ISO What You Used To Support Your Soapstone Overhang..

14 years ago

I am so frustrated I could cry - okay, I've already cried....

I am trying to find what will hold up my soapstone overhang for my raised countertop on my island.

I need to see what others are using and if it will work in my situation. I will be reducing the width of the slab. My slab is 93.6875" long. The width will be reduced so the unsupported soapstone on the ends is 11.9375" and the unsupported soapstone at the middle it will be 13.5625".

So I am looking for the following information:

What are the dimensions of your slab?

What are the dimensions of the overhang?

What brackets, legs, or other device are you using to support the overhang?

And, where did you get the brackets, legs, etc.?

Thank you so much!

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Comments (3)

2ajsmama
14 years ago
Sorry I can't help with materials. But you need to get this engineered - an experienced installer should have been able to do this for you.

Without getting too technical, since gravity is acting at a 90 degree angle to your horizontal surface, the moment is basically the weight (force of gravity acting on the dense soapstone) times the length of your lever arm (the max overhang of 20"). Ignoring the fact that the weight is evenly distributed over that 20", let's be conservative and say the moment is the entire weight (OK, let's say just the middle half) times the 20". So that would be about 4ft x 2ft = 8sf x 22 lbs/sf = 176 lbs x let's call it 2ft unsupported = 352 ft-lbs of moment or torque just to support the middle. The sides being shorter would have less moment so need less support, as of course the whole thing if you cut it like you're considering.

I would say that if you could live with a single leg in the middle that was capable of supporting 400 ft-lbs, you would probably be OK. Two legs centered between the edge and the arc would be even better.

If you want brackets to hang this off of, we need an engineer familiar with materials characteristics (rolled steel vs wrought iron, etc.) to tell you the material and the size of the bracket. I'd say (but this is really a SWAG) for the middle you'd need something that supported at least a foot's worth of that 20" overhang (if you stay with it), but I don't know how far down the wall it would have to be (attached to stud) so that the torque didn't push the bottom leg of the bracket right through your drywall.
dtchgrl
14 years ago
Our "Freedom" brackets from shortrunpro just arrived today. We got the 12x12 HEAVY steel ones. They are very thick and weigh a lot. We ordered 7, and the weight on the postage sticker said 40 lbs. This website also offers other granite braces in other styles.

These Freedom brackets in the heavier material are the ones suggested by florida josh and several others on this board have used them.
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kas

ISO What You Used To Support Your Soapstone Overhang..

Comments (3)

2ajsmama

dtchgrl

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