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I have a potentially silly question, but I honestly don't know if this is a problem or not. If I were to stack pennies in $25 boxes in a small area on a concrete floor in my basement, could the concentrated weight cause issues with the foundation of the house? Consider a one ton stack of 8 boxes per row and 16 rows high. That would be one ton on weight on a 16 x 16 inch area of concrete in the corner of my basement...is that too much? I'm not anywhere close yet, but could get there with a few months work and just wondering if I need to reconsider my storage plan.

Assuming the floor pour and reinforcement is equal to that of a typical garage floor, it shouldn't be a problem. A 4000 pound car sitting in a garage is putting 1000 pounds on each of four tire patches that are typically no more than one fourth of that area.

Standard disclaimers apply. Not responsible for ... anything that might go wrong

Thanks, good perspective on the car example. I'm just looking for a reasonableness test...no disclaimers necessary!

Horde can give you exact fault tolerances, I'm sure

68Camaro wrote:Standard disclaimers apply. Not responsible for ... anything that might go wrong

Hahahahahahaha!

I applied my Advanced Arithmetic skills and calculated that the weight would be about eight pounds per square foot. Of course, I've seen some concrete work that would scarcely support that weight.

EDIT
...eight pounds per square INCH, not foot.

Couple of weeks ago I heard on the radio that all concrete work comes with 2 guarantees

1. It will get hard.
2. It will crack.

Concrete has a rating. A quick search reveals that a house foundation might be rated at 2500 psi. Pounds per square inch is the expanded abbreviation.

This information I just looked up so you will have to verify if it is correct or not You are talking about 2,000 pounds. a 16"x16" section would be 256 square inches. 256 square inches at 2500 pounds per square inch. This would give this a capacity of 640,000 pounds? Seems high but might be right if anyone wants to chime in. Also not sure if this would effect shifting without breaking

My understanding is that non-reinforced concrete is very strong under compression conditions but much weaker under tension. If you put a lot of weight over an area that was not well supported from underneath for some reason (localized soil conditions?) then I think it's possible the concrete could fail without coming close to its compressive strength rating in psi. I'm not sure how you would find out if that is a real risk in your case but my gut feeling is that it might be more likely if the pile was in the corner.

All the above is true, but let's limit this to the original question of a couple thousand pounds over a fairly spread out (16 x 16 is significant) area of code-compliant concrete slab. That will be fine.

(In general, local loading will try to flex the concrete as well as compress it, so the concrete should be supported underneath by soil as well as contain a tension-carrying mechanism (wire mesh, re-bar, fiberglass strands, etc) in order to carry the tension stress on the lower portion of the concrete that results from flexing. The design of reinforced concrete slabs for general application is way out of the scope of this discussion here. But for the question above, all should be good.)

Thanks all, yes the more I've thought about it, I am sure the concrete itself will be fine. The only slight concern I have is with the settling of the foundation. It's what's underneath the concrete and how solid the soil is that might be the only issue. However,with some further thought and perspective I don't think 2200 lbs is worrisome. Now, when I get to the second ton, I might consider a second storage area.

I would not worry about it. I stack my tons 5 high and the skids they are on weigh aroudn 150lbs each. The skid has 4 legs with that are probably an inch by an inch. If it doesn't break under that than you have nothing to worry about with a 16x16 area.

highroller4321 wrote:I would not worry about it. I stack my tons 5 high and the skids they are on weigh aroudn 150lbs each. The skid has 4 legs with that are probably an inch by an inch. If it doesn't break under that than you have nothing to worry about with a 16x16 area.

Damn,the volume people sort on here is amazing. I feel so small time! I'm having trouble enough trying to get enough pennies to keep my single Ryedale Apprentice fed.

TXBullion wrote:Concrete has a rating. A quick search reveals that a house foundation might be rated at 2500 psi. Pounds per square inch is the expanded abbreviation.

This information I just looked up so you will have to verify if it is correct or not You are talking about 2,000 pounds. a 16"x16" section would be 256 square inches. 256 square inches at 2500 pounds per square inch. This would give this a capacity of 640,000 pounds? Seems high but might be right if anyone wants to chime in. Also not sure if this would effect shifting without breaking

AAAKKKK! I meant pounds per square INCH, but typed pounds per square foot. Glad you caught it.

I have a potentially silly question, but I honestly don't know if this is a problem or not. If I were to stack pennies in $25 boxes in a small area on a concrete floor in my basement, could the concentrated weight cause issues with the foundation of the house? Consider a one ton stack of 8 boxes per row and 16 rows high. That would be one ton on weight on a 16 x 16 inch area of concrete in the corner of my basement...is that too much? I'm not anywhere close yet, but could get there with a few months work and just wondering if I need to reconsider my storage plan.

I wouldn't be worried about the concrete with the load you are talking about. But before being concerned about the concrete, you might want to consider the load on the bottom boxes. The bottom row of boxes will have almost the same load as the concrete floor, and concrete much stronger than cardboard.

tinhorn wrote:

TXBullion wrote:Concrete has a rating. A quick search reveals that a house foundation might be rated at 2500 psi. Pounds per square inch is the expanded abbreviation.

This information I just looked up so you will have to verify if it is correct or not You are talking about 2,000 pounds. a 16"x16" section would be 256 square inches. 256 square inches at 2500 pounds per square inch. This would give this a capacity of 640,000 pounds? Seems high but might be right if anyone wants to chime in. Also not sure if this would effect shifting without breaking

AAAKKKK! I meant pounds per square INCH, but typed pounds per square foot. Glad you caught it.

We knew what you meant...

Just hoard zincs.. they're lighter.

Somehow, I knew a smart comment from Hoard was forthcoming.

Pennies? Who is saving pennies?

I thought this was a basket weaving forum.

We weave baskets to hold the pennies. You can't have too many baskets.

We don't stack them quite that high out here in earthquake country.



Just spread them out a little more.. or get some Gorilla shelves that hold 1 ton per shelf.

Nice stack!