Game room on secong floor of the house

Portent

Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2011
Messages
531
Reaction score
5
Location
Victoria, BC, Canada
I was wondering if anybody else has attempted this. I live in a 2 story wood frame townhouse and would like to use the second bedroom as a small arcade room. The games would be against the bearing walls on both sides of the room comprising of about 8 games (no driving or "heavy' ones like punchout). My neighbour brought up the question of weight and I was so wrapped up in my "game room" that it didn't cross my mind.

I figure if I have a large two person bathtub full of water that doesn't fall through the ceiling as well as a washer and drier that show no signs of collapse I should be ok right?

Any engineers out there that can lend thier expertise? :)
 
I'm right there with you........finished the wiring and starting the walls. I'm starting to freakout about the weight of the cabinets. I built by house with the intentions of putting a game room upstairs but still nervous. Whichever one of us that finishes first can tell the other how it goes.
 
Building code for residential is 40lbs/sq ft for "live load" or whatever you add to the room. It is also going to depend on the type of floor joists (2x8, 2x10) and the spacing (16" on center etc)...as well as the age. Example - Xevious weighs 335 lbs and is roughly 6 sq ft...so that comes out to about 55 lbs/sq ft... so I'd leave some room around it. If you leave 1.5 ft on each side then you get 335lbs/9ft which equals 37 lbs/sq ft. You get the idea. I would have a building engineer come out and look at it if you are worried though. There are other factors that could affect floor loading that you may not be able to tell right away.
 
I have 2x10 joists and they are at 16 on center that span from common wall to exterior. The townhouse is about 25 years old. The room is 10x10 plus closet and two of the walls are exterior facing with one common wall so 3 load bearing in total. I finished the room in quietrock (sound dampening drywall) that is about 80lbs a sheet compared to the 40lbs(?) normal drywall. Not sure if that wakes a difference since its on the walls. I guess I have to consider if I have a party and people cram in to check out the room as well :(

Building code for residential is 40lbs/sq ft for "live load" or whatever you add to the room. It is also going to depend on the type of floor joists (2x8, 2x10) and the spacing (16" on center etc)...as well as the age. Example - Xevious weighs 335 lbs and is roughly 6 sq ft...so that comes out to about 55 lbs/sq ft... so I'd leave some room around it. If you leave 1.5 ft on each side then you get 335lbs/9ft which equals 37 lbs/sq ft. You get the idea. I would have a building engineer come out and look at it if you are worried though. There are other factors that could affect floor loading that you may not be able to tell right away.
 
I guess I will have to get the weights of the machines im going to put up there.

Was thinking of the following:

Gyruss
Elevator Action
(2x) Playchoice 10 single monitor
Bubble Bobble (in nintendo Cab)
Donkey Kong Jr
(2x) Nintendo cabs but haven't decided
 
those games are not very heavy I don'nt see a problem
I guess I will have to get the weights of the machines im going to put up there.

Was thinking of the following:

Gyruss
Elevator Action
(2x) Playchoice 10 single monitor
Bubble Bobble (in nintendo Cab)
Donkey Kong Jr
(2x) Nintendo cabs but haven't decided
 
Chris 25987660250 who does not post here too much these days is a home builder IIRC. I know this question was posed before and his simple answer was that you should have no issues if your house was built correctly to code. He lightly went into how houses are required to be built and how that would support more weight than most people think.
 
So in theory the 10x10 room could hold 4000 lbs and if I was to put 8 games in at 250lbs each evenly spaced there would be 2000lbs left over for say me and 9 of my 200lbs friends without any issue other than body odour. :)

Building code for residential is 40lbs/sq ft for "live load" or whatever you add to the room. It is also going to depend on the type of floor joists (2x8, 2x10) and the spacing (16" on center etc)...as well as the age. Example - Xevious weighs 335 lbs and is roughly 6 sq ft...so that comes out to about 55 lbs/sq ft... so I'd leave some room around it. If you leave 1.5 ft on each side then you get 335lbs/9ft which equals 37 lbs/sq ft. You get the idea. I would have a building engineer come out and look at it if you are worried though. There are other factors that could affect floor loading that you may not be able to tell right away.
 
I had 18 games in my living room at one point before my basement was finished off. I was concerned about the weight. My old man built the house I live in; he said it would hold no problem, and it did.
 
Back
Top Bottom