OK here's my situation.. I have a claw foot tub that is nice and leight, but filled with water is going to be about 400lb. With a human in it, maybe 700lb.. ok, guy should be on a diet.. but lets just use this as an example :D

The tub's feet are 16"OC wide, and the tub is 60" long. Now the fun part!

I want to put this on the 2nd floor in a room that has 2 exterior walls. I will put it in the corner of the room i.e. the corner with 2 exterior walls, and run it along the length of the wall, approximately 20" from the wall OC line of tub.

the tub length will be running parallel with joists unfortunately.

joists are 16" OC and measure 2" wide by 7" tall.. was a strange dimension but hey its an old house. There are some holes drilled out for water supply, and a nice 2" square in the center of one of the joists that will be under the tub for the drain line.

The material I am not sure, someone told me it might be Fir.. grade is unknown.

The joist runs about 8 feet before it finds support from a wall on floor below.

So what do you think, is this location going to work?

The material is most likely yellow pine, not fir, I never seen fir used in framing, its not structural as pine. One thing you may try if you can reach it, is to use some joist hangers, if they don't fit, use some angeled brackets for more suport.

Overall id say it would be OK.

I'm a bit confused. The joist itself is already existing and is connected to the frame of the house. There would be no need to add additional strength at this connection via "joist hanger" ?

Or do you think that this point is the weakest link in the system and where the break is most likely to occur --> therefore needs reinformcement?

Glavine gave good advise. I weill say the same answer. Working in the const. field for 43 years. Depending on age of house the material could also be "oak or poplar" { try to drive a nail in it, watch the fingers to see how hard it is }

I guess if you look at it as the weight is divided evenly to the 4 legs.. then that's less than 200lb per leg. And two of those legs are right near the exterior wall so no problem there... the other 2 well, that's just like having two people standing in the bathroom. No problem there either.

Also, the tub is only in use for no more than an hour a few times a week so... probably is OK

Knucklez

Nail driving isn't so bad. About the same as pine.

I will tell you that there is a lot of difference between driving a nail in oak or poplar, as there is in pine: TRY IT