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"shear" is a form of catastrophic failure. I am not sure what modern numbers are... but they are HUGE. I would also think that even older stick built, brick construction, or baloon type structures will hold a substantial amount of weight before catastrophic failure occurs.
I have been at 2 seprate house parties on older homes...where the floor has givin way. Both times, the floor joists cracked, quite spectacularly and the floor sagged substantialy in the middle. Rather quickly I might add. Neither time did the people end up in the basement. Rather they just sorta went "wow" and kinda cleared the center of the room.
Both times it was due to joists twisting under the weight of 75 bouncing people and cracking.
My friend owns a bar (club) with 2x12 joists. We regularly have the floor flexing 4 to 5 inches in the center with the weight of 200 people dancing to modern music. Every year we add 10 tons of sand to the floor for a beach party. At one point some of the jousts did beging to split.... An H beam (pretty small) and some basement jacks... everything is good to go!
Last word... none of us can tell you without looking at the house....even then most of us could make an educated guess. If you are that concerned find a local engineer (most 84 lumbers or similar have somebody). A lot of times you can do some "brain picking" or even get a visit for free or next to nothing.
Bean
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