So I got the idea of buying some reclaimed wood and making a new dining room table. I came across two 8x8 chestnut beams that were about 200 years old and got to business…
These were originally about 14’ long, chopped them each in half.
Fused them together with a metal subframe, one on the bottom and one located through the center of each beam.
I needed the table to be wider so i used 4 2x8s down the middle and then covered them with glass tile.
Cut these out on the plasma table, just two slotted pieces of 11ga SS with 1/4" plate for feet and attachment plate.
I dont know how heavy this is, however I had two other guys attempt to help me and bow out. Finally found a friend who lifted regularly that could help. By far the heaviest thing ive ever lifted outside of the gym and I used to deliver furniture for Kittenger. Much heavier than my concrete kitchen sink that weighs at least 400 lbs, barely manageable even with lifting straps. Here she is in her final resting spot…
I have only one concern though…that weight being distributed as 4 point loads on the floor is pretty substantial. Consider that the floor joists under a bathtub are usually reinforced or doubled up…a bathtub generally holds 40gal of water, at 8.35lbs per gallon, that’s 350lbs. and that’s distributed evenly.
If the floor area is super close to the I-beam in the basement I wouldn’t lose any sleep over if but if it’s in the middle of a span from the beam to the outside wall you could be in for some deflection in the beams and a sagging floor, potentially even stress fractures in the lumber.
Thanks,
It does look like Derrick Corp…but no its UDMC. We manufacture food/beer/dairy processing equipment. I mostly program the PLCs that run it.
Updated - - -
meh it’ll be fine. If you’ve seen floor joists doubled under a bath tub they wasted their time and money. In residential code you need more than 300 lbs located in a 2x2 foot are before additional bracing is needed, so my table would have to be over 1200 lbs to require that. Live load capacity of the room it occupies is 4200lbs.
Definitely cool. I like it too but I can’t do “heavy” anymore. My dining room is on the second floor and would probably kill anyone trying to get it up the stairs. Are you at all concerned about expansion / contraction of the wood with humidity changes and the tile “loosening”? I find it funny / amazing / concerning that the plastic saw horses were able to hold up to the weight. You’re either the luckiest SOB alive, or you got some serious plastic horses there.
ya those horses are rated for 1000lbs a pair, I also used them when making my concrete counter tops without any issues. I forget exactly why i went with them but i think it was because they were rated higher than the metal brackets you add 2x4s to, i own like 5 pairs now. I used a flexible thin set and grout to help keep the tiles secure, i did have a few cracks open while it was sitting in the garage going back and forth between 70 and 30 degrees that were easy to fix. I plan on having this table forever but if i had to do it again I would have ripped the beams in half to make it easier to handle.
Are you the younger guy (Brian maybe??, not sure I remember the name)? We used you guys quite a bit for piping and PLC work when I was a maintenance engineer at CSM.
LOL yea, how do you know him? I think hes awesome, i did my exhaust on one of his lifts right next to is 350gt and 500gt…
Updated - - -
Brian is still here but hes like 10 years older than me. I started here about 2 years ago. Ive been at CSM a lot the past couple months, fixing their fondant system.
clear epoxy, after that set i sanded it down and cleared it with a satin poly. By no means is the table completely flat,but flat enough to comfortably eat at. wouldn’t recommend trying to write something on a single sheet of paper…
