Help - Pressure of a Pool on concrete

zx82

Hello, I have a friend that would like to put a pool in his livign room but is concerned about the weight of the pool...he lives in an apartment building so in between each floor it's concrete

the pool holds 705 gallons (2680 litres) and its diameter is 9 feet and the water will be 21 inches high...i figured that 2680 litres weighs 5,908lbs or 2,680 kilograms.....also the area taht this weight will be on is about 63.6 feet (pi x r = 4.5^2) however i don't know how strong concrete is and whether it will be able to sustain this weight (which seems like a lot to me)

any help on this would be appreciated or even a final answer so that my friend can avoid a lawsuit!

enigma

Welcome to PF!

If he lives in an apartment building, I'm sure there are rules regarding what he's allowed to put in, anyway. If he's planning on building a pool, then there needs to be a way to drain the thing.

The strength of concrete varies on a great deal of variables, including rebar used, specific mixture of the concrete, and the thickness of the slab. You'll have to consult the structural documents after your friend's landlord says no.

zx82

thanks i'll get im to try and get his hands on the structural documents and take it from there....to me it sounds like an awful lot of weight but i know that concrete is very strong so i'll see what he finds out...he already bought the pool its a plastic one for kids thats meant for backyards and what not...

Cliff_J

The strength of the concrete isn't a factor. Its the strength of the structure. An engineer will build the structure to meet local building codes and to have a certain margin of safety but any more adds to costs quickly.

There are commercial structures that have been built over the years by certified engineers with inspections for code compliance to make every effort to ensure safety, yet failures do happen (watch Discovery channel, they have shows just on engineering disasters). To speculate seems to be a dangerous gamble, and from what I remember of what my civil eng prof said that sounds like 2.5X the load required by code. In other words, maybe not just walking the fine line but jumping right over it to add nearly three tons of weight. And for kids?! I'd re-consider.

Cliff

brewnog

Reminds me of the swimming pool which started being built at Loughborough university. The design was for a pool on stilts, so that an access route underneath the pool could be maintained. The building work started, and it was only when the stilts had been cast and an onlooker commented on the stilts' slenderness that the project engineer realised his calculations had accounted for an empty swimming pool!

The project was abandoned, but the concrete stilts are still there as a reminder to the engineering department...

Njorl

Uh...
If he does it, try to hang around with a video camera. I'm sure you can make a few bucks when the disaster hits.

Njorl

Artman

Several other big concerns for this project:

The fact that he is planning on placing 705 gallons of water above the living rooms of other people. The potential for damge just from casual water leaving the pool is pretty high (splashing, jumping in, etc). A large scale failure of the pool could be very costly.

Also, is he planning to chemically treat the water? If he is, chlorine is corrosive and requires special ventilation. If he is not, he will need to drain the pool frequently (day or two at most).

Furthermore, he is adding a large water surface to an interior environment, this will raise the humidity level of the space considerably also requiring special ventilation.