Concrete fence post fixing

[styleruk]

There's been a few posts about fixing to a concrete post, however, I can't find anything that answers my question.

I'm about to put a lean-to against the side of my bungalow, I have a drive down the side and wanted to park my car under cover behind an up-and-over garage door I've fitted myself at the front of the house.  So I'll keep the up and over door, run corrugated sheets as a roof (running front to back for drainage).  The roof will be supported house side by a large timber I'll fix to the wall, then come off it with 18" spaced beams that span across to another large timber that I aim to fix to the concrete fence posts.  I need a way of extending something (probably steel or wood), above the concrete posts by about 600mm, then I'll fix a timber along that to connect to the beams. 

The thing is, I'd like to keep as much width of the drive as I can, therefore, I don't really want to fix wooden uprights direct to the posts as that will take up a few inches of my drive...every inch counts (Eh!). My thinking is, I may be able to bolt through the section (where the wood panels fit into) and extend a steel beam up to act as support on each post. It'll be about 4 panels long and I'm pretty sure the house fixing will be the strength here.

Before I start cutting lengths of angle iron and figuring out how to bolt through these posts, anyone have any other ideas or methods in doing this?

 

Cheers.

[Marvin]

Hi @styleruk

 

In my experience it is very risky to drill holes through the concrete posts as they have reinforcement in them and drilling can cause them to crack!

 

This is especially so if the post is already concreted into the ground! 

 

Some posts have predrilled holes for wires through the recessed bit hidden by the panels...

 

I used Postfix® Slotted Concrete Fence Post Brackets to Fit 4" x 5" to avoid drilling. They may not be strong enough for what you want but may give you an idea...

 

Good luck

 

Marvin

[styleruk]

I have seen them in a post I saw on this site (no pun intended).  they look good for hanging things off but not as a support.  Also, I'm trying to find a way to lesson the ingress into the drive, so anything that sticks out means I lose some width...not an end to it, by all means I may have to bolt timbers to the side of the posts and be done with losing 2" of width.  

I've been told that there are normally 2 steel wires in these posts, so drilling with a hilty drill through the centre will work.  Although, risking cracking a post would definitely piss me off, it is my fence, but I'd hate to have to re-cement a new post in.

[styleruk]

Maybe if I use one of those post fittings and turn it upside down on top of the post.  Drill through it and bolt it down, then I have a platform to work off of....thinking.

 

[Gone West]

3 hours ago, styleruk said:

I've been told that there are normally 2 steel wires in these posts

I've recently fitted some slotted concrete fence posts, I cut a couple and they had four lengths of rebar, one near each corner.

[styleruk]

20 minutes ago, Gone West said:

I've recently fitted some slotted concrete fence posts, I cut a couple and they had four lengths of rebar, one near each corner.

Indeed, I've been told to keep to the centre when drilling through them.

[styleruk]

I think my best option will be to fix uprights to the inside of the lean to and screw them to the concrete posts.  There is little sticking above the panels and I would rather the moment be lower down, using the bracket I've shown above will put too much strain at the top of the post (IMO), I know I'll lose an inch or 2 of width in the lean to but I think it may be the best option.  Just taken measurements and the lean to will have to be 500mm above the first post as I need a drop to the rear so I can drain water at one end (into the down pipe).  This is quite high above the posts. See pic below, about to sketch it up so I can order the wood.   The length is nearly 10m, so the drop will be quite a bit, also need to clear the window. that means I need to be above the up and over door by quite a lot.  Decent timbers fitted to each concrete post will be best I think.

Should be strong enough as I'll be fitting a timber along the building.  From the front it will look like a garage but the side above the fence panels and the rear will be open.  I prefer this as it keeps air moving about.  I bought corrugated roofing with light panels above the window. And yes, the neighbour is OK with this, it won't shade them anyway as the house is West facing and their alley is always in the shade.

[styleruk]

I forgot to update my solution here.

Picture shows what I did. Specifically, I used 4x2" and fitted them tight against the post, no drilling to the posts.  Then I fixed them through the panel onto another piece the other side. I used metal corrugated sheet on top, except in the middle where I used light panels to brighten it a bit and also so the window beneath gets some light. This is a guest room, so does not get used much. On the house side, I chemi-fixed M12 threaded bar and bolted the 4x2" back to the wall plate.  All worked out well.  My next step is to close in the big gap from the top of the panels to the roof of the lean-to, the wind/rain comes from the west, so my car gets wet one side.  I'm considering my options here.  Most likely a see-through panel but with a large air gap.

the cable in view is from the solar panels on my garage (not lean-to) roof connecting to the panels on the house roof.  You can just see on the right side the up-and-over garage door runner, this is bolted here temporarily to the panel as I need to raise the up-and-over door by 18" and that's a sunny day job with a sheet of ply and fibreglass, this will allow me to fit a roof rack to the land rover as currently, there's 10mm clearance.

The idea is to have a lot of ventilation, I don't want it as a garage, just a dry and shaded place to park my land rover and motorbike (in summer). With the added security of course.

Bonus is, I can walk on it next to the house side and clean my solar panels now and then, also now fitted a pulley type small washing line one end, so we can hang the dog beds/blankets up.  I've added a power socket the door end, so now I can fit a battery manager.  A very useful feature, even though it don't look fantastic...yet.