aemeijers wrote:
Tony Hwang wrote:
Kate wrote:
For those of you following this thread, or not, I have a small deck
by my front door. It was redwood, and it is being replaced with
concrete.

The wood railing has been removed, and being replaced with a powder
coated aluminum railing. The railing is small and measures appx. 8'
long.

What is the best way to mount the new railing into the new concrete
after it has cured for about two weeks?

Can we (a friend will be helping me with this) simply use a masonry
bit and a drill to mount the railing to the concrete? I know that
special tools need to be used.

A friend to mine says that:

QUOTE

You are missing the point. The concrete will be the flat surface upon
which you will build the unit which you need to anchor to the
concrete foundation. It is 100% TOTALLY commonplace to sink long
bolts into the concrete for this purpose.

THERE is no single person i know who would drill into any properly
laid concrete foundation for this purpose. Even if you did -= you
woluld have to wait weeks for the cement to cure properly so that it
would work correctly.

http://www.permacolumn.com/Sturdi-Wa...FQtN5QoddRDBIw


this page shows the brackets (and there are literally tons of
different ones available) - you need to have them and the threaded
rods there ready to simply push into the soft cement. THen they dry
in place, totally secure with no chance of damage to the concrete.

I will say it again -= you SHOULD NOT DRILL into the concrete base
period!

UNQUOTE

The cement contractor said it is difficult to mount bolts into the
concrete because we don't exactly know where those bolts will go
until the concrete is poured. I don't even have the railing ordered
yet.

So, help please! What would you do?

Am I safe to drill directly into the concrete? It seems this way
would be sufficient. My feeling is that surely others who have had
concrete decks, simply removed an old railing an drilled in a new
one, esp. if they go the aluminum route.

Many thanks!

Kate
Hi,
After concrete cures enough. drill and install star nut. And bolt onto
it.

Back in the stone age, we would take our best guess as to where the
railing mounts would be, and shove an aluminum pop can into the concrete
at that point. Once railings showed up, and the porch had sort-of cured,
we'd tug the pop cans out, and set the anchor sockets in the hole with
fast-setting cement. Probably not as strong as setting the bolts in the
original pour, but stronger than epoxy-setting the bolts in drilled holes.

I'd aim at having holes for the vertical rails to drop down into, rather
than bolting to a flat surface. Not likely the rails will ever be pulled
UP strongly, but they definitely need to be strong against sideways
forces. You can always kid-proof them with wedges in the sides of the
holes.

--
aem sends...

Interesting story the pop can. I am printing out all of this great
info. and giving it to a friend who will be helping me with the railing.

Many thanks.