Hello board, first time poster here. I'm looking to add a 180 gallon aquarium to my first floor (approx 1800 pounds) in a large room on a relatively new construction house. The aquarium will be oriented parallel to the joists (not ideal). Fortunately I have the original engineering specs for the house, so I nicely asked the original engineering company if they wouldn't mind re-calculating the joists' engineer loads with an aquarium on top. Results show that the joists' total load deflection increases from 0.45" to 0.73" on the 25' joist, and live load deflection increases from L/883 to L/489. So basically, the aquarium will cause the floor to sag an extra 0.28" in the middle of a large room. The added load is still well within code, but it's right against the L/480 max deflection the house was built to. The floor below it is a finished basement. The engineer noted the additional weight "may cause ceiling cracking" in the basement. And since I'm not paying the engineer, I'm not expecting him to render any opinions as to whether this extra deflection is a problem or not other than telling me if it's in code (that's where you all come in). So my question is, on my nice, newish house, is the extra 0.28" deflection worth bothering with? I don't want preventable squeaks and cracks from an aquarium, but on the other hand, my basement has some small cracks anyway from foundation settling, and I don't want to throw money down the drain for joist reinforcement to prevent a "problem" that is unlikely to be noticed. Do any of you with experience in this have an opinion on what level of extra deflection is worth taking care of in a nice, new home, versus what can be ignored? I'm happy to pay for the joist bracing and sistering if needed, but if not, I'd rather spend that money on more fish for the aquarium. Thanks in advance! Robert

Somebody must have dropped something heavy on this area of restroom floor and anyway this (pictured) floor section of the mesh mounted tile sheet(s) came all loose from it's apparent adhesive underneath. The rest of the surrounding tile floor is fine and sound, but this section was found loose. So I removed the loose 2x2 squares and cleaned/chipped away the remaining grout from around the edges, so what is left is just the mesh that's still stuck to the floor. I guess I could try to use tile adhesive and re-set each of those 2x2 squares back where they were, on top of the old mesh then re-grout? That would be an acceptable method? Or, also shown in the picture is a new unused sheet of the same stuff I have on hand (lying there on top of the bucket). Maybe it would be better to try to somehow scrape all the old mesh and dried adhesive out, then replace with a section of that new sheet of mesh mounted tile squares? Any comment/advice appreciated. Note: When I took the picture I hadn't yet got around to vacuuming up those last particles of visible broken grout pieces, but of course will be doing that, and not leaving them as they are in in the photo).