wrought iron handrails in concrete steps-too late to do now?

[geninfo@gmail.com]

I guess masonry is the correct forum for my question: I want wrought iron hand rails installed in concrete steps. Is it too late to do that now? I was told the concrets has to cure properly or the railings won't be stable and strong. What are the ideal conditions for doing this?

[roger g]

When I was TEENager I used to make and install that stuff. If you had thought about it before the concrete was set you could have embedded steel plates with anchors in the right places and have the iron railing welded in place. Very few people ever do that so you have to used anchor bolts drilled into the concrete to ffasten to the bottom plate of the iron posts. If you are far enough away from the edge of the concrete (6 inches) we used to chisel a one inchsquare hole in the concrete about 4-5 inches deep then put the post in the hole and then fill the void up with liquid sulphur. Back then any hardware used to sell sulphur just like they sell bulk flour. We would put it in a can and use a blow torch on it until it melted and then pour it in the hole. It hardened like rock. You can't even buy sulphur anymore for some unknown reason. I don't know what they used it for before come to think of it.
ps: chiselling a hole in concrete is much easier than you might think.

roger

[Shanley]

You could use a hammer drill with a 1" bit and drill a hole for the posts. There is a product called pour-rock or something to that effect, you mix with water and pour in the hole much like the sulfer.

[roger g]

Most railing posts are 1 inch sqUARE so you would need a lot bigger bit than that to get the corners in. With a one inch cold chisel you can chisel a really neat one inch SQUARE hole. The liquid sulphur ran just like water and would go down the smallest hole and fill the smallest void.
The new sstuff works okay but it doesn't flow as good. At least the one I have tried.


roger