Best sealant to use

[Trw144]

We will be having a glass balcony on the rear of our property - however it ultimately means that the epdm membrane must be bolted through in places to allow the balcony channel to be fixed to the steel beam below. 

Assuming no one has an alternative way of doing this, can anyone recommend the best sealant to use to try and ensure this detail remains weathertight for as long as possible. Something that can withstand both sunlight and cold temperatures. The epdm will be raised at this point so rainwater should be kept to a minimum.

[Trw144]

Picture to help explain although I will put a timber under where the railing is to raise it from being where rainwater would collect.

[tonyshouse]

Can you bilid some stainless steel stools to bolt the balcony rail to with these penetrating the roof in a fail safe leak proof way, I would.

[Trw144]

Could you sketch/show me a link to what your thinking?

[Trw144]

The other potential possibility is to fix in from the side using a slightly different profile. The issue with this route is trying to clad over the channel so that it looks neat.

[ProDave]

Re Sealants, I am a fan of Stixall. It claims to stick anything to anyhing, even when wet, and it does.

I first used it to stick the rubbing strake back on my boat after Sikaflex (that just about every boater recommends) failed after a year. The Stixall is holding on the boat still so that's good enough for me to recommend it.

[Trw144]

The instructions on Stixall suggest it's suitable for this application. Used for marine applications, joining external cladding etc. I assume it's the Stixall extreme power?

[Bitpipe]

We had this dilemma with our balconies and a GRP roof. I wasn't confident that there would enough support to attach the glass from the side and did not want to penetrate the GRP.

Elite Ballustrades have come up with a neat solution, they build an aluminium deck frame on the balcony and attach at corner points to the wall. The balustrade hangs on the side of the deck, which is covered in plastic wood. Obviously increased cost but couldn't see any other way of doing it.

http://www.elitebalustrade.com/composite-decking/qwickbuild.html

[Trw144]

I ll give them a call and see what they have for this - only issue is I don't have a lot of height

[Nickfromwales]

CT1 for me all the way. Out of curiosity dave, as I use a lot of it, what type of failure was it with the sikaflex? Adhesion failure, breakdown / other ?

Strange to hear that stuff fail tbh as it's mustard. I used to use the marine rated one ( 251iirc ) on the ships as it was salt / spray / uv resistant. Used it to bond roof panels over the lido cafe at the stern of the MV Sunbird so hopefully they're still dry under that whist having their breakfast   

We used a lot of that stuff, so quite shocked to hear that it let you down. 

[Onoff]

8 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

CT1 for me all the way. Out of curiosity dave, as I use a lot of it, what type of failure was it with the sikaflex? Adhesion failure, breakdown / other ?

Strange to hear that stuff fail tbh as it's mustard. I used to use the marine rated one ( 251iirc ) on the ships as it was salt / spray / uv resistant. Used it to bond roof panels over the lido cafe at the stern of the MV Sunbird so hopefully they're still dry under that whist having their breakfast   

We used a lot of that stuff, so quite shocked to hear that it let you down. 

What's the shelf life on that CT1? I bought some a while back when you said and.....well, you know me.....

[ProDave]

8 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

CT1 for me all the way. Out of curiosity dave, as I use a lot of it, what type of failure was it with the sikaflex? Adhesion failure, breakdown / other ?

Strange to hear that stuff fail tbh as it's mustard. I used to use the marine rated one ( 251iirc ) on the ships as it was salt / spray / uv resistant. Used it to bond roof panels over the lido cafe at the stern of the MV Sunbird so hopefully they're still dry under that whist having their breakfast   

We used a lot of that stuff, so quite shocked to hear that it let you down. 

My boat (fibrglass) has a "flange" joint where the hull moulding joins the deck moulding.  A U shaped rubber fender strip goes over this to create a rubbing strake.  It's fitted by a combination of just stretching it over all round the boat and adhesive to hold it there.

The boat used to live in a tidal harbour tied up to the harbour wall and what happened was the continual movement between the boat and wall (even with fenders) causes the rubber strip to unstick and then one stormy night pull off exposing the raw fibreglass edge, which was not kind to fenders.

Re fixing it with Stixall and it's not come off again.

 

[Trw144]

So the moral of all this is don't tie my house up to an exposed harbour 

[tonyshouse]

belated sketch 

20190523 balcony rail support.pdf

[Onoff]

We've done something similar a few years ago to that sketch when fitting roof top safety lines albeit down to a concrete roof. Will try and get a drawing out of our archive.