Weight constraints exerted by an RMH on the first floor

Hi Guys.

I'm just discovering the incredible potential of RMH by browsing this forum. Thank you for all the information you made available! I am planning to put one on my 140 sq meter 2 floors house.

Before digging into technical specs, I have a preliminary question about the weight that the RMH and its cob bench can exert on the concrete slab: my living room is on the first floor. However, a total RMH weight of 2-3 tons is often reported, for a floor area of ​​approximately 3m2 (32 sq ft). This is 850 kg/m2 (170 pounds per sqf), while the standard in Italy is to build concrete slabs that can theoretically support 250 kg/m2 (50 pounds per sqft).

While browsing the forum, I did not find any topic mentioning this constraint, except in the case of people who have a wooden floor, which is not my case.

Is it because this type of configuration (placing the RMH on the first floor) is automatically a bad idea and thus, the concern does not emerge in the questions, or is it because a concrete slab can in fact support much more than what is announced? In other words, is it a NO-GO for the RMH project in the configuration of my house or not?

I specify that I cannot put the RMH on the ground floor, because it is not a living room (it is a kind of basement with technical room, but not buried. Particular configuration probably due to our terraced land which pushed the previous owner to build the house in this way I guess). An image can help understanding:

Ground floor: tecnical room
First windows: living room + kitchen
Second floor: bedrooms

I know, there are some missing shutters. I'm in the process of rebuilding them


The entrance of the house is made laterally. On the left side, I guess the house is constructed on plain ground. On the right side, it is the living room.

Thank you all for your enlightenment!

All the best

Remy

PS: recently bought the farm. The entrance will evolve progressively, definitely too much concrete!

Remy,

It would be difficult for you to determine to what specification the ceiling/floor slab has been made. In masonry buildings a standard practice for solving the problem of placing a heavy heater in the corner of the room was inserting 2 or 3 heavy double T-bars in the walls adjacent to the corner. The bars would be parallel to the diagonal of the room. Rebar cage could be tied to the T-bars and a concrete slab poured. If I find more details in one of my books, I will share them with you.

Do not worry about the missing shutter (I noticed it). The house has a great potential and can be wonderfully finished.

After edit:

I have found it.
Diagonal beam is double T-bar, 10-16 cm high.
At least 27 cm length of this beam should be seated in the wall on the left and right side. The cavities should be filled with mortar - compatible with the wall mortar.
6 perpendicular beams are also single T-bars 10 cm high, placed upside down. The distance between them should correspond to the brick size that will be put on shiner (flat) on these bars, so in case of popular Italian size it would be 27 cm (1 cm steel thickness, 1 cm left for joints).
Then a layer of concrete is spread over the bricks to create the slab (dashed rectangle).

In case when the heater is located not in the corner of the room, then 2-3 beams would have to be positioned on entire span of the room - it would make it much more expensive.

r build a wall in the lower room to provide the same support, or columns.

Hi guys and thank you for your ideas! This morning I checked the house configuration and yes, ground floord and first floor (where the RMH will be) match perfectly in terms of measures. so I think the easiest should be to build a few columns downstairs as suggested by John.

Edit: Sorry guys I'm a bit new to the forum, I have other questions related to a RMH-heated multi-floor house (not on weight stuff), can I ask here or it's better if I open a new topic? Thank you!

Column will give you more freedom in selecting heater location. I would build 4 of them, 40x40cm each using concrete blocks with vertical rebars and grout them solid. Most of Italy is seismic, but even if it was not - this is a good practice. Please make sure that they rest on some reinforced slab, not on the ground or not reinforced floor.
I just re-noticed where the chimneys are located, so probably this is the part of the house where you will be building.
You can ask more questions here, so everything related to your project will be located in one place.

Hi Remy;
Support columns are a good idea.
Have you chosen a build design yet?  
A J-Tube with piped mass?
A J-Tube into a stratification chamber? (Bell)
A Batchbox into a bell?
Single wall bell or double wall bell?
All these choices will weigh differently and spread the weight over different areas of size.

Yes, you could continue with this thread.
However, I would start a new thread for your next questions.

Here is why: Your current thread addresses a very common question from prospective builders.
Any new questions you ask may be just as important, but they will be buried under a thread header of weight restrictions.

So, any perspective builder will bypass this thread, looking for one that covers their question on, say, the transition area (another common worry).