What You Need to Know: How Much Weight Can a Kitchen Island Hold?

Home iprovement question: Granite counters

Question: Kitchen island weight restrictions and granite counters.

What is a kitchen island weight restriction?

‣ MyFixitUpLife kitchen island weight restriction-designs with islands- myfixituplife
Kitchen designs with islands. Photo—and just awesome craftsmanship—courtesy of Arch City Granite in St. Louis, MO.

 

Answer

This is a great home improvement question Judy. Adding granite counters should not have an impact on the framing, assuming the house is framed properly.

But since I don’t know the details—size/location of counter, size, joist spacing and span of framing—the right person to confirm this would be the building inspector where you live or contractor/supplier you’re working with.

You’re right to be cautious too. Heavy items over open framing—hot tubs are an extreme example, 4,000-pounds or more full of people—and even large format tile on floors can impact floor framing. What’s more, sometimes it’s a combination of those things that sneaks up on you and your floor joists, for example a new island + counter + floor tile may stress the floor structure.

Another resource you have is a high quality counter supplier and installer like Arch City Granite Co the fabricators of the room in the photo. Kitchen designs with islands are a skyrocketing trend and dealing with suppliers and installers who do this all the time is also a great place to start.

 


‣ MyFixitUpLife Mark Clement, MyFixitUpLife Carpenter

 

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Mark
A licensed contractor, tool expert, wood and outdoor enthusiast, and elite Spartan Race competitor, he writes about home improvement and tools for national magazines and websites, and teaches hands-on clinics for other remodeling professionals. Check out his book, The Carpenter's Notebook.

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