snowyskiesau
14th February 2007, 11:34 AM
I've just been checking under the house to see if the floor in the back room/workshop,
is up to supporting a small lathe (around 100Kg)
The bearers have been notched to fit into the wall and onto the brick pier.
(see attached).
I'm planning to put in a post under each end of the existing bearer so that the notch is no longer the support point.
Will this be sufficient or should the bearer be replaced as well?
OBBob
14th February 2007, 12:10 PM
100kg is only 1 largish person ... would you be worried about having two people stand next to each other on that floor ... probably not? I guess the other consideration is whether the lathe is likely to vibrate ... that could add a fatigue factor I guess ...
silentC
14th February 2007, 01:02 PM
I was going to say that putting in a post might give the termites easy access to your sub-floor but I see that you don't have pier caps anyway...
Assuming that your bearer is up to spec dimension wise for the span etc. notches can be cut up to 1/8th the depth of the bearer, or 25mm (whichever is the lesser) deep. Judging from your pics and without knowing the scale, I think you might be over that already.
However, as Bob the Owner Builder points out, 100kg is not over the top for static load. A 100kg person actually exerts more than 100kg of force when walking around. So it's you plus the lathe plus a bit for you walking around.
Personally, I probably wouldn't worry too much about it assuming the lathe is going to be close to the wall. If you feel that it's a bit on the light side or it bounces, you could fix a length of C purlin to the side of the bearer to span piers as reinforcement.