Fixings to concrete garage

[Richard]

I have to fit a long length of guttering down the side of my garage + shed. Thus I intend to fix wooden battens at regular intervals along the side of the garage to take the gutter brackets.

The garage is of a post and panel construction - 'I' section concrete posts with concrete panels between. I know that the posts are steel reinforced because the rods are rusting through in one post. Will the panels be similarly reinforced?

Drilling holes for plugs for previous fixings has proved unsatisfactory as the concrete is fairly coarse and the holes become large and ragged. When fixing light switches inside the garage I stuck bits of wood to the walls using silicon sealant, relying on the suction to hold the wood in place. These have lasted at least 7 years.

So, what's a good method for fixing the battens on the outside, please?

TIA

Richard

[Dave Baker]

Unlikely.

Then fill them with morthar (that's Oirish for mortar), or polyfilla, redrill them and use rawlplugs. Or in fact stick the rawlplug in while the morthar is still wet which is easier and fix the screws when the morthar has set.

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that Richard formulated :

If the panels are relatively thin in the centre section, with a thicker surround, then they will be steel reinforced.

If they are thin, then just drill through the thin sections and use nuts and bolts all the way through the panel.

[Richard]

Hmm. Seems awfully like a load of work. Bolting through seems more attractive. Or I suppose I could use gripfill to stick the battens to the panels?

Richard

[Andy Hall]

Running timbers along the length rather than at each fixing position and bolting them through every metre or so (less if more weight) would be an easy way. Then you can fix to them wherever you like.

Bad idea. This will fail. It will be in March/April when its blowing a hooley, raining and sleeting horizontally; just when you will really want to be outside fixing it.

[Richard]

Hi Andy

I know that Gripfill is a bad idea but silcon sealant has worked sooo well for fixing battens inside the garage. I got the idea from a friend who uses it to stick wooden panels to the interor of his fibreglass boat. He hangs all manner of heavy stuff from the panels and has done so for years.

But the long batten + fewer fixings is probably the safe route.

Richard

[John Rumm]

Quite possibly, but you can usually drill them without hitting rebar - there is not that much in there.

Firstly fit one long batten per side and treat it like a facia board rather than individual ones. That way you don't need many successful fixings to make the whole job work.

Small holes (5mm) with a SDS usually work ok in concrete posts. You can then use yellow plugs and screw or nail into them.

If you can't get decent holes, then set the plugs in with epoxy, or car body filler or similar.

[The Medway Handyman]

I taken to using 6mm x 50mm Multi Monte fixings for jobs like this. Faster to fix & a good strong fix every time. Use a 5mm drill & whack in with a decent 14:4v in low speeed.

[Steve Firth]

Heck, advice I gave back in the dark ages. They are Multi-Monti fixings BTW. Good to see Dave is still on his "read other people's advice then regurgitate as if it were his own" kick.