Metal concrete anchor problem.

[Nugget75]

Hi guys, not even sure if this is the correct forum but here goes.

A friend of mine has taken over a restaurant and out side is an iron stair rail that was put in a while ago.

The trouble is 2 of the concrete anchors on one of the uprights are just spinning in the ground and it’s wobbling.
They’re the kind of anchors with a metal rawl plug and separate bolt.

I can get the bolts out but the anchors are shifting.

The rail can’t really be moved anywhere else and he would like to keep it.

He asked me help.

Do you think I’d be able to drill the old metal rawl plugs out and replace them?

Or any other ideas of what I can do?

Thanks in advance.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Got some photos?

 

[Nugget75]

Got some photos?

I haven’t unfortunately. I can get some tomorrow though.

I’ve attached a photo of one of the anchors (found on Amazon).

Basically whoever installed it originally drilled the holes too long and someone took the bolt out making the bottom of the anchor fall off and now there’s nothing for the bolt to grab so just spins.

I did think about trying to get longer bolts but not really sure which way to go.

Thanks.

 

[foxhole]

Try long bolt ( nothing to loose) if not resin fix the bolt ?

 

[Nugget75]

Try long bolt ( nothing to loose) if not resin fix the bolt ?

Hi,
I did think of a kind of resin or cement fix but wasn’t sure if it’d work.

Thanks. I’ll take a look to see what the best way is (assuming the longer bolts don’t work).

Cheers.

 

[conny]

If you can get a drill that is fractionally bigger than the bolt tube, you may be able to 'skin' it out. Use a drill that's too big and you will have to use bigger bolts which may not go through the base plate. The bottom of the hole could be raised by slowly pouring dry sand in until it reaches the level the hole should have been drilled to.
Patience is the key. Don't go at it like a bull in a china shop.. As an alternative to a drill, a suitable reamer, (15mm should skin out the inside of the tube, making it wafer thin and easy to collapse the sides so it pulls out), may be a better idea.

 

[Nugget75]

If you can get a drill that is fractionally bigger than the bolt tube, you may be able to 'skin' it out. Use a drill that's too big and you will have to use bigger bolts which may not go through the base plate. The bottom of the hole could be raised by slowly pouring dry sand in until it reaches the level the hole should have been drilled to.
Patience is the key. Don't go at it like a bull in a china shop.. As an alternative to a drill, a suitable reamer, (15mm should skin out the inside of the tube, making it wafer thin and easy to collapse the sides so it pulls out), may be a better idea.

Excellent. Thanks very much for all that. Very helpful.

I’m going to pop over there tomorrow and have a proper look.
I’ll take a look at your suggestions.

Thanks again.

 

[Deluks]

If you can get a bolt in only part of the way, you might be able to lever it out with a block of wood under a crowbar. The fixing doesn't fully tighten up until the bolt reaches full depth.
If you haven't got a crowbar, a scaffold pole with a slot cut in the end, the same width as the bolt shank but smaller than the bolt head.

 

[Nugget75]

If you can get a bolt in only part of the way, you might be able to lever it out with a block of wood under a crowbar. The fixing doesn't fully tighten up until the bolt reaches full depth.
If you haven't got a crowbar, a scaffold pole with a slot cut in the end, the same width as the bolt shank but smaller than the bolt head.

Can’t get the bolts in at all. Well I can get them in but there’s no grip, they just spin.
Basically the bottom part with the thread has dropped what looks like about 2cm beneath the bottom of the bolt where whoever originally installed it drilled the holes to big.

I’m going to try longer bolts and if that doesn’t work I’ll take the bolts out and put some chemical resin and studs in there.

Cheers.