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J bolt anchor in concrete footer, how to make even and level?

13K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Mort 
#1 ·
Hello everyone,

I'm in the planning stages of my deck build. I am planning for 4 12" diameter concrete footers with bigfoot system pads, and 6x6 posts. For post to concrete connection I will be using Simpson Strongtie ABW66Z.

After I pour the concrete (I'm probably having a truck come, no mixing ourselves), my questions are:

1) About how long do I have immediately after pouring the concrete to set in the J bolts before the concrete gets too hard to set them in? I was thinking about 30 minutes from some research I've done?

2) What is the best/easiest way to keep the J bolt in the same position level and straight vertical in the wet concrete until it dries?

3) Is there a J bolt to use for this application that is better than others?


Thanks for any experience and advice you can provide!
 
#2 ·
I usually set my J bolts as soon as the concrete is stiff enough to support them, which is often less than 30 minutes, depending on temperature. The simplest way to get it set right is to install the J bolt and the bracket at the same time, with a nut to hold the J bolt onto the bracket. It is usually easy to get the bracket in the right place, and the J bolt goes with it. Not really important if the J bolt is perfectly plumb, only thing that really counts is that it is deep enough in the concrete, and the top of the bolt lines up correctly with the bracket, which of course it will if you set them together.
 
#4 ·
joecaption said:
No offence but I would never ever suggest a DIY try and pore there own slab unless it was a really small one.
A slab is a one shot deal, if it's not preped right, formed right, finsihed right, there's no going back and fixing it.
When that truck rolls everone there have to know what there doing and when to do it.

Look over this site and any DIY site and see dozens of people dealing with cracking, pored to low, pored to high, or water pooling on the decks.
Joe,

He's not doing a slab. He's talking about footings for a deck.
 
#5 ·
You can set them in there as soon as you've troweled it to the finish you want. You don't want the concrete to get too hard, otherwise you'll have voids right around your J-bolt, which kinda defeats the purpose. I see a lot of guys nail grade stakes to the top of their forms and tie the J-bolt to it with some bailing wire, that works too.
 
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