We’re moving to a new house, and my husband wants to put his library of over 4,000 books on the top floor. That’s possibly 2,000 pounds.
It just occurred to me the weight might be too much for a small room over the garage.
Anyone have an idea if it would be a problem? I don’t want to find out years from now that we have an expensive structural issue to repair which we could have avoided by simply putting them in a room in the basement.
Thanks!
Martha
Get a civil engineer to take a look. You’d be amazed at floor loading restrictions.
I doubt that you have a problem if the room was built to code. You’d be amazed at how much load non-ground floors can take. From the “Internet” (which one can always trust!)…
Local building codes specify the minimum live load that floors must be able to bear. The International Residential Code, on which most local building codes are based, requires that floors in non-sleeping rooms must support a minimum live load of 40 pounds per square foot, and floors in sleeping rooms must be able to handle a live load of 30 pounds per square foot.
If, for example, the room is 10’ x 20’ by code the floor (without termite damage) should support a minimum of 6,000 to 8,000 pounds of people (i.e., “live load”) without much deflection—or failure. The load that would cause structural failure is typically much higher. (Value this advice according to what you paid for it!) 
https://www.hunker.com/13400811/how-to-calculate-floor-load-capacity
Also gotta remember that your bookshelves will be against the wall where it’s the most structurally sound and spread left to right along that wall. They won’t be stacked infinitely high in a 6" x 8" footprint. It’s not like you are loading up the center of the floor where there is no structural base beneath it. With very little reservations, I would say you’ll be fine. 
Yup - or put another way, if each bookshelf has 500 books (typically less), you’d have the load spread over 8 units, which is only 250lbs each. A person standing there would put more load (per square unit) on the floor.
Wow! I knew I came to the correct place for my question! Thank you all so much, you guys are awesome!!
One final thought - be equipped to shim the bookcases from the front to ensure they aren’t leaning forward, even if you secure them to the wall from behind (as you should…)
We have them attached to the wall in our current house (earthquake country) and will do that in the new place as well. I’ll make sure we shim them, thanks for the advice!
Is it a new house, or new to you? What year was the house built?
It’s new to us, built in 2000. It was a custom home and exceeds code, according to what they told us.
Congratulations on your new home! 
Thank you, I’ve very excited about it!!
It has an 1800 sq ft basement, which will be my crafting area!! One huge room with windows for my GF and a couple of smaller rooms. The basement has a full kitchen too. I’m hoping things will go back to normal and some day I can have friends come over to craft with me.
All of that sounds wonderful!
I suspect the risk and solutions depends on the content of said books. To best avoid structural issues, heavy subjects are to be avoided and light reading encouraged.
… better yet, only airy themes!
lol
The majority of the books are what my husband calls “cheap shit science fiction,” does that qualify?
Congrats! The new house sounds like it will be amazing for you!
Thanks!! I can’t wait to get there!
Found that out when I was about 16 and decided to hijack my grandpa’s woodworking tools and make myself a bookshelf. Got it all designed out, put together… it was square… looked great. Right up until I started to put stuff on it and it tipped over on me. I wasn’t smart enough at the time to shim it. But I did put some 4 inch screws through the back into the wall studs. 
Congrats on the new house with all the fabulous spaces!