# Re-anchoring Wrought Iron Railings



## garyhomeowner (Apr 19, 2010)

My daughter just bought a townhome which has exterior brick steps and wrought iron railings. They were originally installed by core drilling the treads about every 6 steps, inserting the 1" or so square tube newel posts, and filling with concrete. The problem is that the concrete has broken up, most likely due to freeze/thaw, and the rails are quite wobbly. 

I was planning to remove the remains of the filler, and re-anchor the posts with epoxy anchor mix. However, I was pulling chunks of concrete out out the other day, and discovered some sand in the hole. Some of the concrete chunks are pretty long, so it does NOT appear that the holes were filled with sand, and then just topped with cement, but I can't figure out the purpose of the sand.

Could the sand have been used to act as an expansion medium , preventing ice from breaking up the concrete? If so, it did not work. Any reason I should not proceed with my original plan? 

Any ideas on how to prevent water from seeping back into the hole? I was thinking molding a small chamfer into the outer circumference of the filler, and putting a bead of silicone in the "V". Same thing around the posts.

I was hoping to do the job this weekend, so any quick advice would be greatly appreciated.

Gary


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## PaliBob (Jun 11, 2008)

Gary, Welcome to the form

Sounds like a good plan. Vacuum out all the loose debris and sand, then fill the holes with your epoxy anchor mix. The silicone step may be redundant and not really necessary as all the holes need need to be filled quickly before the epoxy sets up and the railings stop flopping around.
.


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## garyhomeowner (Apr 19, 2010)

Bob,
Thanks for the reply.....finding the sand in the hole threw me off, so I wanted to make sure my plan was sound.

As for the epoxy, is it available at the big box home improvement stores? Would it be with the mortars and cements?

Thanks again,
Gary


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## PaliBob (Jun 11, 2008)

Gary, I would use a product similar to Quikrete Anchoring Cement which is a pourable cement stronger than concrete and is ideal for repairing loose wrought iron railings.

http://www.homedepot.com/Building-M...18467&storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053

Notes:
1) to help vacuuming out the holes, buy a short one ft section of clear quarter inch plastic tubing and with a rag spacer stuff about 3" of the tubing into the vacuum hose and secure it with masking tape.

2) If there is considerable wobble in the railing so that the railing is not perfectly vertical then brace the railing vertical with whatever field expedient is handy.

3) Scrape off the heavy rust and prime the bottom sections with Rustoleum

4) If the bottom of the vertical sections that are in concrete are severely deteriorated then now is the time to reinforce them with some short sections of 1" angle iron.

5) If there are more than two holes in each section work fast because you don't want to be filling the last hole in a section and jiggle the whole shebang before the first hole sets up.

6) Initially mix up enough cement to make a trial run to ensure that you have the right technique then finish the next day

Take pics & let us know how it turns out.:thumbsup:


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## Wildie (Jul 23, 2008)

I would suggest that the sand was placed in the bottom of the hole as an expedient method of positioning the posts until the cement had set up!


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