(Topic ID: 101478)

How many pins upstairs?

By PINBELL

9 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 24 posts
  • 20 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 7 years ago by volkdrive
  • No one calls this topic a favorite

You

Linked Games

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

money-pit_(resized).jpg

#1 9 years ago

I'm thinking of moving pins to upstairs room. Question is, will 21 pins be a strain on the floor/ceiling over the living room? Catastrophic pin-drop would probably lead to a divorce!!

#2 9 years ago

It looks like the US residential weight standard is a minimum of 40lbs per square foot. But, that also depends on the width, height, and spacing of the floor joists.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php

21 pins at 300lbs a pin = 6300lbs = over 3 tons.

#3 9 years ago

I have 5 in my dining room (system 11s) and 8 in my living room, 2 in my entry hall along with a 100 CD jukebox. All over my basement with 15 to 20 pins down there at any given time. If my floor joists aren't strong enough to support that...then it needs to fall so I can rebuild it bigger and stronger!! (cue the SMDM music!!)

Phoebe

#4 9 years ago

6300lbs with > 200 sq ft of room space (+/- 10sq ft /game) = 31.5lbs/sq ft. So your good. You would need a large room to hold 21 games.

A king size waterbed is close to 2000lbs, add in dressers clothes and weight of people your probably over 3000lbs in one room.

#5 9 years ago

With seven in my attic, i was concerned too we would end up with them in my bed ...

Invited an inspector, spacing of floor supporting beams is 50 cm so he said no problem ....but, he said .... with get-togethers spread your public somewhat evenly over the whole place, that will be your main concern

#6 9 years ago

I have in my upstairs guestroom of a 2 bedroom townhouse - TZ DW NM (cocktail pin) CP WWF

so that is 2 widebodies, 2 standard, and a cocktail. plus lots of parts in boxes, external sub woofers, and a pachinko to top it all off.

#7 9 years ago
Quoted from PINBELL:

I'm thinking of moving pins to upstairs room. Question is, will 21 pins be a strain on the floor/ceiling over the living room?

Pinbell,
As I was reading your 1st post, I thought you were going to say -- will 21 pins be a strain on my back as I lug them up the stairs?

The answer of course is a big Yes.

Please get some strong people to help you if you do decide to bring some/all of them upstairs.
Consider using a good dolly to make it easier, remove door off the hinges if necessary ahead of time, etc.
Not worth throwing your back out, or having it fall on you or on a helper.

The more pins you haul upstairs, eventually, the more you will also need to bring back down.

#8 9 years ago

Uff, moving games upstairs is the worst.

#9 9 years ago
Quoted from TheLaw:

Uff, moving games upstairs is the worst.

All in the basement.....which is just as bad if not worse at my house. Tight 90 degree turn on the stairs SUCKS.

I thought STTNG was literally going to kill someone.

#11 9 years ago
Quoted from Astropin:

which is just as bad if not worse at my house.

Yeah i guess it's all how it's set up. My upstairs was moving half the game in the closet, rotating, sliding etc etc...just not enough room.

#12 9 years ago

Joe, either your single or your wife is Mother Teresa's little sister...

Super exclusive ad from the Pinside Marketplace!
#13 9 years ago
Quoted from Pinball-is-great:

Pinbell,
As I was reading your 1st post, I thought you were going to say -- will 21 pins be a strain on my back as I lug them up the stairs?
The answer of course is a big Yes.
Please get some strong people to help you if you do decide to bring some/all of them upstairs.
Consider using a good dolly to make it easier, remove door off the hinges if necessary ahead of time, etc.
Not worth throwing your back out, or having it fall on you or on a helper.
The more pins you haul upstairs, eventually, the more you will also need to bring back down.

I have an Escalera! I'll still have help. I'll put them underneath, in case it slips!(;

#15 9 years ago
Quoted from PINBELL:

I'm thinking of moving pins to upstairs room. Question is, will 21 pins be a strain on the floor/ceiling over the living room? Catastrophic pin-drop would probably lead to a divorce!!

That can only be answered when several items are identified...size/ spacing/ type of floor joist, construction method, deck surface, to name a few. Unlike a waterbed ( sadly) your weight is not evenly distributed over a large area. You will also be dealing with dynamic load ( people) assuming the games are being played...ALOT of weight randomly put up there.... I would highly recommend hiring a reputable SE ( Structural Engineer)to inspect and provide a stamped drawing of the area in question....had a similar situation when I reworked some load bearing beams in a house several years back....total cost for SE's services with drawing was somewhere around $650.00....a small price to pay (IMHO) to insure everything is good, peace of mind, and accountability......

You stand to risk much more than an angry Spouse if things go bad......safety first...please don't play around with this...good luck.....mark

#16 9 years ago

Since you already have some useful answers, I'll offer this: Keep adding pins until the floor/ceiling collapses. Then rebuild to original specs and install one less pin than it took to collapse the floor.

Steve

#17 9 years ago

Short answer -
Newer house, likely no problem due to building code
Older house, who knows? Have to get a better look at how it was built

#18 9 years ago

Best advice, turn the garage into a game room. Forget the upstairs pain and agony of moving them in and out!

#19 9 years ago
Quoted from RCA1:

Short answer -
Newer house, likely no problem due to building code
Older house, who knows? Have to get a better look at how it was built

It probably isn't a good idea to assume even newer houses would hold the weight. If builders used cheap materials, the bare minimum measurements for things, and cut corners, or used a faulty design that wouldn't evenly distribute the weight, there could be problems that aren't immediately obvious.

But yes, older houses can vary much more widely because of the lack of building codes.

1 year later
#20 7 years ago

Have a bonus room above garage. House built in 2006, room is 13 x 16 feet. Currently have 2 WPC, 1 Sys 11, 2 Stern, plus home gym at 450 - 500lb. Would like to guage if that would work to add 2 WPC and a GNR data east weight wise.....seems it would. There is also a main beam running side to side in the centre of the garage below. Opinions?

#21 7 years ago

At one time eleven up the stairs. Now eight.

Had to install a removable hand rail which makes it a lot easier.

#22 7 years ago

I think you also have to take into account the overall weight of the people playing them.

#23 7 years ago

I saw a movie once, I believe it had Tom Hanks in it. One of the scenes showed him building an upstairs gameroom and putting one too many pinball machines in it, and as you can see from the screenshot, he wasn't too happy about his collection falling through the floor.

money-pit_(resized).jpgmoney-pit_(resized).jpg

#24 7 years ago

yes, I considered the people as well, with current load have had 10 people up there at avg 200 lb w/o issue. Of course new layout would restrict the amount of persons too. Proposed amount I am looking at would work out probably 10 with weights in lieu of 2 machines. That clip would be from "The Money Pit" I think...

Promoted items from the Pinside Marketplace
$ 73.00
Playfield - Toys/Add-ons
Pixels Arcade Games
Toys/Add-ons

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!


This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-many-pins-upstairs and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.