I have a driveway into the garage the is downward slope. The garage is in the basement. This is a older type home (1950s). The driveway has concrete walls on both side. The walls are from 2 to 5 feet high, from the street to the basement garage. The driveway is about 10 feet long. I want to build a safety rail on one of the walls, so people don't accidental fall off from it. I am not a home improvement person at all. Is there a recommended palce to start this out? I want to around $200 for this project. Maybe go to Home Depot and buy a couple of metal posts and some horizontal bars??? I'm not sure how to do this, and make it at least look decent to the front of the house.
It is a wonder that this house does not already have a fence to keep people from falling off the wall. I guess the code requirement came after it was built and was grandfathered to not need a safety fence. Check with your local building department to see what kind of fence they would allow.
Take a look at this site for a photo of Key Clamps made for pipe railings. Don't buy from this site, it's in the UK. However, Global Industrial has them. I made a pipe railing with them a few years ago, easy to use.
Consider that any "pipe" railings that are just attached to the wall base without any other supports will be easy to push over and snap off. If the wall is just a straight run, I would think you should drill appropriate holes into the top of the wall, and then properly install the vertical pipes INTO those holes. Or else, you should have some bars connecting the top of the railing to the ground level above to give the railings good support. Perhaps I am wrong, but a five-foot wall is high enough to be concerned about getting it right. --Phil
Phil Munro wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.ysu.edu:
I was thinking digging two or three post holes in the soil next to the wall, maybe atach one end to the house, couple bags of quickrete per hole, assemble pipes and plop them in. Might cost $75-100. Getting something to hold to 50 yr old concrete could be tricky and requires power tools.
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On (small) film sets, we used to use "speed rail" (that's what we called it) which was 2" OD metal pipes to build bases for tables, about anything that needed to be off the ground.
A vertical could be attached to a pipe base attached to the wall stop or into the side of the wall below. Then you clamp in the vertical. It's got the bits* to hold the horizontal bar.
I dunno how to describe the bit well. It was two rings offset 90 degrees from each other. Pipe came into one, allen keyed down to not move, other pipe came into the other band. Got screwed down.
We put 800lbs of faux patio atop a setup like this with 3 keys bouncing around it for a shoot, the thing never budged.
You could also bolt down pressure treated and built a bit of a fence.
Grew up with a basic metal railing that bolted 1/4 bolts deep into the 'cret. You can also just bolt into the above pressure treated.
I don't know if you're the OP or not, but if there are local building codes in place about required fencing, once you install a fence where there was none before, you've probably lost the grandfather clause that didn't require you to have one in the first place, and any new fencing must be installed to the current building code. Once installed, it can never be removed without being replaced 'to code'. Where I live, fencing is required around decks, pools, open wells, etc. You cannot build a required fence without getting a building permit from the local building department. My local code for 'required' fencing is that the fence can be no lower than 42" and there can be no opening more than 3" either horizontally or vertically in the fencing. That means the opening between pickets cannot be wider than 3", or if the fence has rails but not pickets, then the open distance between rails cannot be greater than 3". The reason for this is so that a small child cannot crawl or toddle through the fence to drown or fall. And it doesn't matter whether you have children living at home or not, because guests may bring children, or your neighbor's untended child may come exploring. Yeah, it's their fault for not watching their kid, but who will get sued? If you have such a code that mandates the height, spacing, and materials, of fencing where you live, and you fail to conform to it, it may require that you remove the non-conforming fence, perhaps get a building permit, and redo the fence to code. There may also be a punitory fine attached, which may be cumulative, i.e each day that it is not corrected is considered a separate offense. If you are lucky, and no nasty neighbor 'drops a dime' on you, you may be able to avoid the building inspector's wrath. However, if you decide to sell the house sometime in the future, the new owners most likely will not be able to get a Certificate of Occupancy until the fence meets code. That means that you may have to replace the fence before you can sell the house. So, you can pay it now, or pay more for it later. I'll repeat. Before you start, contact your local building department. They may not care what you do, but at least you will be in compliance.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I like to digging a couple holes in the soil part. But I think I will try getting a couple pipes and drilling on the concrete wall. I'm not sure what to do yet, but kinda have something in mind. The concrete wall is around 6 inches wide, enough to walk on. I'm afraid of cracking it if I drill a couple holes, for the base bolts.
Thank you very much for the advice. I really appreciate it.
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