Retrofitting tiedowns on concrete piers
Recently built 15’x22′ wood frame single story addition on 12″ diameter concrete piers. Piers had been poured with proper imbedded bolts but when the framing was done alignment problems necessitated cutting the bolts and placing the 6×6 wood posts off center directly on most of the piers. Building inspector still wants to see posts somehow tied to piers. Any suggestions on how to accomplish this?
The piers extend from 4″ to 6″ above grade. One idea is to lag screw straps to the posts and the piers drilling horizontal 3″ long holes in the piers and epoxying the screws in the holes.
Replies
http://www.strongtie.com/
http://www.simpsonanchors.com/catalog/adhesives/index.html?source=hpmain
http://www.strongtie.com/products/categories/anchorbolts.html
ANCHORING
Simpson Strong-Tie offers several adhesive formulations. These two-component adhesives are designed for anchoring threaded rod, bolts, reinforcing bars and dowels into a wide range of base materials.
Acrylic-Tie¯, SET Epoxy-Tie¯, ET Epoxy-Tie ¯, ETF Epoxy-Tie¯ Fast Cure, VGC Vinylester Glass Capsule, Adhesive Anchoring Accessories
The Simpson web site and catalogs have been very helpful. Two options appear to be the FJA and the HD5A holdowns. It may require a combination of the two. The bolts for the FJA go horizontally and for the HD5A vertically. The RFB retrofit bolt with epoxy appears to be a good attachment solution.
Does anyone have experience with the HD5A or the FJA?
Attached is a picture of one of the seven post/pier situations.
If you have a Home Depot nearby, they stock a lot of Simpson products or can be special ordered. The epoxy that was mentioned above works great, just remember to work fast because the set up time is pretty quick and is incredibly strong.
Will add picture next week. In this application, aesthetics are secondary because landscaping will hide the piers and posts. Do you think drilling down into the pier will yield a strong enough anchor? I would use 1/2" screw . How deep would it have to be?
That will be plenty strong unless you live in a seismic or hurricane-prone area, in which case code would require engineering for this anyway.