Porch Railing Help

OK. This one is for you construction guys.

My front porch has a vinyl railing. The posts for said railing are pressure-treated 4x4 posts sheathed in vinyl. The posts are connected to the surface of the porch by a pin of some sort that goes down into porch and up into the 4x4 post.

Well, that pin has now rusted off and I need to replace it lest a visitor lean on the railing and then fall off. The problem is, how to remove it?

I was able to cut out some of the surrounding material using a masonry bit and small chisel. My plan was to put a bolt-extractor on it and spin it out with my impact wrench. Well, that didn't work; all the bolt-extractor did was round off the exposed part of the pin. I even shot some P-Blaster down the hole (couldn't hurt; might help) but that didn't do any good.

Any other suggestions?

 

Your porch is concrete ??

How fancy does this need to be ?

My quick and easy 2 pieces of angle iron on both sides of the post lagged in the porch and the posts .

Your picture is looking up from the bottom correct .

It is your house I always go for quick and easy !

 

It's made out of brick. The pin was drilled down through the mortar.

Just so it gets the job done.

That would work but it will never pass the "Wife Test."

No, it's looking down. That is what's left of the pin sticking up out of the brick.

The angle iron would work, but it would just rust over time and that's no bueno.

I found this thing. What I might try to do is use this to drill around the pin then tap in a piece of galvanized pipe around it. The pipe would stick up enough that I could drill a wider hole into the post then slip the post over the pipe.

$37 Toolocity ABCCD0114U TOC Pro Dry Diamond Core Bit for Concrete 5/8-11 Thread, 1- 1/4"

https://www.amazon.com/Toolocity-AB...concrete+dry+diamond+core+bit,aps,111&sr=8-81

 

That might work it can`t hurt to try .

Then hope the weight of the railing is enough to hold things in place .

The real question is how far the pipe needs to be inserted into the wood post.

Good Luck !

 

That's either an expansion anchor, or possibly an epoxied in bolt. Either way, you gotta remove it. Drilling with a carbide bit is probably the only solution.

 

Why not drill a new hole, an inch away, stick in a new rebar/ anchor bolt, install 4x4 on top so both holes are covered?

 

I’d second the idea of drilling it out… sucks but don’t see many other options at this point. Sharpnew carbide drills and take it sloooow.

 

They make plates that you can anchor to the top of the concrete. You can probably cover that hole and use one

 

I think I've fixed the problem. My method was a little unorthodox, but you know the old saying: If it works, it ain't stupid.

First, to recap, the bolt holding post baseplate to the porch surface had rusted off.



I tried using an Easy-Out bolt extractor with no luck.

So I bought one of these.



And was able to drill around the stuck bolt, cleaning out the masonry material around it resulting in this:



Next I discovered that the post was not a wooden post sheathed in vinyl; instead it had an 18" metal bracket inside the post which was bolted to the top of the bolt through the big hole and secured with a nut and washer. (I found the rusted nut and washer inside the post.)

So what I ended up doing was getting a 30-inch long piece of 3/4-inch pipe, sticking it down into the porch surface around the rusted off bolt. I secured the pipe into the hole with some epoxy.



Then finally, I slipped the post over the pipe through the big hole in the base plate.



How did I secure the pipe inside the post so it wouldn't move around? I shot the post full of Great Stuff expanding insulation foam through some discretely drilled holes in the vinyl. A little vinyl cement sealed the holes.

Once the foam set up, the post no longer wiggles back and forth.

 

In the future, most equipment rental stores rent diamond core drills and bits.

 

It worked That is the best part