put on a board of 5 m^2 and the board is not broken, its loads to the building are reduced to 200 kg/m^2. I don’t know if this is right, though.

I wouldn’t worry about it, man, we got a :banana: piano.

[mod was here]

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I was going to put my milling machine on the second floor. The trouble was I had no way to get it up there. Ended up giving it up for a first floor place with 3 phase electricity, that is smaller and rattier.

I seen a screw shop (shop that sells screws and bolts) on the first floor, but with a basement. I’m going to guess the shelf (floor to ceiling, 10ft high, packed with bolts) weights many tons. No one’s complaining about structural problems either.

The problem is earthquakes!

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I’ve been trying to make our laundry/balcony crumble and fall off with a 100kg combo washer/dryer on it. Still no luck yet…

Suffice it to say Taiwanese buildings are generally as sturdy as they are ugly.

They either ‘pancake’ or tilt as a block.

They should NOT pancake unless corners were cut in its construction, or improperly modified (for example knocking out entire load bearing walls to increase interior space). When I say corners cut in its construction I mean buildings filled with oil cans rather than concrete…

Tilting is probably a bigger possibility however.

Not sure about your building or room setup. But i would worry less about weight (if 800kg is the max) and more about outside wall leaking (windows) and heat (sun) affecting your food/beer. I tried stocking up on beer and stored it it a room that got hot along the outside wall…not awesome after a couple months.