If the house is designed and framed properly, i.e. in accordance with a building code, the only pieces of "furniture" heavy enough to worry about in terms of floor loading are bathtubs/spas full of water and stone or masonry fireplaces.
Excess load
If you have bought a lot of furniture or something more substantial like a piano or maybe you might have added an extra feature on your cabinet, it will add extra weight, which will make your floor to sink.
Excessive Weight on a Floor
For example, a floor of an office building is generally designed to hold a lot more weight than a floor in a residential home. However, if load-bearing supports are not installed properly, this can cause a floor to collapse.
For example, a properly designed office floor can support 50 pounds per square foot. This may seem light, but this is 50 pounds over each and every square foot of floor space. It does not mean that a 300 lb. lineman standing on one leg will fall through the floor.
For bedrooms, the capacity is 30 lbs. per square foot. This does NOT mean that if you put 50 lbs. on a single square foot area the floor will collapse.
Floors are usually designed for a nominal 30psf to 40 psf live load. Example: a 10x10′ room designed for 30 psf can handle 3,000 pounds of people, evenly distributed across it.
Safety factor is a measurement with which your floor was designed to support loads without collapsing. Most homes have a safety factor of 40 PSF (pounds per square foot).
The majority of floors in modern structures, including raised floors, are more than adequate to support the load of a gun safe, even those weighing over 1,000 pounds.
The building code requires the residential floor to be able to support a 40 psf (pounds per square feet) live load. For your safe that weighs 300lbs, it requires a footprint that covers an area of 300/40 = 7.5 SF (square feet).
Typically, floors that slope 1-1/2 inches or less in 20 feet is not a problem. Floors that sag 2 inches or more in 20 feet, though, are a cause for concern. Additional indicators of a significant problem include: Foundation cracks.
You will notice the floors sloping to one side, or sagging in the center. The floor may feel oddly bouncy or soft, or have high and low places. These are all signs of a deteriorating floor structure. But even if your main beam falls down, it won't immediately take out the entire floor.
You can tell if a floor will collapse by looking at the floors for foundation damage (cracks, uneven floors, bowing, etc.), but the warning signs can also appear as cracks in walls or window frames.
Over time, a heavy bookcase will sink into the floor and cause damage, regardless of what kind of flooring the room has. Hardwood flooring, vinyl, linoleum and carpet are all susceptible to damage. Ceramic tile is less likely to sustain damage, however, because of its rigidity.
A good, heavy-duty gun safe can weigh more than 1,000 pounds. That's a lot of weight on your second-story floor. You don't want a safe falling through your ceiling. If you want your safe on the second floor, make sure to have the floor and ceiling below it evaluated for support strength.
And most of the time it shouldn't be a problem. It would help to know something about the dimensions of the safe (particularly the dimensions of the base), and the construction of the house. If your sub-floor is 3/4" plywood, and your floor joists are on 16" centers, you shouldn't have a problem.
Aquariums up to 55 gallons can be placed almost anywhere without much worry at all.
Definitely. But just like installing a safe requires special tools and expertise, removing a safe does too. In fact, moving a safe down a flight of stairs is substantially more difficult than moving it up.
How well built is your floor? If you have a strong structural foundation and no defects in the framing, you can likely put up to a 125-gallon tank upstairs with no problems! Anything larger such as a 200- or 300-gallon tank should never be placed on an upper level without extra bracing or reinforcing the floor first.
RAISED FLOOR LOADING CAPACITY
How Much Weight Can a Raised Access Floor Hold? The weight load capacity range for standard raised access flooring ranges from 950 pounds - 1250 pounds.
If the floor sags more than a few inches, it may collapse completely, putting everyone in your house in danger. Sagging floors can also cause misalignment of doors and windows, making them harder to open and close. Sagging floors can even crack the walls of your home in extreme circumstances.
For residential floors, the live load is usually considered to be 30 to 40 pounds per square foot (psf), although this varies depending on the location within the home. First-floor live loads have higher requirements than second-floor live loads (40 pounds per square foot vs. 30 psf).
What Happens if You Don't Fix Sagging Floors? If you ignore sagging floors, it can lead to consequences such as property damage that your insurance company may not cover. It can also lead to injury when someone trips or falls on uneven floors, or even property loss if the damage is great enough.