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