Securing a galvanised wire rope to hollow concrete blocks

[Bert Coules]

I want to attach several galvanised wire ropes to a low wall made of hollow concrete blocks. These will be tensioning wires and there will be turnbuckles close to the wall end of the wires.

Ideally I'd like to put hooks or rings on the face of the wall to take the turnbuckles, but I'm a little dubious about attaching them. I've never had to drill into that sort of hard block before: can it be done accurately enough to securely take a hooked anchor bolt or similar?

Alternatively, since the wall is currently not capped and therefore the cavities on the top course are accessible, is there a fixing available that can go through a less accurate hole and be secured inside the cavity? I've searched around but not found anything specifically designed to do that.

Many thanks.

[Bert Coules]

I can partially at least answer my own question. I've found these long threaded hooks:

which, with a sizeable washer, would do the job, I reckon.

[Brian Gaff]

Are they galvanised too? I recall being referred to a boat Chandler for stuff like this as tightening rigging is much like tensioning other things. Brian

[newshound]

Something like these?

[newshound]

You can get stainless stuff from a Chandler (and also from eBay)

[Bert Coules]

They would be fine, though for the length I need to get through to the block cavity and fit a washer and a nut I'd have to go up to M10 for the bolt size. Not impossible, but pretty massive.

Thanks for the link.

[Bert Coules]

They're described as "weatherproof" which is a tad ambiguous.

That's a very good point. Thanks, Brian.

[newshound]

I have some M6 eyes that I reckon would be long enough. However you can also get eyes with a female thread, that you could use with studding. Or you could use something like this

then a female to female coupler, then studding.

[Bert Coules]

That would work nicely; thanks.

[Josh Nack]

Yes, I have a number of those for my clothes line which goes between a block wall and the metal fence. Its easy to start with a small masonry drill do its accurate. I use dynabolts.

I wouldn't do it that way, the top course is too easy to pull off the wall.

A standard bolt with a metal plate inside the cavity will work there.