DIY Monitor Stands

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steevio
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Re: DIY Monitor Stands

Post by steevio »

i think cinderblocks look pretty cool, minimal, functional, i use the ones with two holes in.

ive always used them, theyre made for the job.
lem
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Re: DIY Monitor Stands

Post by lem »

I have always been concerned about cinderblocks on an upstairs floor. Although I know nothing of the engineering of a house.
Does size, age etc...make a difference to the load a floor can bear? Or are they always within a certain threshold or specification, so every floor has to be able to support a specific weight?
Hades
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Re: DIY Monitor Stands

Post by Hades »

lem wrote:I have always been concerned about cinderblocks on an upstairs floor. Although I know nothing of the engineering of a house.
Does size, age etc...make a difference to the load a floor can bear? Or are they always within a certain threshold or specification, so every floor has to be able to support a specific weight?
I won't say I'm an expert, but I live in a house that's about 100 years old (at least the main part, there's about 20% at the back that was built extra about 30 years ago),
and my studio is at the 1st floor.
In the last 2 years, I redid my roof, and I redid my top floor, part of my 1st floor, and I'm currently redoing my ground floor, so I did pick up on some things along the way (plus I consulted my friend who's an architect if I was too uncertain about things)

I wouldn't worry too much about a pile of bricks as far as weight is concerned.
I mean, I can't imagine the weight of a pile of bricks being as big as a huge book shelf, or a wardrobe filled with clothes.
Just try not to put all the weight on one place or one side too much and you'll be fine.
It's also important that you don't put too much weight on a floor that doesn't have "supporting" walls underneath.
About 2 years ago, I redid a small bathroom on my 1st floor, and wanted to put in an old tile floor (taken out from old houses, bought in an antique store),
it's only about 3 square meters maximum, but I had to chance plans, because there was no supporting wall underneath, and the weight of the tiles would have been around 600 kilo's.
I asked my architect friend, and he said I could do it if I first put in these plates that were made to divert the weight, but that would have given me an extra height problem, so I just let the tile floor be and put in cork instead.
I also put in a small bath tub, which is supposed to be for kids, but is actually like 2/3 of the size of a normal bath, so my wife loves using it as well.
My architect warned me about that as well. He said : people don't realize a bathtub can weigh maybe 100 kilo's, and then there's water in there that weighs maybe another 40 kilo's or more, and then there's one (or 2) people getting in there. That's easily around 250 kilo's centered on one single spot.
I never had problems with my small bath tub, but the tub itself is from lightweight material, and is only used by one person, plus, like I said, only 2/3 of a normal bath. Plus it's right next to the wall, which makes it easier for the floor to carry the weight.

You know what architects like Burnham used as foundations for the first buildings known as skyscrapers in Chicago around 1890 ?
Chicago was known for its sandy ground, big "mushy stuff", very hard to build on.
They made piramides of bricks !
This was only for buildings of around 15 floors, of course, and they improved their system soon enough, but still, that makes a man think... :lol:

Think about this : how many times do you hear about a floor collapsing under the weight in some house ?
Usually, if this happens, it's because there was an earthquake, or because the house was extremely old or in extremely bad shape.

Anyways, I'm rambling...
bottom line : don't worry too much about a few bricks, most definitely any normal floor can take it.
And if you are worried : divert the weight a bit : put something wider underneath the bricks, so the weight gets diverted more.
And try to put them as near to the wall as possible.

hope that helps.
Shepherd_of_Anu
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Re: DIY Monitor Stands

Post by Shepherd_of_Anu »

omnipresence wrote:I doubt mine are particularly effective from an acoustic point of view, but they the are foam corner blocks that were used as packaging for the monitors when they were in the box. Not hard styrofoam but more squishy but firm packing foam. I have empty CD jewel cases in the inside of a foam "cube" to make them a little more sturdy. Definitely DIY!

I used to have stands that I made out of Lego that propped the monitors up off the table.
Pretty creative solutions... makes me wonder what you are doing for a table.
lem wrote:I have always been concerned about cinderblocks on an upstairs floor. Although I know nothing of the engineering of a house.
Does size, age etc...make a difference to the load a floor can bear? Or are they always within a certain threshold or specification, so every floor has to be able to support a specific weight?
Well, one way to look at it is this... how many humans would you feel comfortable with on your upper floor? If a few people are unlikely to bring the house down then a few cinder blocks should be ok. The other thing to consider is how many cinder blocks could you stack on top of a piece of thin plywood before it breaks? Underneath our carpets and flooring there is not much beneath us besides some wooden beams. So assuming that you accidentally placed your blocks on the floor such that it is only supported by the plywood then the strength of the plywood is your answer. You should be ok though... imagine if your floor could not support a king size bed with the weight of 2 people... about 300-550 lbs or so. That would be bad.
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Re: DIY Monitor Stands

Post by Shepherd_of_Anu »

Hey, we were rambling at the same time!
steevio
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Re: DIY Monitor Stands

Post by steevio »

like shepherd of anu says, its not a problem at all.
two cinder blocks probably weigh about the same as a man or slightly more.
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optX
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Re: DIY Monitor Stands

Post by optX »

I`ve built the monitor stands myself too because the stands I used before sucked out the bass of my monitors too much ...

I just bought 2 exposed-aggregate concrete panels, 10 garden bricks which are made for cultivating plants in it and another 2 nice looking panels which are used on top of the stands. This things are "glued" together with tile cement and filled up with sand.

Garden bricks €3,2ea. >
http://www.bauhaus.info/fileadmin/image ... ine_05.jpg

Exposed-aggregate concrete panels €2ea. >
http://static.twoday.net/herzkammer/ima ... n40x40.jpg

Nicer looking panels €5ea.>
http://www.pitopia.de/pictures/mosaic/k ... 185483.jpg

Everything together + sand + tile cement was about €65 (85$ / 53pounds). Building this stands is very easy and doesn`t take long. After 2 hours they were ready =)

Finally I have stands which doesn`t suck out the monitor`s bass!

Of course not everybody likes something like this and it`s very heavy and bulky too and I just would suggest it when you have a dedicated studio place where you know that your stands will stay there for a long time (because deconstructing this stands if you are moving into another flat or so would be an annoying job... )

But it had been the cheapiest way for me of doing it myself and actually I like how it`s looking - like an ancient greek column 8)

That`s how it looks like > Image
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