Ideas to fix wobbly stair railing.
Hello Folks,
I an elderly neighbor lady of mine has a horribly wobbly stair rail leading up to her front door. She says that a couple of crackheads got into a fight on her steps and after that the railing was loose. I looked at it and this is what I saw. She has cement steps leading up to her front door with ‘wrought iron’ stair railings on both sides. The railing is supported with three vertical square metal posts at the top middle and bottom. The posts appear to be sunk right into the concrete of the steps. The crackheads managed to break out the concrete around the posts-well not really break it out just loosen it up and create a bigger hole that the post flops around in.
It gives me heart palpitations watching her and her elderly friends climb those steps and use that rail (and these are the type of folks that need handrails). The steps are not that old so I am surprised that the crackheads were able to work the posts loose. Does anybody know of a way that I can ‘shore up’ this rail?
What if I cleaned out the enlarged holes and filled them with anchor bolt epoxy? Or I could weld large L brackets near the bottoms and sink new bolts in? She won’t let me do it for her for free but I did bargain her down to just paying for the materials (or some portion there of if I can sneak it past her) so a materials thrifty but more labor intensive idea would not be bad.
Thanks,
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
Replies
Simpson Strong-tie has an epoxy that will fit into a regular caulking gun that would be perfect for this. At room temp, or a bit less it will cure in 20 minutes to an hour. If you can't find it out there, I might have a kit I can send you.
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Hello Piffin,
Simpson Strong-tie has an epoxy that will fit into a regular caulking gun that would be perfect for this. At room temp, or a bit less it will cure in 20 minutes to an hour. If you can't find it out there, I might have a kit I can send you.
Was this the stuff you were thinking of?
http://www.simpsonanchors.com/catalog/adhesives/at/index.html
Thanks
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
yes, the one they call fast pak is the one that fits in a standard caulking gun. The others require a special proprietary gun to push and mix, but they hold a lot more and cost more. For a one-off job likle yours, this is fine. it really is strong, but try to blow the dust out before pumping this in
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
In the old days, pouring hot lead around the posts would have been the ticket. Nowadays, your epoxy idea sounds good.
costofwar.com/
Piffin has steered you right. The Simpson epoxy works fine although it is expensive for the volume you get, but for occasional use it's fine, and not having to buy a proprietary gun balances the situation.
A couple of things to note:
Good luck, and good for you. You are a good neighbour.
Thanks for the help guys this seems like it should be an easy and not so expensive repair. I have a 7 gallon air tank that I will take over there to blow out the holes with.
Daniel Neuman
Oakland CA
Crazy Home Owner
The simpson epoxy we have here has an integral stirrer spun w/ yr drill and then ye just pumps it into the holes as if it were caulk in a gun. Has great strength to it.