concrete anchors for railings

[rocky47]

Hi:

I am in the process of installing vinyl covered aluminum railing on my concret patio. I need to dill 4 holes per steel post and use some sort of (at least) 3/8' type anchor at 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 length.

My question is what is the best type: wedge, sleeve, or tapcon. I came across some large (3/8") tapcon bolts at a busy beaver near my home. I have used the tapcon screws to install cabineys in my garage and they seem to hold a lot of weight and they can be removed leaving only a hole to fill if one makes a mistake (which I often do). Are the bolts sufficient for my use or one of the other typs?

thx

[hallerb]

thats a bad choice for a railing espically if the concrete is old. neighbor bpought a alunumum railig for her front porch, it looked nice and wouldnt rust, but wouldnt support a child let alone a adult. worse one day she slipped, the raing broke but not before ruinong the porch, the tapcons held fine the concrete crumbled and broke. fortunately the elderly lady wasnt seriously hurt.

shew got a new porch with galvanix=zed steel railings cemented in holes in the concrete.

[Tim S]

Regarding the fixings, wedge bolts are exceeding strong - I would personally use these. Don't use them too near the edge though as they may crack the concrete.

There is a 4th option, chemical anchors, where you epoxy stud in to the concrete.

Cheers

Tim

[digitalmaster]

epoxy studs also have the advantage of not putting expansion pressure on the hole so they are less likely to crack and bust out near the edge.They do cost more though.with epoxy you can place the rail where you want it and drill thorugh the hole without having to reposition the railing.With the style anchor that uses a bolt you have to mark the hole location,remove rail,then drill oversized hole,put in the anchor,reposition railin and finally put in the bolt....if the drill did not walk on you while drilling.

[rocky47]

Thx---where does one go to find out more/purchase the epoxy stuff?

Never saw or heard of this technique

thx again

[Tim S]

Don;t know what they are called or where to get them in the US (I assume you are there).

See this:

Basically, you dill a hole, 3/4 fill or so with special polyester or vinylester resin and ram a length of screw stud in, leaving enough sticking out to hold thing being fixed and add a nut. When set, add thing and do up nut - job done :)

Very very strong and places minimal stresses on the substrate. Quite good on unstable crumbly substrate too - they make special resins if you have very poor concrete/block.

HTH

Tim (in the UK)