Comment by WalterGR
8 hours ago
I’m not familiar with the “modern car” unit of weight.
“With an assumed average weight of 300 to 400 grams per book, the weight of around 15 modern cars is currently stored in Schröder’s detached house.”
350 grams x 70,000 books = 24,500 kg. About 54,000 lbs.
Can a ‘typical’ house bear that weight??
Depends on the size of the house and both the flooring and the foundation. Just before that the article mentions that a structural engineer was consulted and said it was fine, and you get a lot of mileage out of having most of the weight connected to the frame.
4.90 x the mass of an African bull elephant 2.04 x the mass of a London double decker bus 0.122 x the mass of a blue whale
http://howmanyelephants.co.uk/
Why the article didn’t express it in units of blue whale is beyond me.
> Can a ‘typical’ house bear that weight??
Modern builds codes require living areas to support 30-40 pounds per square foot live load so while you wouldn't want to pack it all in a 1k sq ft second floor apartment, it's doable in a larger space.
If it's an old house that was overbuilt before building codes were optimized, chances are it can support it. It also matters a lot whether this is an upper story, or just a single floor detached house sitting on a concrete foundation.