I'll admit I don't get how to compute how much my floor can hold, and probably wouldn't trust my own math, even if I came up with the right answer.
I'm looking to purchase a recording booth. I do voice-over work. There's one for sale in my area that the manufacturer says weighs 2015 lbs for the base model. This one has some extras, so lets call it 2100, or maybe even 2150. I weigh 220, so the package would be in the vicinity of 2400, to be safe. The booth has a footprint of 6' x 6'. The home is in the Chicago area, built in 1988.
The room it would be going in is an exterior room, at the first floor back corner of the house. The first floor is over a basement. THe floor joists are 2 x 12s, I believe; I thought a 2x12 was 11 1/4 high/wide. These are either 11" exactly, or some are even closer to 10 7/8", so I'm a little confused about that. I haven't found one that was 11 1/4". Anyway, if I'm measuring correctly, then right under the interior wall perpendicular to the back wall of the house is a laminated joist made of 2 2x12s with a 1/2" steel plate in the middle. The booth would be resting in the room in the interior corner, where one wall is exterior and the other rests over the laminated joist. That laminated joist runs approx 17' where it ties into the I-beam that runs the width of the middle of the house.
Will my floor safely hold the weight of the booth?
To answer a couple of the questions raised:
Why is the booth so heavy? Because isolation requires mass. If you want to keep sound out, the walls have to have mass. This particular model of booth (manufactured by a leader in the industry) has a double-wall design for increased isolation from outside noise. Each 4' x 7.5' section is two slabs of 5/8" MDF with an air gap in the middle. The windows (2) each include four slabs of 1/4" tempered glass. It adds up.
Is there an option for placing the booth in the basement? No, because the only place for it in the basement is just feet from the furnaces, which defeats the purpose.