Access Floor - Equipment Rolling Load Vs. Live Load

[edsel75]

I have a project in CA where the Live Load is specified as 150psf, and the Equipment Load is specified as 1050psf. The equipment is being rolled of the access floor, onto its own self supporting structure.

Does the Access Floor need to be designed with the 1050psf as the Live Load? How does this rolling equipment load affect the design of the access floor?

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Check the IBC 2009 (Structural) - I think all floors must be able to hold a live load plus a 2,000 (maybe 1,000) rolling point load. But the point load can be spread over a 2'x 2' area - or something like that. Look it up.

150 psf is a bit high - What are they putting in there??

If you can move this "rolling" load - I doubt the 150 psf load would be in the same location??

 

[Lemony]

ASCE/SEI 7-05 requires a minimum concentrated live load on an access floor system of 2000 lb. The concentrated load is assumed to be uniformly distributed over a 2.5'x2.5' square.

The minimum uniform live load is slightly less (100 psf or 50 psf depending on use).

 

[hokie66]

If the access floor has to support the equipment temporarily, of course it has to be designed for that loading. That temporary condition has little to do with the code live loading requirement, which has to be met once everything is in place. In most cases, heavy equipment installation like this leads to shoring under the lighter floor sections over which it travels rather than designing those sections to take the full load.

 

[msquared48]

Shoring, yes, but the shoring still needs to be supported by something, even if it is a slab-on-grade.

Perhaps a heavier structural corridor could be established that would be reinforced for the load to allow movement of the equipment in now and out in the future should it need to be replaced. It could be marked as such on the floor.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering