Upstairs games rooms... advice needed!

retroshaun

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Hey all...

We are looking to buy a house at last and the options are a little limited in terms of having a games room. Some of the places we looked at have "lofts" which are basically bedroom sized open areas at the top of the stairs.

I was thinking it could be a good space for a games room but at the same time I am worried about the amount of weight bearing I can realistically expect an upstairs floor to handle.

Does anyone have experience of a similar setup or any idea how many cabs I could safely have in such a space? Or how to go about getting that information? I realize its probably down to how the place was built of course, but I am sure there's a minimum load bearing that any home needs to support. All the houses are either new or built in the last 15 years at most.

Cheers!
 
Alot depends on how many machines you are planning to add to the space. Also, make sure to look for the "load bearing wall". Thats where the strongest support beam will be. It's typically the longest wall in the house.
 
I don't know the answer to that but I had an upstairs (small) gameroom a long time ago with just 3 games and a fooseball table and it was fine. But.....it was noisy as heck downstairs when people were up there playing games. Especially with the foos.
 
I have an upstairs gameroom (houses in Texas typically don't have basements) at the moment, I have 1 pin, 5 pachicko machines, 2 pachislots, 9 video games 2 recliners and a TV stand with a 27" TV in my gameroom. None of them have fallen through to the study (below the gameroom), yet.

Typically gamerooms are built a little better because the most common item to put in a gameroom is a pool table and some of the better ones have 1" slate beds in them and they are heavy MFSOBs.

ken
 
Uniform Building Code calls for a MINIMUM of 40 psf (pounds per sq foot) for the entire floor. So if you had a 24 x 10 ft loft, you should be able to support 9600 pounds up there. That's more than 16 games and players at the same time. And remember, most structural designs are built with a large safety factor over the minimum.

I'm not a structural engineer, so this opinion is only my belief.
 
I've got a 21 x 18' 6" game room. I will be placing about 15-20 up there. I have about half up already. Just moving in. Also know a few people with about 10 games or so upstairs. Pins and arcades mixed.
 
I've got an upstairs gameroom with 10 vids in it right now. I have three more vids and a spy hunter cockpit still to go. I think with the vids spread out, the weight should be fine but I've also wondered how much is too much.

The stairs suck big time but the room is awesome. You should be fine as far as weight is concerned from what I have read throughout the forums here on KLOV.

Torin
 
upstairs gamerooms are great, except for the stairs!

I keep showing my wife this: http://www.harborfreight.com/1300-lb-capacity-electric-hoist-2954.html

image_11215.jpg


But so far she is not going for it :(

ken
 
Upstairs games rooms... advice needed!

......Don't do it......Just don't do it. Take the number of games you want to put there and do a quick calculation of 250 lbs x that number. It doesn't take long to really get up there. Then ask yourself, how many guests do you expect to be playing those games at one time. That's another 250 lbs x X. So by the time its done, you may be looking at a few tons that have to be supported. Your better off holding off for a place with either a basement, nice garage, or out building.
 
I had 18 in my living room at one time, placed along the outer wall and the middle load bearing wall. It was fine, but I'm glad they're all in my basement now...its just a LOT of weight.
 
I have a 20x20 upstairs arcade over the garage. It has 12 videos, 5 pinballs, a full size air hockey and a ping pong table. I keep the games next to the load bearing walls. It does fine in a party. My wife thinks if I add more games up stairs it's going to have a problem. I think it is OK.

To get the games upstairs, I have a fold out track I made from sheet metal studs and a custom dolly. I use the Harbor Freight 1300 lb hoist permanently mounted to the wall (shown ealier) to pull the games up. I can do it by myself. The next house will have a downstairs arcade. Even with the hoist, getting the game upstairs is not my favorite thing to do.
 
If you're doing an upstairs game room, I'd consider no more than 10 machines and add a ping pong table or something big but light in the middle as The weight will rapidly become an issue. If you really want 20+ vids in there, you should get something with a detached garage, or a basement.
 
Am I on a bozo list where no one sees my posts or something?

I just told you all that UBC is 40 pounds per Square Foot. In the example above, the 20 x 20 room can support a minimum of 16000 pounds. If the average cabinet is 300 and the average person is 200, that's 32 games and people, MINIMUM.

Are you all afraid your upstairs is not built to code?
 
I've heard tale of a single grand piano causing trouble in an upstairs. And while your 40 lbs/ square foot might be correct, you have to think that the games and people are all going to be along 2 opposite walls most of the time. If you have your floor joists running opposite of the games you would "PROBABLY" be ok. But if they happen to be running the same direction as the row of games and people, you may have have most of the weight on 4 joists directly under your games. And you also have to think about what passes for building materials these days, those particle board I beams should barely count as wood let alone floor joists. Firemen around here won't even go into a house that catches fire with them since the glue melts and causes whatever they are supporting to collapse. And if you been collecting long enough, you know what a happens to an old Atari game that gets wet. And given a long enough time, your likely to have a flood. The guy asked advice. Which implies opinions. Your free to yours, just like many here are free to disagree, just like the OP is free to disregard it. We're not telling him he can't do it, but he needs to think about it. If he's building a place, he might want to go with 2x12 rough cut lumber instead of 2x10 or worse 2x8 floor joists. If he's buying, he may want to know whats holding up the upstairs before he puts 7 tons up there. I was looking at adding on to our house, and not many builders even wanted to tackle the job with the specs I gave them, and that told me they had some serious reservations about it. But hey....that's just my 2 bits.
 
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Well, when you get settled in make a road trip to Fort Myers. I have 41 games upstairs and will stop at around 50. I have like 12 downstairs but they are just there to catch you when you fall through from above. ;)

My brother has a house in Port St. Lucie. When you get ready for an arcade party let me know. :)

Todd
 
I'd rather have winter & a basement than warm weather all year and having to move games UP stairways...

(and I don't mind winter anyways... it's quieter)
 
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