[ardiy]

hey guys my 1st post here since introducing myself

I've built a 10' square gazebo or patio base using 6" depth of crushed limestone compacted down twice covered with 2' square patio slabs that i had lying around, framed by some 4x4" pressure treated posts. See attached IMG_1186.jpg, it turned out ok, some of the slabs are slightly higher than the others by 1/8 to 1/4" but its the best i can do right now.

I've filled the gaps with polymeric sand and i'm ready to secure a metal frame gazebo to it see IMG_1213email.

my question is how do i secure it to the slabs?? My boss suggested using carriage bolts, drilling thru the slab and then securing the uprights with washers and nuts on the bottom side but this would involve picking up the slabs in the corners and they're locked in already

is there some decent type of concrete screw or anchor that i can simply screw in thru the top? the patio slabs are 90lbs each but only 1.75" thick. are there concrete anchors that would work in such a short depth? Tap cons (sp?) if someone could send me a link with hardware thats available in canada at home depot or something that would be great. You can see a pic of the actual gazebo post base in IMG_1205.jpg. should i secure bolts thru all three holes or is one good enough?

also, whats the best way to find where the post base will be attached on the patio? should i assemble it entirely and then secure it down or secure the post bases and then assemble the gazebo? My only concern with the later is not measuring accurately enough and they having one post being too far out for the rest of the assembly.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated guys. thanks!

 

[Daniel Holzman]

It should be relatively easy to get an approximate placement for the supports based on the drawings supplied with the gazebo. However, you are not going to get much anchorage by attaching to the tiles (from your description, they are individual tiles, weighing 90 lbs each). At only 1-3/4 inch thick, you are likely to crack the tiles if you use an expansion bolt like a Hilti Kwikbolt, but you can check with Hilti to see what the minimum thickness is for effective installation.

An option is epoxy bolts, again you are not going to get any more uplift resistance than the weight of the tile (90 lbs), but short of putting in a footing, that is about all you can do. Epoxy bolts will not crack the tiles, and you can drill them using a hammer drill pretty easily. You will want a two part epoxy, and often the proper bit is included in the package. Not the lowest cost, but less likely to crack the slab than a wedge type anchor.

You may be able to drill right through the hole in the base, in which case I would place the gazebo in position, then drill all the holes.

 

[ardiy]

...
At only 1-3/4 inch thick, you are likely to crack the tiles if you use an expansion bolt like a Hilti Kwikbolt, but you can check with Hilti to see what the minimum thickness is for effective installation.

hey thanks for the info! I was going to ask if the patio slabs are too thin and may crack. I broke a couple laying them down. I had older slabs from 15 years ago, none of which broke but then out of the 10 new ones i bought two of them broke so easily. I guess they dont make em like they use to ;P

An option is epoxy bolts, again you are not going to get any more uplift resistance than the weight of the tile (90 lbs), but short of putting in a footing, that is about all you can do.

hey thanks again for this. I did not know about epoxy bolts it looks promising. here's a hypothetical concept, is it possible to hammerdrill 6 inches thru the patio slab and then continue into the crushed limestone base using a hammer drill? then insert a 7inch bolt/dowel with epoxy into the hole? or would the crushed limestone portion of the hole collapse as soon as i removed the hammer drill bit? I dont know if there's such a thing as an 7 inch epoxy bolt, i'm just wondering if this idea has validity.

thanks

 

[ardiy]

hello all

i just went to home depot and one of the guys suggested the following hardware to anchor my blocks in

1/4" x 1 3/8 anchor sleeve

this is a 1/4" x 1 3/8 anchor sleeve. should this be enough to hold the gazebo base to a patio slab? How deep and what size concrete bit do i use to drill into the slab? do i then pound this into the hole or it should drop in? He also warned not to over crank the screw or i might split the patio slab. so then this screw will not be tight against the patio slab?? I picked up some PL caulking and was going to shoot some into the hole of the anchor sleeve before putting it in and also between the gazebo base footing and patio slab, is this a good idea?

Or Would these tac con screws be better than the anchor sleeves??

1/4" x 1 1/4 tac con

 

[ardiy]

anyone with further insight would be greatly appreciated.

would PL injected into the drilled sleeve anchor holes add additional strengt when locked into the patio slab?


thanks