Subject: [Shop-talk] Anchoring railing posts

From: Jim Stone <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2013 08:27:44 -0500 FILETIME=[D9696D10:01CE3913]

My rental property currently has wrought iron railings along the steps leading
to the front door and around the concrete deck that is in front of the door.
The railings are solid, but pretty old and in need of a serious cleanup and
coat of paint at best.  It is also from two different eras, as I believe the
railing at the top is original to the house (c1950) or close, while the steps
is aluminum.  The posts are all iron and very well anchored in the concrete.

I could spend a couple of days with a wire brush on my angle grinder and get
them cleaned up and repainted, but they are ugly and my wife would like to
replace them.  The deck is about 6 feet off the ground in front and 12 feet on
the side by the driveway, so whatever we do has to be pretty sturdy.  One
option we are considering is to build a cedar railing around the deck.  There
are supports that are made for attaching wood posts to the concrete, but I
have used them before and they don't feel solid enough to me, so I don't want
to fully trust those.  Here's what I am thinking:  The current steel supports
are 1" square tube.  My thought is to remove the old railing but leave the
posts in place.  Clean them up with the wire brush and give them a coat of
something to stop rust.  Then, cut them off at about 12 inches and drill a
slightly larger hole in the base of each support.  Coat each post with an
adhesive of some sort (maybe a 2-part epoxy) and set the posts in place.  I
might also use the commercial supports for added safety and buy ones that are
open at the bottom or drill a matching hole in them, too.

Does this sound like a good plan to the group, or is it one of my dumber
ideas?  Any thoughts will be appreciated.  Our option is a vinyl or aluminum
system, but that will get pretty pricey.

Thanks,

Jim

p.s. This is the same house with the basement trap door that concerned me.
That door is still there, but our summer renters were fine with us padlocking
the door shut, so we get to put that problem off another year at least.
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