I am replacing some wood railing on a brick deck. The rail post will be 4″ x 4″ pressure treated, 2″x4″ top and bottom rail w/ 1″ vertical pickets. The longest section is about 8′ – 0″ one end attached to house and the other end attached to brick deck only. My question is what is the best method for attaching the post to the brick. Most of the Simpson type brackets do not give any good top lateral support. The existing post had a 6″ x 6″ x 1 1/2″ base attached with lags and lead inserts, and post toe nailed to the base. I thought some heavy steel angle maybe on two sides of post would work. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Robert
Replies
soak the bottoms of the post in paint before installing.
How about this: Any metal brackets big enough to do the job might look pretty industrial and if the bricks crack or come loose, the post will get loose. Perhaps you could drill a big hole down through the brick and into whatever is below them (hammerdrill), and another hole up into the post (spade bit with extension). Connect the two with a big steel rod (1" rebar). Hydraulic cement in the brick and construction adhesive in the post might help.
Al Mollitor, Sharon MA
A variation on Al's idea...take a base plate with 4 corner holes and have a welding shop attach a length of 1" pipe perpendicular to the plate. Tapcon (or variation) the base plate to the brickwork.
As Al wrote, use a bit to drill a hole up through the bottom and into the post.
Slide the post over the pipe, test fit everything nicely. Remove the post from the pipe, then pour a dollop of epoxy down the hole in the post and reset everything.