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Parents have a small handrail to help them down a couple of steps in the garden. Secured with shield anchors into slabs. All of the anchors have some degree of play in them due to the plans crumbling around the hole. I'm ASSUMING that the slabs are just laid on sand so the anchors don't have much to hold on to. I'm going over later to have a look amd.se eaht I can do.
Any clever souls here have a solution? I'm erring on cutting out the slabs where the posts go in, digging out the substrate and backfilling with a mortar mix. Unfortunately doing that means it will be a couple of day's work waiting for the mortar to go off. Postmix seems to be out as an option as not particularly tolerant of drilling for these kind of applications. Best stuff to use, o
h wise ones?
Some of the resin anchor stuff is very strong, even works under water. I set a metal gatepost into some concrete but it moved when still ‘green’ so would move slightly. Was able to slide the post out and reset with the resin - absolutely bomber now
@dovebiker That sounds good. Do you have a link at all? That would be awesome, especially if I could source some today 👍 in the meantime, I'll do some googling myself.
*edit* that took all of 30 seconds. Rawlplug stuff in Screwfix 👍
Have you got room to put a diagonal support in?
also consider anti slip tape or paint on the steps
Fast setting cement will let you do the job quicker. But it won't be up to full strength for a day or so.
Spreading the fixing points might help with the leverage issue perhaps and stop it happening again.
Get some bigger bits of steel plate of 6-10mm. Bolt the handrail to that, and then use resin fix bolts into the slabs again but the plate allowing you to fix multiple times and further out which might help counter some pivot force.
Requires a bit of tooling up or getting things made though obvs.
You may already be aware or have gone down this route, my other half is an occupational therapist and spends her time visiting properties in the borough to survey these types of issues and recommend courses of action - usually for people with disabilities or the elderly or others with access / mobility issues. Council, private and housing accommodation properties all covered. Rails and equipment under a grand are free.
Contact the council, they'll do it for free, not means tested.
Thanks for all the replies. I was able to lift the top slab, dig out and back fill with mortar. Gave it a week to cure and fixed the top post with shield anchors. The bottom I was able to re-tighten, which is good as otherwise that would have meant a lot more work in comparison to the top slab. It was the top post that was by far the worst so having that secure should mean that it's good for the foreseeable 👍
I had the local council fit a handrail exactly like that from the side of the house by the back door down two steps onto the patio, for my step-dad; fortunately the steps are all concrete and the flags are big and very heavy. They’re now proving very useful for me as my knees aren’t what they used to be, and tripping and toppling face-first onto paving slabs isn’t really appealing!