Hi,
I am thinking about using 3cm thick granite as a counter top. About 58 sq. feet. I am concerned about the weight. This will be placed near the center of the house, not a lot of support from the basement. Will this cause the floor joists to sag over time?

Thanks, John

Hello John,

Regardless of the overall size of the countertops, you only need to consider the weight per square inch. Your countertops at 58 square feet (3cm thick) weigh about 1,040 pounds total. However, the gross distributed load (GDL) is .12 pounds per square inch (or 18 pounds per square foot) when resting horizontally on the cabinets. This weight will not create much pressure so do not worry unless your house was built with toothpicks.

My very best wishes,

Tom Cordova

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Answers to Granite Questions..., Installation Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.