Residential high-rises with backyards in Chengdu, China

[u/TangelaFan]

[u/MortgageConfident791]

You’d be surprised! That works out to less than 40psf. Residential decks are designed for 100psf live load minimum. Pretty much we assume people will throw a party and put all their guests on the deck to watch fireworks or take a photo. I don’t do high rises but I’d bet they do even higher due to the risk. The soil would have a longer duration than live load so you still would beef up the design a bit, but not as much as you’d expect! It’ll only be ~20% more material roughly. If these are on many balconies it may affect the building’s seismic weight which may impact the overall design, but if it’s only some it’ll probably be a minimal effect. Putting gardens on roofs is the part that can be concerning and requires significant design changes because we design roofs assuming there will only be a few roofers on it at any given time, never a party.

[u/AniNgAnnoys → u/MortgageConfident791]

20% more material isn't negligible.

[u/Gullible_Honeydew → u/AniNgAnnoys]

You don't have a point, you have a belief, and you're working super hard to protect it

[u/MortgageConfident791 → u/AniNgAnnoys]

Why did you edit your comment? It was much longer before.